Project Type(s):
Clinical Research

Many people love someone who uses substances in a harmful way and want to help that person. Family members and friends often are key supports in people seeking and staying engaged in treatment and services. At the same time, family members and friends feel like they lack the skills or support to help their loved one effectively. This may be especially true for opioid use disorder, where the strongest evidence for treatment is for medication for opioid use disorder, but families and friends don’t know how to help their loved ones access and stay on these life-saving medications.

Our study will talk with people who are getting medications to treat opioid use disorder and ask about the involvement of their family members and friends in their lives and recovery. We will reach out to these key supports to ask how they would want to do a group-based program to help them develop skills and knowledge to support their loved one’s care. These groups would be delivered by nurses with specialized training in opioid use disorder and treatment. Group content will be based on an existing, evidence-based treatment designed for family members and will help people understand the role of medications in treating opioid use disorder and teach skills to support their loved one.

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