‘I just wanted a change, a positive change’: Locating hope for young people engaged with residential alcohol and drug services in Victoria, Australia

TY - JOUR

T1 - ‘I just wanted a change, a positive change’

T2 - Locating hope for young people engaged with residential alcohol and drug services in Victoria, Australia

AU - Caluzzi, Gabriel

AU - MacLean, Sarah

AU - Gray, Rebecca

AU - Skattebol, Jen

AU - Neale, Joanne

AU - Bryant, Joanne

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors. Sociology of Health & Illness published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness.

PY - 2023/6/6

Y1 - 2023/6/6

N2 - In this article, we investigate young people’s involvement with residential alcohol and other drug (AOD) services as part of their broader engagement with hope. This study draws on qualitative interviews conducted with 20 young people aged 17–23 from Victoria, Australia, who were either in, or had recently left, residential AOD services. Interviews explored their experiences with AOD services and included questions about their hopes for the future. We found hope located in social relationships, productive discourses and AOD settings themselves. Hope also presented differently according to the external resources young people had available to them, giving some young people greater capacity to action their hoped-for futures than others. Given many young people seek reimagined futures as part of their use of residential AOD services, this creates a valuable opportunity for services to help shape achievable hopes and boost service engagement. We suggest that hope can materialise in a variety of ways but caution against relying on it as a motivational strategy without providing young people with other resources. A more sustainable narrative of hope may require a solid foundation of resources, allowing young people with AOD problems to gain a sense of control over their lives and their imagined futures.

AB - In this article, we investigate young people’s involvement with residential alcohol and other drug (AOD) services as part of their broader engagement with hope. This study draws on qualitative interviews conducted with 20 young people aged 17–23 from Victoria, Australia, who were either in, or had recently left, residential AOD services. Interviews explored their experiences with AOD services and included questions about their hopes for the future. We found hope located in social relationships, productive discourses and AOD settings themselves. Hope also presented differently according to the external resources young people had available to them, giving some young people greater capacity to action their hoped-for futures than others. Given many young people seek reimagined futures as part of their use of residential AOD services, this creates a valuable opportunity for services to help shape achievable hopes and boost service engagement. We suggest that hope can materialise in a variety of ways but caution against relying on it as a motivational strategy without providing young people with other resources. A more sustainable narrative of hope may require a solid foundation of resources, allowing young people with AOD problems to gain a sense of control over their lives and their imagined futures.

KW - drug and alcohol services

KW - hope

KW - qualitative

KW - resources

KW - young people

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85161392237&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/1467-9566.13680

DO - 10.1111/1467-9566.13680

M3 - Article

C2 - 37278252

AN - SCOPUS:85161392237

SN - 0141-9889

VL - 45

SP - 1691

EP - 1708

JO - Sociology of Health and Illness

JF - Sociology of Health and Illness

IS - 8

ER -