Young Asians and Drug Use

Abstract

It is considered that child health professionals should have sufficient knowledge of patterns of substance (mis)use in young people to enable them to respond appropriately if faced with a client who is, or is suspected of, (mis)using substances. Whilst there is an increasing amount of literature relating to young people’s substance misuse in general, there is a paucity of knowledge relating to substance (mis)use amongst young people from an ethnic minority background. In this article the findingsof qualitative studies carried out at two sites in Greater Manchester arepresented, which suggest that whilst patterns of substance (mis)use amongst Asians may be similar in many ways to those for the generalpopulation, they occur within a different cultural context. It is suggested therefore, that there is a need for child health professionals to be culturally sensitive in working with young people who are, or are suspected of, (mis)using drugs – although unfortunately practical examples of suchcultural sensitivity have yet to be provided.