With proper support and services, families can have a positive impact on their loved ones’ substance use outcomes. As we strive to address the opioid crisis in the United States, Partnership to End Addiction, in collaboration with Opioid Response Network, has launched a learning community complete with monthly meetings, office hours with experts and moderated discussion groups, all geared toward helping agencies and organizations better serve and engage families as they deploy new or expanded opioid response programs.
Please fill out the form below. Once submitted, a Partnership staff member will provide you with access to our Microsoft Teams channel, which contains scheduling information and links to join meetings.
Program begins in early 2024. Participants can attend whichever sessions they wish to. Attendance of all sessions is not required.
1. Learning Community Meetings
2. Office Hours/Small Group Discussions with Experts
3. Moderated Discussion Group
Families can have a positive impact on their loved ones’ substance use outcomes, but there are few accessible support services for concerned significant others (CSOs) who care for loved ones struggling with substance misuse. CSOs require information, resources, skills, and a nonjudgmental listener to learn how to effectively communicate with their loved ones, navigate the addiction treatment system, and support healthy behaviors. Parent or family-focused interventions have shown positive outcomes in prevention, treatment and recovery support but CSOs continue to be underutilized in these support services.
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Family members often hear messages that they must let a loved one “hit rock bottom” or “they’ve got to want it” — “it” meaning treatment and recovery, which is often synonymous with abstinence. With the spread of disease, infections and overdose deaths, not to mention the collateral damage experienced by families, this approach is untenable. This presentation is designed to help families understand the role of harm reduction in the continuum of care for people with a substance use disorder. Further, it covers some of the strategies and tools that can be used to reduce the risks associated with opioid use in addition to some other substances. The presenters will also share how families have shared harm reduction measures with loved ones and implemented them in their homes.
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This presentation will describe the opportunities and limitations of digital interventions for SUD for individuals and families supported by research and real-world implementation examples.
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While we continue our recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States is facing an increasing mental health and substance use crisis. Overdoses and deaths of despair are at record highs while the mental health of our adolescents and young adults continues to decline. Substance use can be the “answer” when it comes to anxiety, depression, paranoia, boredom, weight management, etc., and it seemingly works — at least in the short-run. Over time, it can lead to not only worsening mental health but also a substance use disorder. Learn more about co-occurring disorders, their prevalence, and the importance of integrated care.
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The community reinforcement and family training (CRAFT) approach has been extensively studied as a family intervention in the substance use disorder field for over 40 years. CRAFT has evolved from a purely behavioral based intervention, where women with adult children were its primary participants, to group modalities with different populations and individuals diagnosed with specific substance use disorders. CRAFT recognizes that individuals with problematic substance use are often not ready to engage in treatment, and utilizes the motivation of family members or significant others, (referred to as concerned significant others- CSOs”) through skills obtainment, to increase the likelihood of treatment engagement by their loved one/significant other. In addition to skills enhancement of CSOs, CRAFT, also, focuses on the well-being of CSOs as a mechanism of self-change observed by the loved one/significant other. While observing and experiencing changes in how CSOs interact with them, this may serve as an impetus for change within the loved one/significant other and encourage, promote, or result in treatment engagement. This training will provide a conceptual and foundational framework of the CRAFT approach. Historical development of the approach will be discussed respective to the model’s contemporary utility. Specific CRAFT interventions will be explored and applied via the use of case scenarios. Training participants will practice the use of CRAFT interventions in dyadic and small group settings and provided with constructive feedback.
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Substance use during pregnancy and postpartum has increased in recent years and is a primary risk factor for child abuse and neglect and removal by the child welfare system. While many people are able to reduce their substance use during pregnancy, more than half relapse during the early postpartum period. Less than 20% of women who need substance use treatment receive it, and this gap is greatest for low-income minority women. Pregnant people and new mothers often conceal their substance use and do not seek treatment or other support from formal systems of care due to stigma and fear of child removal. Mothers of color are particularly unlikely to seek help from traditional systems of care due to longstanding racial discrimination. There is an urgent need for innovative new approaches for reaching pregnant and postpartum people of color to offer needed support for substance use in ways that are respectful, empowering, and culturally-sensitive. Use of technology to deliver evidence-based brief interventions for maternal substance use has potential to meet this need. This presentation will discuss key challenges to addressing substance use in the perinatal period, barriers to care for this population, and the intersecting roles of the different systems involved in addressing substance use in pregnancy and the postpartum period. Finally, we will discuss the benefits of digital interventions for reducing gaps in care for this population, and present some case examples from Partnership to End Addiction’s work in this area.
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