Case Study of a Client Primarily Using Marijuana Treated in a Children's and Adolescents' Outpatient Addiction Service
Abstract
Cannabis is the most commonly used illegal substance in the Czech Republic. A specific feature of cannabis is its attractiveness and ease of availability for the target group of children and adolescents.
Young clients and their parents can find help with substance abuse problems and addictive behaviour in an emerging network of outpatient addiction treatment clinics for children and adolescents. One such clinic is the "ADA+, Adolescents' Outpatient Addiction Service, Social Intervention Facility, Kladno".
ADA+ was founded three years ago as the second service of its type in the Czech Republic. The aim of this case study is to present the process of clinical outpatient work with an adolescent cannabis-abusing client (16) and the matching and intervention approaches used in addiction treatment, with a view to the specific needs of an adolescent client.
We also illustrate successful aspects of the therapy following a timeline established as part of the contract and the development of the client's motivation, provide examples of suitable matching of needs, and, finally, outline specific features of addictological interventions aimed at the target group of adolescent substance users. The client data comes from continuous therapeutic work (individual, family, couple, and group sessions), as well as from art therapy techniques, non-verbal techniques, and self-developmental activities.
For clinical evaluation, the ICD-10 and DSM-V diagnostic criteria were used in combination with questionnaire tools (CRAFFT, DAST, EuropASI) and the cyclic change model and the CMRS model. All the data about this client and his family members was anonymised and an informed consent was signed by the client and his mother before the publication of this case study.
Despite his long-term contact with our service, the positive development of his motivation and dynamic recontracting, the involvement of his family members and his partner, and his insight into his risk behaviour based on his consideration of the pros and cons, the client decided to follow the form of the controlled use of cannabis. This paper demonstrates that addictological treatment of children and adolescents should be based on a highly personalised approach, with appropriate matching of needs and long-term work with motivation.