Body Mapping in a Drug and Alcohol Treatment Program: Eliciting New Identity and Experience.

Sophia Macken,Sally Nathan,Alexandra Gibson,Katherine M. Boydell,Michelle Jersky

doi:10.3390/ijerph18094942

Abstract

Arts-based approaches have not been widely used in the drug and alcohol treatment sector. In this study, we examined the utility of the arts-based method of Body Mapping in an Australian residential treatment centre. Two workshops were held to explore young people’s strengths and support networks in order to improve understandings of young people’s lives, identities and experiences of treatment. Semi-structured follow-up interviews were conducted and triangulated with observational notes and staff interviews. We identified four major themes: engaging through art; removing the mask; revealing strengths; and a sense of achievement. Overall, this study highlighted the value of Body Mapping as an approach to engage with young people, providing rich in-depth data about their lived experiences, including in the alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment context.

Highlights

Problematic alcohol and other drug (AOD) use is a significant public health issue, warranting attention in research, policy and practice [1,2]
This paper describes a study of the innovative visual method of Body Mapping, which is growing in its use in diverse contexts [36,37] to gain a deeper understanding of young people’s identities, beliefs and experiences while in AOD treatment
We examine the utility of Body Mapping as a research method with young people in residential treatment for AOD issues and provide insight into how this approach can support young people to share their emotions, strengths and supports and elicit new narratives on identity and experience which may be useful to foster engagement and better support young people in treatment

Summary

Introduction

Problematic alcohol and other drug (AOD) use is a significant public health issue, warranting attention in research, policy and practice [1,2]. Treatment options for adolescents with problematic AOD use can include residential treatment, such as a therapeutic community (TC) model, which aim to address the complex health and social support needs of these young people [10,11,12]. In this treatment field, research underscores the importance of treatment completion to improve long-term outcomes for these young people [13,14]. Maximising engagement and preventing drop out are key priorities for the residential AOD treatment sector

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion