Stabile Namwai Ngambi¹, Daniel L. Mpolomoka^2,, Rose Chikopela³, Christine Mushibwe⁴

This paper derives from findings of a study whose objectives were to: establish factors that influence youths to abuse drugs and alcohol, identify reasons why some youths shun counseling services, identify the counseling techniques mostly used by the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) during their counseling sessions, establish what works when it comes to drug and alcohol abuse preventions and lastly establish how effective counseling has been in alcohol and drug abuse prevention. A Phenomenological research design was used employing a case study approach. It targeted youths who abuse drugs and seek guidance and counselling services from the DEC. In-depth interviews and document review (counselling reports and inventories) formed the basis of the data collection instruments used. Data was analysed following patterns of similar and dissimilar findings and categorizing them into thematic sets. The findings show that effectiveness of counseling for drug and alcohol abusers is dependent on the person’s willingness to change, the support of family and friends as well as the extent to which the person is dependent on drugs. The findings also reveal that youths shun counseling because of self and social stigmatization and discrimination that they face in a case of drug abuse. Other reasons for shunning counseling from DEC include fear of being arrested as well as fear of being vulnerable to a stranger (counselors). The findings also show that the counseling approaches at DEC are mainly behavioral therapies, which are usually the cognitive behavior therapy and motivational interviews. It is hereby recommended that DEC in partnership with key stakeholders should publish booklets about counselling, establish initiatives on how to deal with stigma, allocate more funding to counselling, reinforce skills training strategies in place, and partner with cooperating partners to implement counselling services in a more robust manner.

counselling, drug Enforcement Commission, drug abuse, therapy