Attitudes of Patients Using Psychoactive Drugs Towards Counselling: (a Case Study of Patients in Mathari Hospital Maternity Ward)

Abstract

The problem of drug substance abuse in Mathari Hospital is growing at an alarming rate especially among populations. The local media has recently been pre setting gloomy pictures of escalating drug use and abuse in Kenya The National Campaign Against Drug Abuse (NACADA), now wants President Kibaki to declare the vice a national disaster.

The main objective of the study is to evaluate the attitudes of patients using psychoactive drugs towards counseling.

Research method will be personal interview and focus group discussions. Tools of data collection will be questionnaires and interview guide.

The theoretical framework that I will use is the Self-perception theory (SPT) which is an account of attitude change developed by psychologist Daryl Bern. It asserts that when we are unsure of our attitudes we infer them from our behavior. The theory is counterintuitive in nature, as the conventional wisdom is that attitudes corne prior to behaviors. Furthermore, the theory suggests that a person induces attitudes without accessing internal cognition and mood states. The person reasons their own overt behaviors rationally in the same way they attempt to explain others' behaviors (Lester M.Sdorow,1993)