Getting the mix right: family, community and social policy interventions to improve outcomes for young people at risk of substance misuse

Family resilience in caring for drug addiction

OBJECTIVE

Teenagers are at high risk for drug addiction. Family resilience is important in preventing adolescent involvement in drug abuse. This qualitative study aims to explore the experience of family resilience based on the perspective of parents when their children are addicted to drugs.

METHOD

This qualitative study used a phenomenological method, involving eight participants based on a purposive sampling technique with inclusion criteria of mothers who have experience caring for their teenage children who have been addicted to drugs. Data qualitative was collected through in-depth interviews, field notes and observations. The data collection process was discontinued after reaching data saturation, namely after interviewing eight participants. The process of interpreting meaning is carried out to obtain the significance of the results of in-depth interviews accompanied by triangulation of methods and data using interpretive phenomenological analysis. Researchers strive to ensure the validity and reliability of the study. This research was conducted for six months in mid-2019.

RESULT

This study resulted in five themes that can be categorized into one supporting theme and four inhibiting themes. The supporting themes are acceptance of God's destiny, while the themes of limited financial conditions, lack of time together, the flexibility of a fragile family and harsh environment are categorized as inhibiting themes.

CONCLUSION

Mothers have an important role in optimizing family resilience while caring for and improving the quality of life of their children who have experienced drug addiction.

An ecological analysis of secondary school students' drug use in Hong Kong: A case-control study

BACKGROUND

Youth drug use is a significant at-risk youth behaviour and remains as one of the top priorities for mental health services, researchers and policy planners. The ecological characteristics of secondary school students' behaviour in Hong Kong are understudied.

AIM

To examine individual, familial, social and environmental correlates of drug use among secondary students in Hong Kong.

METHOD

Data were extracted from a school survey with 3078 students. Among the 3078 students, 86 students reported to have used drugs in the past 6 months. A total of 86 age- and gender-matched controls with no drug-use behaviour in the past 6 months were randomly selected from the remaining students. Multiple logistic analysis was used to examine differential correlates between those who used and did not use substance in the past 6 months.

RESULT

Positive school experience and perspective to school and parental support are protective factors of drug use. Lower self-esteem, lower self-efficacy against using drugs and higher level of permissive attitude towards drugs were associated with drug use. Students who were low in self-esteem and rather impulsive tend to use drugs.

CONCLUSION

To prevent students from drug use, efforts in individual, family, school and community-levels should be addressed.

The parameters of policy portfolios: verticality and horizontality in design spaces and their consequences for policy mix formulation

Policies increasingly come in complex packages and understanding the nature of design criteria for such portfolios is increasingly important. However, existing studies of policy mixes fail to carefully define the dependent variable of the inquiry. As a result, theorization of policy design has lagged, the cumulative impact of empirical studies has not been great and understanding of the phenomena, despite many observations of its significance in policy studies, has not improved significantly over the past three decades. This paper aims to revitalize this important aspect of policy design work and policy studies by distinguishing between mix types and their impact on policy formulation. It defines key types and subtypes of mixes based on the complexity of design variables such as the number of goals, the number of policies and the number of levels of government and sectors involved in the design of a policy bundle. The taxonomy is then used to assess the validity and applicability of oft-cited but under-examined portfolio design principles and precepts.

Care pathways for young people who misuse substances: using the evidence to design services

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

To review a selection of the literature on the nature and contents of care pathways. We examine recent work on current trends in intervening to meet the needs of young people who misuse substances.

RECENT FINDINGS

The recent and growing literature encourages us to adopt care pathways as structured models for service delivery. The increased prevalence and the severity and complexity of the problems experienced by young people who misuse substances evidence the requirement for specialist services for them.

SUMMARY

The literature argues for using care pathways to manage better services for intervening with young people who use or misuse substances and recommends their contents. We conclude that care pathways should be based on strategic models of care; however, there remain areas of uncertainty, including those about the balance of services that should be delivered, adoption of prevention programmes, and development of audit tools to monitor the impacts and effectiveness of care pathways. This review provides our recommended list of contents for models of care on which we recommend that associated care pathways should be based.