Abstract
Introduction
There are global calls for better understanding of substance use disorder (SUD) to inform prevention, risk reduction and treatment of this relapse-prone disorder. Our aim in this article is to understand the pathways to recovery of youth in Assam, India who have suffered SUD.
Methods
We recruited 15 participants (11 men and 4 women) via two rehabilitation facilities. All are addicts-in-recovery aged 19–24 years. Material was generated through photo-led interviews, analysed using an inductive variant of thematic analysis and the resulting model refined through expert and participant checks.
Results
We present a multiroute, multidirectional pathway to recovery model. It has three phases, Recreational Use, Addiction (Relaxed, Chaotic, Strategic) and Supported Recovery, each phase consisting of cycling between, or transitioning through, a series of stages.
Conclusions
The model enhances psycho-socio-cultural insights into the experience of risk and recovery, and informs prevention and treatment for youth substance misuse in Assam. This is the first model of its kind and an important public health resource. We discuss the possible transferability of the model to a wider range of contexts.
Patient or Public Contribution
The model presented was generated through analysis of interviews with addicts-in-recovery. Four of these addicts-in-recovery, and two mental health and rehabilitation service providers, conducted participant and expert checks of the model leading to its improvement.
There are global calls for better understanding of substance use disorder (SUD) to inform prevention, risk reduction and treatment of this relapse-prone disorder. Our aim in this article is to understand the pathways to recovery of youth in Assam, India who have suffered SUD.
Methods
We recruited 15 participants (11 men and 4 women) via two rehabilitation facilities. All are addicts-in-recovery aged 19–24 years. Material was generated through photo-led interviews, analysed using an inductive variant of thematic analysis and the resulting model refined through expert and participant checks.
Results
We present a multiroute, multidirectional pathway to recovery model. It has three phases, Recreational Use, Addiction (Relaxed, Chaotic, Strategic) and Supported Recovery, each phase consisting of cycling between, or transitioning through, a series of stages.
Conclusions
The model enhances psycho-socio-cultural insights into the experience of risk and recovery, and informs prevention and treatment for youth substance misuse in Assam. This is the first model of its kind and an important public health resource. We discuss the possible transferability of the model to a wider range of contexts.
Patient or Public Contribution
The model presented was generated through analysis of interviews with addicts-in-recovery. Four of these addicts-in-recovery, and two mental health and rehabilitation service providers, conducted participant and expert checks of the model leading to its improvement.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 318-328 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Health Expectations |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 9 Nov 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We thank our participants for giving so generously of their time and for sharing their experiences with us in such depth. Our gratitude is extended also to Mr. Ratul Dey, and colleagues at Nirmaan Rehabilitation Facility Guwahati, and Dr. Diptarup Chowdhury Lokopriya Gopinath Bordoloi Regional Institute of Mental Health for their insights as clinical practitioners. Finally, we thank our many transcriber-translators, and Anjani Hathi and Charlotte Butler for undertaking literature searches. More information can be found on the project website https://projectresilience.co.uk/. This research was funded by the UK Research and Innovation Global Research Challenges Fund jointly via the Economic and Social Research Council and the Arts and Humanities Research Council grant number ES/S00047X/1.
Funding Information:
We thank our participants for giving so generously of their time and for sharing their experiences with us in such depth. Our gratitude is extended also to Mr. Ratul Dey, and colleagues at Nirmaan Rehabilitation Facility Guwahati, and Dr. Diptarup Chowdhury Lokopriya Gopinath Bordoloi Regional Institute of Mental Health for their insights as clinical practitioners. Finally, we thank our many transcriber‐translators, and Anjani Hathi and Charlotte Butler for undertaking literature searches. More information can be found on the project website https://projectresilience.co.uk/ . This research was funded by the UK Research and Innovation Global Research Challenges Fund jointly via the Economic and Social Research Council and the Arts and Humanities Research Council grant number ES/S00047X/1.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. Health Expectations published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Keywords
- Public Health
- Environmental and Occupational Health
- mental health
- substance abuse disorder
- LMIC
- addiction recovery
- visual methods