Primaid Response

Primaid First Response revolutionised family approaches to youth substance use by replacing fear-based interventions with compassionate, evidence-based communication tools that supported both parents and youth through crisis and recovery. Understanding rather than shame or criminalization. Primaid provides structured pathways for rebuilding trust and supporting long-term recovery while maintaining family relationships throughout the healing process.

Project Goals:

Family Communication

Transform youth substance use from a crisis point into an opportunity for meaningful family dialogue by providing structured tools that facilitated safe, non-confrontational conversations.

Educate vs. Fear

Shift the narrative away from fear-based messaging and towards compassionate education that equipped both parents & youth with accurate information about substance use, recovery, & mental health.

Emergency Prepairedness

Ensure families had immediate access to life-saving resources including Narcan training and overdose response protocols while removing barriers that prevented confident action during crisis situations.

Sustainable Support

Create long-term family recovery partnerships through ongoing resources, community connections, and evidence-based approaches that supported both addiction recovery & family relationships.

Target Audiences:

Parents & Guardians

Parents and guardians who discovered their youth was experimenting with substances and needed immediate, compassionate guidance to respond appropriately rather than with fear or punishment. They required tools that helped them move from panic to productive support while maintaining family relationships.

Youth Age 12-16

Teenagers who had begun experimenting with substances due to underlying mental health factors and feared expressing their needs to parental figures. They needed safe methods to communicate their struggles while understanding the recovery process and building future stability with their families.

BC Health & Subtance

Provincial health organizations and community mental health programs that could distribute Primaid kits through resource centres, making them accessible to families across Canada while providing institutional credibility and funding support for widespread implementation.

Health Care & Educators

Family physicians, school counsellors, and social workers who needed comprehensive resources to support families dealing with youth substance use while maintaining professional best practices and evidence-based intervention approaches.

Treatment Box

The main Primaid box featured a sophisticated teal colour palette with warm accent colours that conveyed trust and approachability rather than clinical sterility. The packaging included clear visual hierarchy showing kit contents through illustrated infographics, making the comprehensive nature of resources immediately apparent while reducing intimidation factors for families in crisis.

Comprehensive Guide Books

Youth Communication Tools

The "Today Journal" provided prompted response pages that allowed youth to express emotions safely without direct confrontation. The journal worked in coordination with parent materials, creating structured dialogue opportunities that respected both parties' emotional states while building understanding and trust over time.

Guardian Response Materials

Specialized guides for parents that explained mental health symptoms, conversation starters, and appropriate responses to various substance use scenarios. The materials included activity suggestions that helped parents connect with their youth while avoiding confrontational approaches that typically damaged family relationships during crisis periods.

User Guide Publication

A comprehensive guidebook that addressed statistics, misconceptions, kit instructions, Narcan usage, counselling resources, and recovery pathways through accessible language and supportive illustration style. The guide avoided fear-based imagery common in substance use materials, instead using warm character illustrations that represented diverse family situations with optimism and dignity.

Emergency Response Component

Narcan kits with simplified, numbered packaging that provided clear emergency instructions on the exterior. The design prioritised immediate accessibility during crisis situations, ensuring anyone could provide assistance regardless of their experience level with overdose response protocols.

Pocket Guides

Concertina-folded guides covering specific substances (cocaine, heroin) with dual-sided information showing both substance effects and recovery timelines. These portable references provided immediate access to accurate information while supporting informed decision-making for both families and healthcare professionals.

Project Impact + Research

Research Foundation

The project was grounded in extensive research from over 20 academic sources, revealing that 40% of youth didn't feel comfortable expressing emotions to parental figures, 41% had used marijuana before age 16, and substance experimentation was beginning as early as age 12. This research directly informed the kit's communication-focused approach.

Design Innovation Recognition

The project successfully challenged industry conventions by rejecting fear-based messaging in favour of optimistic, educational approaches. The warm colour palette and supportive illustration style demonstrated that substance use resources could maintain effectiveness while promoting healing rather than shame or criminalization.

Community Implementation Strategy

Primaid established partnerships with BC Health organizations for distribution through community resource centres, with goals to assist 70,000+ Canadian families by 2025. The kit's modular design allowed for scalable production and customization based on regional needs while maintaining core educational integrity.

Kurtis Shayne Studio