50 Chapter 2 Take it Personal! showed to be effective in reducing substance use frequency in this specific group. Although clinicians from several participating treatment centers confirmed that cannabis contributes to the greatest problems in the daily life of our participants, we also know alcohol use to be severely underestimated by staff and often not seen as a big problem. In this study, we did not reach the planned number of participants (Schijven et al., 2015), while previous personality-targeted substance use interventions recruiting from school settings for adolescents without disabilities did not face difficulties with inclusion (Conrod et al., 2013; Lammers et al., 2017). Difficulties in our study were related to the complexity of the clinical population of adolescents with a mild intellectual disability and behavioral problems. These adolescents are often in need for interventions for multiple problems besides substance use, such as behavioral problems or trauma. Timing of interventions is crucial with regard to compliance, motivation and readiness to change. In addition, Take it Personal! intervention groups were composed based on personality profiles. It often occurred that timing for several individuals was right to start Take it Personal!, but that personality profiles did not match and that intervention groups could not start. Moreover, participants dropped out because they moved away from the treatment center or were simply not motivated to complete follow-up questionnaires. Adolescents with a mild intellectual disability, as well as clinical mild intellectual disability practice, may benefit from a more personalized study approach, so future studies could focus on idiographic research to determine if and how the intervention works for each adolescent. In summary, Take it Personal! seems to address the need for effective substance use prevention programs in treatment services for the highrisk target group of individuals with a mild intellectual disability. Instead of treating adolescents as homogeneous, Take it Personal! addresses the individual needs of members of this complex target group by offering a personalized prevention program. The approach of Take it Personal! strengthens efforts to reduce substance use among adolescents with a mild intellectual disability, intervening before a substance use disorder develops. Acknowledgments This study was funded by Fonds NutsOhra (project no. 1402-061) for vulnerable population groups in Dutch society. We gratefully acknowledge Tessa Straub and Anniek Klijn Velderman for their assistance with recruitment of the participants and collection of the data.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTk4NDMw