Abstract
The prevalence of substance use among adolescents has been increasing and found in lower age, twelve years. It creates impacts on their health and future lives, as well as society at large. In Thailand, although there are laws and policies that supportive for problems solving but the implementation has been rather inefficient. Petchaboon province has actively put these policies into practice using integrative and collaborative concepts among all stakeholders since 2015. A community-based approach has been used particularly with school settings. However, it cannot mitigate the problems in terms of magnitude and access to treatment and rehabilitation services. This study aimed at developing a comprehensive treatment and rehabilitation model of adolescents’ drug and substance abuse at a provincial level which enhances access to care and improves retention until outcomes achievement. Community-based participatory action research approach was employed using both qualitative and quantitative data. The review of related literature and policy context, as well as an analysis of situation about drug use and access to treatment and rehabilitation of school adolescents in Petchaboon province were conducted. The participatory action case studies of community-based model were done in nine subdistrict units (Tumbol) and four school-based sites. All action sites were under supervised by the Family Medicine Unit of Petchaboon hospital. It was found that both community-based and school-based comprehensive treatment and rehabilitation model for school adolescents who use drug could be codesigned and operated by using interventions included a Low-intensity Cognitive behavioral therapy, (Li-CBT) and Motivational Interviewing (MI). The mechanism of changes at individual level could be explained while at a system level might need for further study in term of improving access and retention. It also suggested that school-based psychosocial therapy model would be an opportunity to bring in school students to actively participate as peers.
