At-Risk Youth and Newer Users
- Patricia Conrod (University of Montreal, QC) & Sherry Stewart (Dalhousie University, NS)
- Danya Fast & Rod Knight (BCCSU, BC);
- Joanna Henderson & Lisa Hawke (CAMH, ON);
- Rebecca Haines-Saah (University of Calgary, AB)
Objectives
Project Components
A Scoping Review of the Evidence: Pre-clinical & Clinical Studies for Youth At-Risk of Opioid Use and Addiction
A scoping review of academic and grey literature is completed and has been submitted to the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry.
The review identifies the characteristics of the issue, including key at-risk populations. It summarizes promising evidence-based intervention strategies for reducing prevalence, transition to misuse, and reducing harm to young people.
Critical Gap Analysis: services for opioid dependent youth and family support
Abstracts were submitted and recently accepted in the supplement to the Canadian Journal of Addiction, “An Exploration of Youth, Family & Provider- Identified Solutions to the Canadian Youth Opioid Health Threat”. This is going to be a special edition in CJA, and will include 5-6 papers (one from each site and one common paper).
Youth Focus Groups
In preparation for a national youth summit, youth focus groups will be held at each CRISM node. The topics and participants will depend on the needs and priorities of each setting in addressing the opioid crisis. This may include street-entrenched youth, Indigenous youth, youth experimenting with opioids, and youth with family members engaged in opioid use.
The objectives of the focus groups are to:
Describe gaps and needs for each youth population, including available or accessed services, barriers and facilitators, first contact with opioids, harm reduction practices, prevention strategies, harms experienced, and drivers of use.
Identify service delivery gaps for specific youth populations.
Highlight successful strategies and interventions for specific youth populations.
Youth Engagement: Youth Summits and Capacity Building
Each CRISM network node will host a one-day youth summit. Youth delegates will hear presentations on current scientific knowledge about health threats in Canada and evidence-based interventions that show promise. They will also present their perspectives and needs across 3–4 specific categories of interventions.
Following this, youth will be supported in developing a set of youth-focused guiding principles to inform interventions for at-risk youth. These principles will guide the development and evaluation of interventions in Activity 5.
Youth engagement will continue throughout the project. This will include interactive dissemination of Summit findings, local node capacity-building activities, participation in an advisory committee, and a follow-up Youth Summit in year 4.
