Studying faith-based treatment for substance addiction in Hong Kong: A theoretical model

Substance addiction is described as a 'chronic relapsing disease', to which the Hong Kong government takes an 'enlightened prohibition' approach to stress on the provision of rehabilitative support to addicts instead of imposing stringent legal sanctions (Cheung, 2009).The treatment and rehabilitation of substance addicts is thus of utmost importance, in which use of faith-based approach to help addict patients keep abstinent is one of the main treatment interventions in Hong Kong. Faith-based addiction treatment is usually conducted and provided by local Christian therapeutic organisations in guidance of a Christian theory of substance addiction that recognises not only the psychological, social and physical determinants of addiction, but also the importance of the religious/spiritual dimension of abusing substance (Lyons et al., 2013). Despite the desirable treatment outcomes of faith-based treatment found in the West, little research has been performed with regard to its effectiveness and delivery mechanisms, especially in Hong Kong. This chapter will propose a theoretical framework to investigate the mechanisms by which faith-based addiction treatment delivers the desirable treatment outcomes and, in particular, the respective contributing factors in different levels of the treatment mechanisms. Pertinent research designs, measurement and statistical procedures are also addressed. The chapter will finally conclude with implications and contributions stemmed from the proposed study.