Investigating the Effectiveness of Health Counselling in Curbing Drug Abuse Menace among Secondary School Students in AMAC, Abuja. Nigeria

Abstract

The study focused on the topic “Investigating the Effectiveness of Health Counselling in curbing Drug Abuse Menace Among Secondary School Students in AMAC†Two theories formed the framework for the research- the person centered and social learning/behaviourist theories. This helped to proffer ways by which counselling sessions between the clients (the students) and the counselor can be made efficient. It further looked at the need for counseling, types and reasons for counseling. Through counseling, the clients and counselor can mirror the causal factors of the various social vices in schools; it also helps to nip the problems which schools encounter in the bud. Furthermore, the roles of the school management in counselling was also looked at, it helped to establish what the senior leadership team of schools should consider when it comes to critical issues such as this. In the same vein the study looked at the problem of drug abuse vis-à-vis the need for proper counselling in school. Four research questions guided the study, with the adoption of simple percentage for analysis. The study recommended that counseling should be given adequate attention, and that staff teachers involved in counselling should be trained- this means that apart from the very fact that schools should have the guidance and counselling office, all teachers should see themselves as counselors, they must see the students they teach as theirs hence, there is the need to counsel the students every time they meet with them in their classes. And to do this effectively, they need to be properly trained.

Keywords: Counselling, Health Counselling, Drug Abuse