TY - JOUR
T1 - Perceptions of professionals regarding interventions involving family members responsible for justice-involved youth with substance use disorders in Santiago, Chile
AU - Lobato, Mónica
AU - Sanderman, Robbert
AU - Soto, Marcela
AU - Mettifogo, Decio
AU - Hagedoorn, Mariët
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank the National Service for the Prevention and Rehabilitation of Drug and Alcohol Use (SENDA) of the Chilean government for supporting this research as well as the programmes and institutions that agreed to participate in the study.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020
PY - 2021/1
Y1 - 2021/1
N2 - Background: Eliciting professionals’ experiences of current drug treatment programmes can lead to improvements of these youth-centred programmes through the involvement of the concerned youths’ families. We explored perceived barriers amongst professionals concerning interventions incorporating parents or guardians responsible for justice-involved youth with substance use disorders. Methods: We conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with fourteen female and four male professionals, each representing one of eighteen programmes under the Chilean National Drug Treatment Programme (2016–2017), who were tasked with contacting and/or intervening in the families of justice-involved youth. Subsequently, we performed traditional content analysis. Results: The professionals identified four key barriers impeding interventions: (1) parents’ non-adherence to the treatment and issues relating to their role fulfilment; (2) tensions within the programme design that constrain the families’ involvement in the interventions; (3) the lack of a supportive professional network offering interventions that complement drug treatment; (4) the problematic and dangerous living contexts of these families that discourage family involvement. Additionally, professionals identified intervention needs for improving treatment outcomes. Conclusions: The negative perceptions of professionals regarding the interventions as well as families and family contexts of justice-involved youth, and the lack of support from other programmes, induced feelings of hopelessness and pessimism amongst the professionals regarding the effectiveness of the Chilean National Drug Treatment Programme. It is essential to consider professionals’ perspectives not only to benefit from their expertise, but also to assess whether their perspectives may hinder the implementation of changes when attempting to innovate drug treatment modalities aimed at improving their outcomes.
AB - Background: Eliciting professionals’ experiences of current drug treatment programmes can lead to improvements of these youth-centred programmes through the involvement of the concerned youths’ families. We explored perceived barriers amongst professionals concerning interventions incorporating parents or guardians responsible for justice-involved youth with substance use disorders. Methods: We conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with fourteen female and four male professionals, each representing one of eighteen programmes under the Chilean National Drug Treatment Programme (2016–2017), who were tasked with contacting and/or intervening in the families of justice-involved youth. Subsequently, we performed traditional content analysis. Results: The professionals identified four key barriers impeding interventions: (1) parents’ non-adherence to the treatment and issues relating to their role fulfilment; (2) tensions within the programme design that constrain the families’ involvement in the interventions; (3) the lack of a supportive professional network offering interventions that complement drug treatment; (4) the problematic and dangerous living contexts of these families that discourage family involvement. Additionally, professionals identified intervention needs for improving treatment outcomes. Conclusions: The negative perceptions of professionals regarding the interventions as well as families and family contexts of justice-involved youth, and the lack of support from other programmes, induced feelings of hopelessness and pessimism amongst the professionals regarding the effectiveness of the Chilean National Drug Treatment Programme. It is essential to consider professionals’ perspectives not only to benefit from their expertise, but also to assess whether their perspectives may hinder the implementation of changes when attempting to innovate drug treatment modalities aimed at improving their outcomes.
KW - Family intervention
KW - Justice-involved youth
KW - Professionals’ perceptions
KW - Qualitative research
KW - Substance use disorder
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85094149709&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.drugpo.2020.102996
DO - 10.1016/j.drugpo.2020.102996
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85094149709
VL - 87
JO - International journal of drug policy
JF - International journal of drug policy
SN - 0955-3959
M1 - 102996
ER -