Grant: Undergraduate Student Research Awards (USRA)

One in five Canadians will meet the criteria for substance use disorders (SUD). Although unclear, some research suggests that many persons with SUD live at home with their families. Family caregivers often play a key role in mitigating the negative effects of SUD and have been linked to positive effects such as decreased rates of hospitalization and initiating treatment for their children with SUD. And yet, they are often blamed as the source of trauma leading to SUD. This community-engagement study is in partnership with Families for Addiction Recovery (FAR), a community group that supports hundreds of family caregivers. Informed by Smith's work on critical feminist standpoint theory and Habermas' ideas about communicative action, this study will use participatory action research (PAR) methodologies to engage family caregivers of persons with SUD in the identification of problems that require attention and systemic change related to SUD, like health laws, public health policy and health services. Stage I will involve building a Participant Team with family caregivers and researchers. Using PAR principles, this stage will consider team roles and responsibilities and terms of reference. Stage II will include data collection with family caregivers (50-100 interviews) to identify texts (health laws, public health policies) that affect family caregivers and recommendations to better support families. Critical discourse analysis will be used to analyze texts through a family-centred lens. Stage III will comprise of collaborative knowledge mobilization and continued community engagement with family caregivers and community collaborators to strategize innovative policies and practices towards family-centred SUD health laws, public health policies and health services.