Opioid use disorder (OUD) prevalence and morbidity rates have reached unprecedented levels among adolescents and young adults. Recovery support services (RSS) for persons with SUDs typically focus on the individual client after acute care. But for youth with SUDs, developmental theory underscores the primacy of family-level risk and protective factors, and family-based interventions have the strongest empirical support.

Study overview

There is an alarming scarcity of research, clinical resources, and generalizable metrics focused on family-based RSS for youth with OUD. The Family Involvement in Recovery Support and Treatment (FIRST) Research Network will be a sustainable network designed to develop and evaluate innovative family-based RSS across the youth OUD services cascade. FIRST will conduct research on promoting family integration in youth OUD services to increase service engagement and engender supportive family environments for youth recovery. It will launch with two specific areas of focus:

• Innovations in family RSS interventions and metrics to assist youth OUD providers with integrating families in OUD services
• Innovations in measurement of direct-to-family RSS for families of youth with OUD

This 5-year project is leveraging the expertise of a multi-stakeholder advisory board to:

• Establish FIRST network infrastructure and sustainability pathways for advancing family-based RSS research for youth OUD
• Generate new provider resources and metrics for family integration in youth OUD care
• Generate new metrics for remote-access family-focused OUD recovery resources

At project end, FIRST will maintain a sustainable network of family-based RSS research activities, provider training and measurement resources and mentoring.

Study partners

• Brown University
• Boston Children’s Hospital
• SHSU
• Maryland Treatment Centers

Publications

Hogue, A., Becker, S.J., Fishman, M., Henderson, C.E., & Levy, S. (2020). Youth OUD treatment during and after COVID: Increasing family involvement across the services continuum. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 120, 108159