This summarizes a discussion board post from an addiction studies class. The original post discusses different treatment models for addiction that were observed at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting based on readings from Hester and Miller (2003). 1) The AA meeting demonstrated aspects of the medical, spiritual, cognitive, and general systems models of addiction treatment. Members discussed acceptance of addiction as a disease and reliance on a higher power for recovery. 2) Attendees with varying lengths of sobriety from 1 month to 20 years showed connection in the group. Sharing experiences applying treatment concepts was observed. 3) The post discusses how different members' perspectives aligned with disease, dispositional, characterological, and general systems models at

1. Week 5 Discussion 1
"Domestic Violence” Please respond to the following:
· School violence is of growing concern to law enforcement and
almost never occurs without warning. Examine the main
motivation(s) of school violence and give your opinion as to
what the schools should do to prevent school violence. Provide
a rationale for your response.
· Imagine that you are the director of the training academy for
the police or sheriff’s department chief in your city. Develop
the first three (3) steps of a plan which you would implement to
ensure the department is properly trained for the possible
occurrence of a workforce violence incident in your locality.
Please also reply to the student
Paige Sowell
RE: Week 5 Discussion 1
School violence has become an issue of concern to the law
enforcement agencies due to the spontaneous nature of its
occurrence. The main motivations of school violence are varied
for instance internalizing among students due to social strife
within the school environment such as bullying may result in
school violence (Bennett-Johnson, n.d.). Access to weapons
such as guns is another motivation to the development of school
violence. Schools can address violence through developing
relationship level strategies such as the development of peer
counseling programs in addition to developing security checks
that aim to identify the existence of weapons or other dangerous
devices within the school environment (Bennett-Johnson, n.d.).
Schools should also develop protocols and policies that guide
educational stakeholders from teachers to students on how to
react to incidents of school violence thus limiting the adverse

2. influences of these events. When developing a training plan for
police officers in relation to dealing with possible workforce
violence incidents the first step of the plan is to teach the
officers the difference between crowd control and crowd
management and how these strategies can be applied to different
situations (Berkeley Police, 2014). The second step is training
the officers on situational awareness which enables them to
make better decisions in such circumstances. The third step
involves simulating the different types of protests enabling the
officers to apply concepts learned in real life situations.
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Week 5 Discussion 2
"Growing Cities" Please respond to the following:
· Based on the lecture and Webtext materials, address the
following:
. Examine the main reasons why people are attracted to urban
areas in the developing world and select the key issues that
make this rural to urban migration such a difficult problem for
governments to deal with.
Please also reply to the student
Shawnetta Nelson
RE: Week 5 Discussion 2
People in the developing world are attracted to urban areas for
many reasons. They want to escape the unbearable conditions
that exist in rural areas like contaminated water supply,
endemic diseases from poor sewage services, "becos"-dirt and

3. graveled roads, and lack of employment, to name a few. Where
rural areas have poor infrastructure, they are strong in urban
areas. They present opportunities and resources that are
appealing enough to influence migration. People in the
developing world are attracted by the nice homes, better
structures and institutions, economic and entrepreneur
opportunities, and the potential to increase chances of obtaining
basic resources like health, education, and employment.
Nonetheless, people move from rural areas to urban areas in
hopes of bettering their lives and gaining financial stability.
In the rural to urban migration, issues arise that become very
difficult for the government to deal with. The rate of migration
has increased over the years, which has led to urbanization in
many regions. Urbanization arises when an area becomes
overpopulated, and often has effects on society and the
environment. The migration to urban areas come with costs;
increased demand for jobs, increased risk of criminal
activities and health diseases, increased needs for natural
resources, and other goods and services, and economic stability.
This presents a problem for the government; especially since it
is challenging to regulate and provide for a large mass of
individuals, in developing countries. Due to overcrowded
regions, it is difficult for the government to adequately obtain
revenue sources and support to address the needs of health care
and food services, housing, and public safety. Governments
have no formal infrastructure and are faced with lack of
finances and implementing policies that can correspond to the
rapidly evolving economy, and large population; thereby, also
experiencing a debt crisis, or foreign exchange shortages. On
another note, some residents of urban areas can make the best
out of what they can/ have available. Lagos, Nigeria is the
largest urban area of the African cities. In Lagos, Nigeria, the
population has increased from "300,000 60 years ago" to over
16 million residents today. Even though the country experience
issues of corruption and poverty, residents can thrive, by
grasping all opportunities that come their way; including, for

4. example the sale of rubbish from the Lagos dumps, or street
vending/ squatting. Furthermore, although migration from rural
to urban areas has its promises of life improvements, not all
who migrate to urban areas have great experiences or are able to
achieve the goals they seek in urban areas.
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Thread Prompt: After reading Hester and Miller (2003) and
attending your first AA meeting, incorporate your readings into
your observations at the meeting and discuss the different
treatment models and how they compare to self-help groups like
AA. Discuss what you observed in the members: Did they seem
connected? How was AA servicing them? Was there
cohesiveness in the group? How was the time used? Some of
you will have the privilege of being a part of a very healthy
group, while others will be a part of a group that is strictly to
serve as a means to an end. How do the different meetings
affect treatment outcomes and research? Apply what you have
read to what you observed.
Reply Prompt:For your replies, respond to at least 2 classmates.
In each reply, add at least 1 additional detail from what you
observed in your first meeting, connecting your observation to
citation of course materials.
Discussion Board #1 MLski
After reading the text and attending my first AA group, I
observed many different things. The members who were in
attendance were connected because I could tell that they were
long-term members. They were from different ages and cultures
and yet, I could sense the common ground present at the
meeting. The AA meeting began with the Medical Model,

5. meaning addiction is a unitary, primary and progressive
condition over which afflicted persons do not have control
(Jenkins, 2018). Some were in their early stages of sobriety and
others were in recovery for over 20 years. Part of the Medical
Model discussed in the meeting were interventions, which
covered abstinence from the alcohol and behaviors that went
along with the addiction. Acceptance of the diagnosis was
covered in sharing. One member shared how a neighbor gave a
challenge that this person was in fact not an alcoholic, however,
the group offered support and limitations of personal
responsibility (Jenkins, 2018).
Another model of treatment covered in the AA meeting was
the Spiritual Model. According to Hester and Miller, (2003),
"alcoholism is understood as a condition that people are
powerless to overcome on their own. The hope for this hopeless
condition lies in appeal for help from and turning over one's life
to a higher power, and in following a spiritual path to
recovery." Several members shared that belief in their higher
power made is possible to surrender their fears and problems to
overcome the addiction and disease of alcoholism in a very
powerful way.
Other observations in the AA meetings was sharing how
helpful attending groups on a regular basis was instrumental in
their recovery and remaining abstinent. A new member shared
how she missed several meetings and it was impacting her
wellness. A long-term member shared the importance of staying
connected and asking for help. This same new female member
shared how she had not contacted her sponsor and felt shame in
putting off calling her. This was processed by members of the
group with permission. According to the General Systems
Model under the Social Learning Model, both models contribute
to social learning perspectives that put focus on the importance
of coping skills, choosing a health living environment and
support system and members come to consider AA a form of
family (Hester & Miller, 2003).
Another model observed in the AA meeting was the

6. Cognitive Model. According to Hester and Miller,
"emphasizing the importance of covert mental processes in
guiding behavior is essential. Increased attention was devoted
to cognitive processes in addictions, such as expectations about
the effects of alcohol. Cognitive therapies as part of treatment
applied to cope with cravings, manage moods and beliefs."
Members discussed how their thinking was connected to how
they coped. One member shared how when he was active in
drinking, he felt there were significant problems in his life and
drank because of the problems. After 20 years, he shared how
he still has problems but being sober and learning better coping
skills beginning with his thoughts has made his sobriety a
success. Learning new adaptive skills, changing environments
to healthy ones, and relying on meetings, members, the recovery
providers to live a life free from addiction.
References
Hester, R. K., & Miller, W. R (2003), Handbook of Alcoholism
Treatment Approaches: Effective Alternatives (Third ed.).
Boston, MA; Pearson Education.
Discusion Board #2 JHud
I must first start with revealing that this is not my first venture
into the arms of Alcoholics Anonymous. I was required to
attend this and a number of other self-help groups during my
undergraduate and graduate studies. In that time I was able
witness how varied AA experience could be and all the different
components that forged these impressions. That being said, this
was the first time I ever examined it from the perspective of the
treatment model.
As Hester and Miller note (2003), Alcoholics
Anonymous (as well as most of its sister groups, like Narcotics
Anonymous) approaches the addiction from Spiritual Model.
This model sees alcoholism as a condition that is impossible for
individuals to overcome on their own power. The only solution
to this is for the individual to look beyond themselves and the

7. resources of the material world, to a divine power to help heal
them of their affliction.
The meeting I attended this week was very much in-line
with this ideal. The majority of the group consisted of people
with anywhere from 1 to 20 years of sobriety, with a few people
only having a few weeks to a month or two. Though AA is non-
denominational, it became clear that this group consisted of
Christians, as one member recounted that the program really
took hold for him when he recognized the Christian idea of
“broken people in a broken world”.
Though there was clear display of the influence of the Spiritual
Model, there were also some aspects of the Dispositional
Disease Model (Hester & Miller, 2003) being presented. When
they would go around the circle and speak, a number of the
members continued to refer to alcoholism as a disease. Some
stated that they were an alcoholic from the first time they drank,
envied or reviled those who could drink responsibly, and knew
that no matter how much “clean time” they had that they would
always be an alcoholic. This last statement was underscored by
“Jim”, who had 12 years sober when he first started the
program; and, thinking he had a “handle” on it. For the sake of
anonymity, I will not go into details, but suffice it to say, his
one drink lead to a full relapse that took another year to work
through before he could start on his sobriety again. His lack of
control over his drinking seems to be a textbook description of
Hester and Miller’s (2003) explanation of the disease model.
As the meeting went on, I heard a number of different views and
stories. There were quite a few who took a General Systems
Model (Hester & Miller, 2003) approach, making observations
that their drinking seemed normal due to the way their family
drank and how that impacted not just how they saw their own
drinking, but how they viewed the sobriety or temperance of
others. One lady noted that she had always had an “addictive
personality”. No matter if it was alcohol, cigarettes or drugs,
she seemed to immediately enjoy and accept these activities into
her life, mirroring the concepts of the Characterological Model

8. (Hester & Miller, 2003), which even goes so far to suggest that
this lay on an oral fixation, due to some issue during the
Freudian oral stage.
In the end, I did notice that, despite these differing
experiences and views, they all (or at least those who were
having success in their sobriety) seemed to be gravitating back
to the Spiritual Model. As I reviewed their statements, the
majority of the members were expressing these alternative
model views as their pre-sobriety way of thinking. These ideas
had been present when they were either in the depths of their
alcoholism, or in previous failed attempts at sobriety. They
now saw clarity and hope in the idea of a higher power guiding
them.