Overview
The Youth Substance Use Care Practice Companion is a bilingual digital resource being co-designed with youth and families for use with young people ages 12-24. It will help service providers, peer and community workers, school counsellors and other trusted adults deliver practical, evidence-informed care across hospitals, primary care, community organizations, integrated youth services and other settings.
The Practice Companion will support care across the substance use spectrum, with guidance related to vaping, cannabis, alcohol, opioids, stimulants, polysubstance use and overdose prevention. It will also address mental health and the ways gender, sexuality, reproductive health, poverty, unstable housing, racism and colonialism shape young people’s experiences.
Practical resources will include point-of-care pathways, decision aids, handouts, sample care scripts, short videos, referral information and a training module. Initially developed and tested in British Columbia, Québec and Massachusetts, it will also be shaped by partners across Canada. Youth and families/caregivers will guide its content, language, testing and implementation.
What we’re working toward
- Making youth substance use care easier to deliver in real-world settings
- Integrating substance use, mental health, harm reduction and overdose prevention
- Equipping providers and trusted adults with practical resources
- Creating adaptable English and French materials shaped by youth and families/caregivers
The Youth Substance Use Care Practice Companion is led by Dr. Danya Fast (Foundry Research Scientist and Associate Professor at University of British Columbia), Dr. Matthew Carwana (Pediatrician at BC Children’s Hospital and Clinical Assistant Professor at University of British Columbia), Dr. Nicholas Chadi (Adolescent Medicine Physician at CHU Sainte-Justine and Researcher at CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre) and Dr. Scott Hadland (Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Chief of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children).
Funders
This project is funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and a grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).
Resources
- Stay tuned!