Educational Procedures for Patients with Alcohol Addiction: Considerations from Medicine and Nursing

Alcoholism is a disease that marks serious connotations in the deterioration of the health, physical or mental, of the individual and in some way forces the family and its environment to suffer consequences, creating risks for itself as well as for the whole society, favouring the development of conflicts. The review of articles shows that the biggest consumers are adolescents and young adults; they start alcohol consumption early, a situation that constitutes a public health problem. Therefore, the present has the objective of establishing criteria for promoting health education as one of the fundamental pillars or specific functions of public health. The actions of the health professional, doctor and nurse, are in constant interaction with the individual, the family, and the community, due to the type of constant care activities they carry out for healthy and sick people, playing an important role in positively influencing and motivating favourable changes in lifestyle through teaching about the harmful effects of alcohol and its consequences. It is proposed here to present elements that describe alcoholism to achieve self-care and autonomy, the capacity for responsibility, and the individual’s own resolution. Finally, a brief review and evaluation of previous intervention studies of prevention and treatment activities is made.