Transitions, Risks and Rehabilitation of Young Drug Users in a Life Course Perspective: How Young Individuals with Drug Related Problems Can Integrate Themselves Back to Society through Social Intervention and Rehabilitation Programs

Title:

Transitions, risks and rehabilitation of young drug users in a life course perspective: How young individuals with drug related problems can integrate themselves back to society through social intervention and rehabilitation programs

Abstract

This research project will study the lives of young drug users as they transition into adulthood, with an intention to observe changes in their lives as they participate in rehabilitation programs carried out by local humanitarian organizations. The drug users participate in intervention programs aimed at rehabilitation through one-to-one guiding and social integration in a medium rural town in Northern Norway. The study’s focus is on the process of rehabilitation, social difficulties and risks that the drug users face in this period of their life. As the study’s design is concerned with temporality and changes that can happen in their lives over time, the study will make use of a life course perspective. By including such a framework, one is able to properly structure and order the different events and changes that happens in the lives of the young drug users as they come in to contact with the rehabilitation programs. Two specific and overarching research questions are formulated to guide the research: The first question addresses what experiences do young drug users have from participating in humanitarian rehabilitation programs. The second question is concerned with what factors that can be important for young people with substance-related problems, when they over time try to integrate themselves back into society. The two questions imply that the study will be conducted on an individual level, focusing on the participants themselves and their experiences with a specific rehabilitation program. Methodologically the design will have a Grounded Theory approach. Methods will include ethnographic observations, analysis of documents and biographical interviews that together will produce thick descriptions on the informants.