Touchpoints for Addressing Substance Use Issues in Home Visiting

2017 - 2021

The goal of the Touchpoints for Addressing Substance Use Issues in Home Visiting project is to generate knowledge about how home visiting programs, including those funded through HRSA’s and ACF's Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program, engage and support families around prevention, treatment, and recovery from substance use issues. The project will identify evidence-informed practices for working with families, supporting frontline staff, and building collaborations with referral sources. The project will also identify gaps in knowledge on preventing or addressing substance use issues within the context of home visiting.

The project includes:

  • The development of an overarching conceptual model and a series of detailed models that reflect the pathways (i.e., touchpoints) through which home visiting programs can address substance use issues among families. To inform the models, the team will review relevant documentation and literature and engage stakeholders and expert consultants from home visiting, child welfare, substance use, mental health, and public health fields.
  • The development of design options for a range of studies that have the potential to inform a research agenda related to addressing substance use issues in the context of home visiting programs. The two study designs thus far include:
    • A pilot study to gather information on the feasibility of collecting and reporting on substance use screening and follow-up performance measures, the perceived usefulness of these measures for improving home visiting services, and the supports that state awardees and local agencies require to collect and report the measures.
    • A study to identify and evaluate specific components of home visitor professional development that can best equip home visitors to support families with substance use issues.
  • The project will produce reports, practitioner-friendly briefs, and other actionable resources to provide information for State, Territory, and Tribal MIECHV grantees and home visiting programs working to prevent, identify, and treat substance use problems and serving families dealing with substance use issues.

The project was awarded to Mathematica with subcontracts to Northwestern University and Institute for Health and Recovery.

This project is being led by the Administration for Children and Families in collaboration with the Health Resources and Services Administration.

Point(s) of contact: Nicole Denmark and Kathleen Dwyer.

Related Resources

Home visiting aims to support expectant parents and families with young children by offering them “resources and skills to raise children who are physically, socially, and emotionally healthy and ready to learn” (HRSA, 2019). Although the characteristics of the families served, and the service components delivered, vary by evidence-based home visiting model, problematic substance use is commonly one of the many outcome areas addressed by home visitors in the course of their engagement...

Home visiting aims to support expectant parents and families with young children by offering them “resources and skills to raise children who are physically, socially, and emotionally healthy and ready to learn” (HRSA, 2019). Although the characteristics of the families served, and the service components delivered, vary by evidence-based home visiting model, problematic substance use is commonly one of the many outcome areas addressed by home visitors in the course of their engagement...