Recovery Supports for Young People: What Do Existing Supports Reveal About the Recovery Environment?

Abstract

This article seeks to address how our understanding of the recovery process and resulting supports can be made more comprehensive: How can links from treatment to home to school to communities be made so that there are fewer and fewer recovery gaps for adolescents? Using the ecology of recovery model developed by White (2009) as the impetus for such a review, the article discusses the challenges inherent within adolescent substance abuse recovery, factors impacting successful recovery, and programs addressing this issue that have been empirically studied. Studied programs can be categorized as (a) formalized aftercare recovery and (b) recovery communities, and both examples are described using existing literature. From the review of existing recovery support research and resources, the discussion highlights gaps and future research areas in order to address the complexity of recovery among young people.