ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses the role of health professionals in routinely addressing substance use with young people who have long-term health conditions. The physical consequences are likely to differ between conditions and can have short-term and/or longer-term effects. Multiple risk behaviour is also associated with increasing the likelihood of a medically attended injury, which is defined as an injury in the previous 12 months that required attention from a doctor or nurse. Healthy adolescents begin exploration and experimentation in early adolescence and these behaviours continue into mid-adolescence. The chapter explores routine psychosocial screening with all young people, including those who have long-term conditions, is important to identify both risk and protective factors. The health and psychosocial screening tool Home, Education & Employment, Eating & Exercise, Activities & Peers, Drugs, Suicide & Depression, Sexuality & Health, Safety is seen as a useful tool to screen for risk as well as resilience, and the latter can be used in designing subsequent interventional strategies.