Addressing Canada's Opioid Crisis: A Qualitative Study of the Perspectives of Youth Receiving Substance Use Services
Bibliographic record
Abstract
ABSTRACT Background: The opioid crisis is an ongoing public health crisis affecting all segments of society, including youth. However, there is limited research available on strategies that youth consider appropriate. This qualitative study examines the perspectives of youth who use substances regarding strategies to address Canada's opioid crisis among youth. Method: We conducted focus groups and individual interviews with 20 youth, aged 15 to 23 years old, who were seeking tertiary care hospital-based services for substance use challenges in Toronto, Canada. Most participants had at least some experience using opioids. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: Seven themes were identified. Participants highlighted the importance of (1) increasing awareness and balanced early education about substance use and opioid use; (2) increasing awareness and education about services; (3) increasing the availability of a continuum of youth-oriented service options; (4) providing services that emphasize ease of access and youth autonomy; (5) implementing a harm reduction approach; (6) providing respectful, responsive service providers; and (7) making changes at systems and policy levels. Conclusions: Youth with substance use challenges have important perspectives on the approaches that they would expect to work in addressing Canada's opioid crisis among young people. Designing services that meet the expressed needs of young people will help ensure that services are appropriate for them, fostering service utilization. These findings provide guidance to optimize prevention interventions, as well as treatments and other services to address Canada's opioid crisis in ways that resonate with youth at risk of opioid use concerns and with youth who use opioids. Contexte: La crise des opioïdes est une crise de santé publique qui sévit encore aujourd’hui et touche tous les segments de la société, y compris les jeunes. Les études sont toutefois limitées en ce qui a trait aux stratégies que les jeunes considèrent comme adéquates. Cette étude qualitative examine les points de vue de jeunes consommateurs de substances psychoactives sur les stratégies à mettre en œuvre pour régler la crise des opioïdes qui touche la jeunesse canadienne. Méthode: Nous avons mené des groupes de discussion et des entrevues individuelles avec 20 jeunes de 15 à 23 ans qui souhaitaient obtenir des services de soins tertiaires en milieu hospitalier pour des problèmes de consommation de substances psychoactives à Toronto, au Canada. La plupart des participants avaient déjà consommé des opioïdes au moins une fois. Les données ont été soumises à une analyse thématique. Résultats: Trois thèmes ont été soulevés. Les participants ont souligné l’importance des mesures suivantes : 1) sensibiliser davantage les gens et les informer de manière précoce et objective sur l’usage d’opioïdes et de substances psychoactives; 2) informer les gens sur les services disponibles; 3) offrir un plus grand continuum de services axés sur les jeunes; 4) fournir des services qui priorisent la facilité d’accès et l’autonomie des jeunes; 5) mettre en œuvre une stratégie de réduction des méfaits; 6) offrir les services de fournisseurs respectueux et réactifs; 7) appliquer des changements sur les plans systémique et politique. Conclusions: Les jeunes aux prises avec des problèmes de consommation de substances psychoactives ont des points de vue pertinents sur les stratégies qu’ils estimeraient efficaces pour régler la crise des opioïdes qui fait rage chez la jeunesse canadienne. En concevant des services qui répondent aux besoins qu’expriment les jeunes, nous nous assurons que ces services leur conviennent et qu’ils y auront plus souvent recours. Ces résultats pourront aider à optimiser les interventions de prévention, les traitements et d’autres services qui remédient à la crise des opioïdes sévissant actuellement au Canada, par des moyens qui rejoignent les préoccupations des jeunes consommateurs d’opioïdes et de ceux susceptibles de consommer des opioïdes.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.006 | 0.008 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.003 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.023 | 0.009 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.005 | 0.002 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.005 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.003 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".