Grant: Project Grant

One in five Canadians currently meet the criteria for substance use disorder (SUD). Family members often play a key role in mitigating the negative effects of SUD, and at significant costs to their own health and well-being. Stigma among healthcare and other service providers toward SUD, as well as beliefs that family members are a root cause of trauma and enabling individuals, can render family members further in isolation as they try to manage care for their children. Supportive family relationships and strong social connections contribute to positive physical and mental health outcomes for persons with SUD. Our research team includes community members, clinicians and researchers with expertise in the areas of family caregiving, family peer support, mental health and SUD treatment, and public policy. This study will use a participatory approach to: 1) critically identify and analyze health laws related to privacy, consent and capacity, and harm to self/others, as well as public health policies with family caregivers; 2) engage with family caregivers to generate and analyze data that allow for the development of family-centred recommendations; 3) engage with community collaborators, persons with lived and living experience of SUD as well as healthcare providers in the refinement of recommendations and strategies for policy change; and 4) collaboratively disseminate findings through community-engagement strategies. The expected outcomes are to identify and analyze specific laws, policies and practices that affect families and work towards social change to better support family caregivers of persons with SUD.