A qualitative study exploring how young people perceive and experience substance use services in British Columbia, Canada
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Substance use among youth (ages 12-24) is troublesome given the increasing risk of harms associated. Even more so, substance use services are largely underutilized among youth, most only accessing support when in crisis. Few studies have explored young people's help-seeking behaviours to address substance use concerns. To address this gap, this study explored how youth perceive and experience substance use services in British Columbia (BC), Canada. METHODS: Participatory action research methods were used by partnering with BC youth (under the age of 30) from across the province who have lived and/or living experience of substance use to co-design the research protocol and materials. An initial focus group and interviews were held with 30 youth (ages 12-24) with lived and/or living experience of substance use, including alcohol, cannabis, and illicit substances. The discussions were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed thematically using a data-driven approach. RESULTS: Three main themes were identified and separated by phase of service interaction, starting with: Prevention/Early intervention, where youth described feeling unworthy of support; Service accessibility, where youth encountered many barriers finding relevant substance use services and information; and Service delivery, where youth highlighted the importance of meeting them where they are at, including supporting those who have milder treatment needs and/or do not meet the diagnosis criteria of a substance use disorder. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest a clear need to prioritize substance use prevention and early interventions specifically targeting youth and young adults. Youth and peers with lived and/or living experience should be involved in co-designing and co-delivering such programs to ensure their relevance and credibility among youth. The current disease model of care leaves many of the needs of this population unmet, calling for a more integrated youth-centred approach to address the multifarious concerns linked to young people's substance use and service outcomes and experiences.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Recent studies from British Columbia found that people who use drugs do not endorse the use of involuntary treatment.
“Recent studies from BC have found that people who use drugs do not endorse the use of involuntary treatment, pointing instead to significant changes required to address shortcomings of the voluntary care system, including needs for expanded access to existing services and a wider range of harm reduction, early intervention, and treatment options [23,24].”
From “Backed into a Corner”: Lived experiences of receiving and providing involuntary psychiatric treatment under British Columbia’s Mental Health Act (2026) · cites this paper as [24]
The Results section reports that some young people feared being sent away for abstinence-based recovery, but it does not report that participants rejected involuntary treatment. The Discussion and Conclusions support the sentence’s call for better access and a broader range of youth substance-use services. No page numbers are available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredPeople who use drugs point to significant changes required to address shortcomings of the voluntary care system, including expanded access to existing services and a wider range of harm reduction, early intervention, and treatment options.
“Recent studies from BC have found that people who use drugs do not endorse the use of involuntary treatment, pointing instead to significant changes required to address shortcomings of the voluntary care system, including needs for expanded access to existing services and a wider range of harm reduction, early intervention, and treatment options [23,24].”
From “Backed into a Corner”: Lived experiences of receiving and providing involuntary psychiatric treatment under British Columbia’s Mental Health Act (2026) · cites this paper as [24]
The Discussion reports that youth described barriers to accessing substance use services and calls for greater capacity and earlier access. The Results also describe youths’ preference for flexible, non-abstinence-based care. The paper does not establish that people who use drugs generally reject involuntary treatment, or that participants specifically called for a wider range of harm-reduction options; its findings concern young people in BC. Page numbers are not available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Using thematic analysis in psychology
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006) · Qualitative Research in Psychology · doi:10.1191/1478088706qp063oa · Cited by 194,414 · see citing works
Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research: A Synthesis of Recommendations
O’Brien, B. C., Harris, I. B., Beckman, T. J., Reed, D. A., & Cook, D. A. (2014) · Academic Medicine · doi:10.1097/acm.0000000000000388 · Cited by 12,211 · see citing works
Merikangas, K. R., He, J.-P., Burstein, M., Swanson, S. A., Avenevoli, S., Cui, L., Benjet, C., Georgiades, K., & Swendsen, J. (2010) · Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2010.05.017 · Cited by 6,278 · see citing works
Canadian Institute for Health Information.
Lalonde, A. (1994) · PubMed · Cited by 4,730 · see citing works
Gulliver, A., Griffiths, K. M., & Christensen, H. (2010) · BMC Psychiatry · doi:10.1186/1471-244x-10-113 · Cited by 3,292 · see citing works
Youth-friendly primary-care services: how are we doing and what more needs to be done?
Tylee, A., Haller, D. M., Graham, T., Churchill, R., & Sanci, L. A. (2007) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(07)60371-7 · Cited by 622 · see citing works
Participatory Action Research approaches and methods: connecting people, participation and place
Forrester, J. M. (2008) · Journal of Environmental Planning and Management · doi:10.1080/09640560802423970 · Cited by 610 · see citing works
Early-onset drug use and risk for drug dependence problems
Chen, C.-Y., Storr, C. L., & Anthony, J. C. (2009) · Addictive Behaviors · doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2008.10.021 · Cited by 466 · see citing works
Prevention, early intervention, harm reduction, and treatment of substance use in young people
Stockings, E., Hall, W. D., Lynskey, M., Morley, K. I., Reavley, N., Strang, J., Patton, G., & Degenhardt, L. (2016) · The Lancet Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/s2215-0366(16)00002-x · Cited by 433 · see citing works
McCabe, S. E., West, B. T., Morales, M., Cranford, J. A., & Boyd, C. J. (2007) · Addiction · doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2007.02015.x · Cited by 293 · see citing works
(2015) · UNSWorks (UNSW Sydney) · Cited by 225 · see citing works
Engaging youth in research planning, design and execution: Practical recommendations for researchers
Hawke, L. D., Relihan, J., Miller, J. L., McCann, E., Rong, J., Darnay, K., Docherty, S., Chaim, G., & Henderson, J. L. (2018) · Health Expectations · doi:10.1111/hex.12795 · Cited by 207 · see citing works
Self-citationPoudel, A., & Gautam, S. (2017) · BMC Psychiatry · doi:10.1186/s12888-016-1191-0 · Cited by 201 · see citing works
Wong, S. S., Zhou, B., Goebert, D. A., & Hishinuma, E. S. (2013) · Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology · doi:10.1007/s00127-013-0721-z · Cited by 152 · see citing works
White, A. M., Hingson, R., Pan, I., & Yi, H. (2011) · Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs · doi:10.15288/jsad.2011.72.774 · Cited by 132 · see citing works
Engaging people who use drugs in policy and program development: A review of the literature
Ti, L., Tzemis, D., & Buxton, J. A. (2012) · Substance Abuse Treatment Prevention and Policy · doi:10.1186/1747-597x-7-47 · Cited by 117 · see citing works
Primary Substance Use Prevention Programs for Children and Youth: A Systematic Review
Tremblay, M., Baydala, L., Khan, M., Currie, C., Morley, K., Burkholder, C., Davidson, R., & Stillar, A. (2020) · Pediatrics · doi:10.1542/peds.2019-2747 · Cited by 116 · see citing works
Greer, A. M., Luchenski, S. A., Amlani, A., Lacroix, K., Burmeister, C., & Buxton, J. A. (2016) · BMC Public Health · doi:10.1186/s12889-016-3136-4 · Cited by 110 · see citing works
Sterling, S., Chi, F., & Hinman, A. (2011) · Europe PMC (PubMed Central) · Cited by 101 · see citing works
Current advances in the treatment of adolescent drug use
Winters, K. C., Tanner‐Smith, E. E., Bresani, E., & Meyers, K. (2014) · Adolescent Health Medicine and Therapeutics · doi:10.2147/ahmt.s48053 · Cited by 94 · see citing works
Trends of poly-substance use among Canadian youth
Zuckermann, A. M. E., Williams, G., Battista, K., de Groh, M., Jiang, Y., & Leatherdale, S. T. (2019) · Addictive Behaviors Reports · doi:10.1016/j.abrep.2019.100189 · Cited by 91 · see citing works
Sterling, S., Weisner, C., Hinman, A., & Parthasarathy, S. (2010) · Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2010.03.019 · Cited by 88 · see citing works
Seeking the Pleasure Zone: Understanding Young Adult's Intoxication Culture
Fry, M. (2010) · Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ) · doi:10.1016/j.ausmj.2010.11.009 · Cited by 87 · see citing works
Halsall, T., Manion, I. G., Iyer, S. N., Mathias, S., Purcell, R., & Henderson, J. L. (2019) · Healthcare Management Forum · doi:10.1177/0840470418808815 · Cited by 87 · see citing works
Self-citationMarchand, K., Foreman, J., Macdonald, S., Harrison, S., Schechter, M. T., & Oviedo‐Joekes, E. (2020) · Substance Abuse Treatment Prevention and Policy · doi:10.1186/s13011-020-0253-y · Cited by 87 · see citing works
Self-citationO’Keeffe, L., O’Reilly, A., O’Brien, G., Buckley, R., & Illback, R. (2015) · Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/ipm.2014.86 · Cited by 80 · see citing works
Adolescent substance use: Latent class and transition analysis
Choi, H. J., Lu, Y., Schulte, M. T., & Temple, J. R. (2017) · Addictive Behaviors · doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2017.09.022 · Cited by 75 · see citing works
Youth Participatory Action Research for Youth Substance Use Prevention: A Systematic Review
Valdez, E. S., Skobic, I., Valdez, L. A., Garcia, D. O., Korchmaros, J. D., Stevens, S. J., Sabo, S. J., & Carvajal, S. C. (2019) · Substance Use & Misuse · doi:10.1080/10826084.2019.1668014 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
Foundry: early learnings from the implementation of an integrated youth service network
Mathias, S., Tee, K., Helfrich, W., Gerty, K., Chan, G., & Barbic, S. P. (2022) · Early Intervention in Psychiatry · doi:10.1111/eip.13181 · Cited by 70 · see citing works
Self-citationEvidence-Based Treatment of Young Adults With Substance Use Disorders
Hadland, S. E., Yule, A. M., Levy, S., Hallett, E., Silverstein, M., & Bagley, S. M. (2021) · PEDIATRICS · doi:10.1542/peds.2020-023523d · Cited by 69 · see citing works
Boyd, J., Fast, D., Hobbins, M. T., McNeil, R., & Small, W. (2017) · Harm Reduction Journal · doi:10.1186/s12954-017-0159-9 · Cited by 56 · see citing works
Predicting Incentives to Change Among Adolescents with Substance Abuse Disorder
Breda, C. S., & Heflinger, C. A. (2004) · The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse · doi:10.1081/ada-120037377 · Cited by 52 · see citing works
Assembling the dominant accounts of youth drug use in Australian harm reduction drug education
Farrugia, A. (2014) · International Journal of Drug Policy · doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2014.04.019 · Cited by 52 · see citing works
Factors Influencing Service Use Among Homeless Youths With Co-Occurring Disorders
Kozloff, N., Cheung, A., Ross, L. E., Winer, H., Ierfino, D., Bullock, H. L., & BENNETT, K. J. (2013) · Psychiatric Services · doi:10.1176/appi.ps.201200257 · Cited by 49 · see citing works
Brownlie, E. B., Beitchman, J. H., Chaim, G., Wolfe, D. A., Rush, B. R., & Henderson, J. L. (2018) · The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1177/0706743718784935 · Cited by 49 · see citing works
Self-citationKeyes, K. M., Brady, J. E., & Li, G. (2015) · Injury Epidemiology · doi:10.1186/s40621-014-0032-1 · Cited by 44 · see citing works
Russell, C., Neufeld, M., Sabioni, P., Varatharajan, T., Ali, F., Miles, S. J., Henderson, J. L., Fischer, B., & Rehm, J. T. (2019) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0225548 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
Self-citationIntegrating Substance Use Treatment Into Adolescent Health Care
Sterling, S., Valkanoff, T., Hinman, A., & Weisner, C. M. (2012) · Current Psychiatry Reports · doi:10.1007/s11920-012-0304-9 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
Giang, V., Thulien, M., McNeil, R., Sedgemore, K., Anderson, H., & Fast, D. (2020) · SSM - Population Health · doi:10.1016/j.ssmph.2020.100609 · Cited by 37 · see citing works
Bozinoff, N., Small, W., Long, C., DeBeck, K., & Fast, D. (2017) · International Journal of Drug Policy · doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2017.05.006 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
Brownlie, E. B., Chaim, G., Heffernan, O., Herzog, T., & Henderson, J. L. (2017) · Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health · doi:10.7870/cjcmh-2017-018 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
Self-citationAdolescent substance abuse. Evidence-based approaches to prevention and treatment.
Staton-Tindall, C. G. L. P. G. (2009) · Springer eBooks · Cited by 34 · see citing works
Moffat, B. M., Jenkins, E., & Johnson, J. L. (2013) · Harm Reduction Journal · doi:10.1186/1477-7517-10-34 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
Urbanoski, K. A., Pauly, B., Inglis, D., Cameron, F., Haddad, T., Phillips, J., Phillips, P., Rosen, C., Schlotter, G., Hartney, E., et al. (2020) · BMC Health Services Research · doi:10.1186/s12913-020-05915-x · Cited by 31 · see citing works
Barbic, S. P., Jones, A. A., Woodward, M., Piercy, M., Mathias, S., Vila-Rodriguez, F., Leonova, O., Smith, G. N., Buchanan, T., Vertinsky, A. T., et al. (2018) · Canadian Journal of Public Health · doi:10.17269/s41997-018-0087-9 · Cited by 26 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Background Substance use initiation is common during adolescence and young adulthood [1].”
BackgroundSelf-citationOtasowie, J. (2021) · BJ Psych Advances · doi:10.1192/bja.2020.64 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
Peer Support and Youth Recovery: A Brief Review of the Theoretical Underpinnings and Evidence
Barton, J., & Henderson, J. L. (2016) · Canadian Journal of Family and Youth / Le Journal Canadien de Famille et de la Jeunesse · doi:10.29173/cjfy27140 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Self-citationChristie, G. I. G., Cheetham, A., & Lubman, D. I. (2020) · Current Addiction Reports · doi:10.1007/s40429-020-00336-6 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Hanley, S. M., Ringwalt, C., Ennett, S. T., Vincus, A. A., Bowling, J. M., Haws, S., & Rohrbach, L. A. (2010) · Journal of Drug Education · doi:10.2190/de.40.1.d · Cited by 19 · see citing works
Palis, H., Marchand, K., Peachey, G. “. S., Westfall, J., Lock, K., Macdonald, S., Jun, J., Bojanczyk-Shibata, A., Harrison, S., Marsh, D. C., et al. (2021) · Substance Abuse Treatment Prevention and Policy · doi:10.1186/s13011-021-00399-2 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
Self-citationThe Influence of ‘‘No Child Left Behind’’ Legislation on Drug Prevention in U.S. Schools
Cho, H., Hallfors, D. D., Iritani, B. J., & Hartman, S. (2009) · Evaluation Review · doi:10.1177/0193841x09335050 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Moreland, A. D., López, C. M., Goodrum, N. M., Goodrum, N. M., Gilmore, A. K., Borkman, A. L., McCauley, J. L., Rheingold, A. A., & Danielson, C. K. (2020) · Substance Use & Misuse · doi:10.1080/10826084.2020.1817079 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Henderson, J. L., Wilkins, L. K., Hawke, L. D., Wang, W., Sanches, M., Brownlie, E. B., & Beitchman, J. H. (2021) · PubMed Central · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Self-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Snow, M. E., Salmon, A., Banjo, J., Morrow, M., & Varcoe, C. (2026) · PLOS One · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0329049
“…do not endorse the use of involuntary treatment, pointing instead to significant changes required to address shortcomings of the voluntary care system, including needs for expanded access to existing services and a wider range of harm reduction, early intervention, and treatment options [23,24].”
- Authors
- Turuba, R., Amarasekera, A., Howard, A. M., Brockmann, V., Tallon, C., Irving, S., Mathias, S., Henderson, J., Marchand, K., & Barbic, S.
- Affiliations
- Providence Health Care (CA)
- Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CA)
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Turuba, Roxanne
- ORCID
- Venue
- Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy
- Published
- 2022-05-28
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 43-43
- ISSN
- 1747-597X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC9148204
- OpenAlex
- W4281853969
- Cited by
- 44
- References
- 53
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 2
- FWCI
- 5.96
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Substance Abuse Treatment Prevention and Policy (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- cIRcle (University of British Columbia) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Open Collections
- Funders
- Michael Smith Health Research BC
- Health Canada
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Homelessness and Social Issues
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Keywords
- adolescent substance use, substance use services, help-seeking, access to services, service delivery, prevention and early intervention, co-design, alcohol consumption, cannabis use, illicit substances, British Columbia
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, British Columbia, Child, Humans, Peer Group, Focus Groups, Substance-Related Disorders, Qualitative Research, Young Adult
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
