• Treatment for youth substance abuse is different from treatment for adults.drugs image by alimat from Fotolia.com
  
  The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA, provides guidance to the substance abuse community, including therapists, counselors and treatment centers nationwide. SAMSA provides guidelines and suggestions to those in the profession to help all patients deal with substance abuse. In dealing with the youth population and substance abuse, there are varying factors in how treatment is conducted. For instance, while family is not always involved with an adult addiction problem, the family should be involved when dealing with a youth who has used drugs or alcohol. In addition, development in the youth is different from the development of adults. This also needs to be taken into consideration when seeking the right treatment program.
  
  

Support Groups

• Self-help groups, also known as 12-step groups, is a way for a young person to talk about what he has been through and what drugs he used, without the fear of people talking about him, as well as how and when and why he used drugs or alcohol. These groups are primarily in the form of Alcoholics Anonymous. A group called Alateen is designed specifically for teens. These groups are anonymous; therefore, others in the group are not allowed to talk about what happens in meetings. Having a group of peers who have been through the same situations helps adolescents know that they are not alone with the struggles of substance abuse and also provides a strong support base where they can call on each other when recovery seems difficult. These groups usually come in either during or after the primary treatment, and they are usually not used as the only basis of rehabilitation.
  
  

Family Therapy

• Family therapy brings the entire family together to discuss the problems that may be taking place. Therapists can get to the root of many problems by learning about the family dynamics. The therapist can then address underlying problems to help the bring the family together and provide options on how the family can work together to prevent future problems.
  
  

Therapeutic Communities

• While therapeutic communities were initially intended for adults, they have also been redeveloped to treat youths as well. These communities are intensive treatment models reserved for young people who have the most severe dependency on drugs and alcohol. The goal of the communities is to teach a natural way to cope with the lifestyle changes that arise from chemical dependency. They also identify behaviors that have made the youth prone to chemical dependency and change these behaviors so the actions do not return. The length of these programs ranges from 12 to 18 months of intense inpatient rehabilitation, after which the youth is encouraged to undergo outpatient therapy and join support groups.