The framework for Resilience Based Intervention
The framework for resilience based intervention indentifies 5 interrelated domains of need that if adequately addressed, will enable young people to mitigate the risk of immediate harm, develop resilience and be well positioned to address substance use problems over the long term. The framework also charts 3 categories of resources and assets are demonstrated to foster both resilience and healthy development

Resources and assets
Three categories of resources and assets are articulated. The first category, ‘social ecology’, includes all external or contextual resources and assets that, if available and provided in culturally meaningful ways, contribute to a young person’s capacity for resilience (Ungar, 2006). The second and third categories, ‘knowledge, skills and attributes’ and ‘systems of belief’, both pertain to internal resources and assets that are qualities of the individual.

The degree of adversity faced by many youth AOD clients and complications related to problematic substance use, mean that available resources and assets are often insufficient. Where youth AOD services can enable clients to develop or mobilise resources and assets to meet their needs, chain reactions of negative experience can be altered or averted and more positive developmental pathways might emerge.  

The following pages provide more details on the ideas behind each resources and assets area:

• Social Ecology
• Knowledge, skills & attributes
• Beliefs

Domains of need
The five domains of need identified within the framework for resilience based intervention are:

• Protection from harm and the capacity to respond to crisis
• Stability and the capacity to meet basic needs
• Participation in constructive activity
• Developmentally conducive connections
• Greater control over health-compromising issues and behaviours (e.g. harmful substance use, mental health problems, offending, etc).

The five domians of need articulated in the framework for Resilience Based Practice enable practitioners and service planners to sort the key determinants of problematic substance use into priority action areas. The goals of young people (and of those involved in their care) are invariably needs related and can be themed to fit within one or more domain. The scarcity or availability of meaningful and useable resources and assets either obstructs or nurtures the capacity of clients to achieve these goals.