Youth AOD service systems are multi-faceted, consisting of many different ‘types’ of services and programs incorporate the evidence based characteristics of effective youth AOD practice. Services and programs are delivered within specific modalities or structured environments where young people can access a range of relevant interventions. This is a logical response the evidence regarding substance use problems being closely correlated with the loss of major social structures in young people’s lives (Room, 2005).

Youth AOD service modalities and intervention types (definitions)

(a) Modalities - Service modalities refer to the physical and other structural characteristics of service types. Service modalities are not treatments or interventions but rather, they are environments or vehicles for delivering a variety of interventions.

(b) Intervention types - Intervention types refer to the roles and activities of practitioners employed within services, and the types of treatment, care and support actually received by clients. Intervention types are relatively independent of service modalities. In order to ensure continuity and consistency of care there is considerable overlap in the range of intervention types provided across the modalities, but there is more or less emphasis placed upon each according to the specific purposes and structural features of the modality.