Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

Rates of substance use are on the rise for women in Canada and, for some, will lead to problematic patterns of substance use that impact on their physical and mental health, economic well-being, and relationships. Most women in substance use treatment are mothers. Motherhood is a key role as it can be a motivating force to change substance use behaviour yet at the time hinder engagement in treatment due to barriers such as stigma, fear of child welfare, and lack of childcare. In recognition of this, Ontario has developed 34 integrated programs for mothers with problematic substance use and their young children (0-6 years). These programs treat maternal substance use while holistically supporting mental and physical health, housing/food security, interactions with child welfare, and parenting. While our meta-analytic findings support the effectiveness of these programs for decreasing substance use and mental health challenge, parenting is less commonly researched and there are few evidence-based parenting interventions that address the multiple risks that lead to parenting challenges in the context of problematic substance use. Our recent evaluation of Ontario's integrated programs similarly confirmed an absence of tailored, evidence-based parenting interventions. Given our established program of research with Ontario's integrated programs, our expert team is uniquely positioned to develop a multi-site program of parenting intervention research that will increase access to and further develop the evidence-base of parenting interventions for this population. This has the potential to improve the quality of care provided to Canadian women, improving the health and well-being of both women and their children. With this planning grant, we will create a new branch of our existing team who will identify the parenting interventions to implement and develop an agenda for a strong program of system-engaged community-based research to address this critical gap in service.