Initial insights from a quality improvement initiative to develop an evidence-informed young adult substance use program.

High rates of substance misuse during emerging adulthood (~17-25 years of age, also referred to as young adulthood) require developmentally appropriate clinical programs. This article outlines: 1) the development of an evidence-informed young adult outpatient substance use program that takes a biopsychosocial patient-centred approach to care; 2) a quality improvement process and protocol; and 3) the patient characteristics of an initial cohort. Literature reviews, program reviews, environmental scans, and consultations with interested parties (including individuals with lived expertise) were used to develop the program.

Measuring and understanding "quality of life" among emerging adults in a substance use program.

Objective: This work focuses on understanding quality of life and evaluating a brief quality of life measure in an outpatient emerging adult (17-25 years of age) substance use program.

Method: Mixed methods were used including: (a) psychometric evaluation of the adapted MyLifeTracker (MLT) based on assessments completed four times throughout treatment ( = 100) and (b) qualitative interviews with 12 emerging adults in the program. The study was codesigned, cofacilitated, and cointerpreted with emerging adults with lived experience.