Time, space and body in adolescent residential services: Re-imagining service research

Abstract

The objective of this article, which emerges from the pragmatic dissatisfactions of a service designer, is to explore the way forward for developing more socially useful research evidence for adolescent substance abuse services. Analysis is made of the limitations of existing substance abuse research, driven by classical experimental models that rely on traditional quantitative techniques. Theoretical propositions about the nature of an ideal service are developed from interviews with professionals in twenty of Australia's twenty-three adolescent residential services. These suggest the configurational nature of the service, arising from its multi-dimensional temporal, spatial and material properties, and the importance of the service's capacity to combine diverse service elements in complementary ways to meet individual client needs. A social sciences methodology—qualitative comparative analysis (QCA)—has the potential to better analyse the configurational nature of such services, allowing identification of effective service element combinations, especially in small-N studies.

• Adolescent substance abuse
• service research
• health services design and delivery
• health research methodology