Using the Family First Act to Help Families With Substance Use Disorders

Chil­dren and Fam­i­ly Futures (CFF) and the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion recent­ly part­nered to host a webi­nar: Imple­ment­ing the Sub­stance Use Dis­or­der Pro­vi­sions of the Fam­i­ly First Pre­ven­tion Ser­vices Act.

The webi­nar high­lights CFF’s recent­ly released resource, Imple­ment­ing the Sub­stance Use Dis­or­der Pro­vi­sions of the Fam­i­ly First Pre­ven­tion Ser­vices Act: A Toolk­it for Child Wel­fare and Treat­ment Stake­hold­ers. The toolk­it is designed to guide state child wel­fare and sub­stance use dis­or­der (SUD) lead­ers in using the SUD-focused pro­vi­sions of the Fam­i­ly First Pre­ven­tion Ser­vices Act (Fam­i­ly First) to help families.

The webi­nar focused on the following:

• Fam­i­ly First’s SUD provisions;
• Oppor­tu­ni­ties to imple­ment the law to ben­e­fit fam­i­lies affect­ed by SUDs; and
• The impor­tance of col­lab­o­ra­tion to effec­tive­ly imple­ment Fam­i­ly First.

Webi­nar pan­elists included:

• Sarah Mor­ris-Comp­ton, senior asso­ciate, the Casey Foundation
• Nan­cy Young, exec­u­tive direc­tor, Chil­dren and Fam­i­ly Futures
• Rebec­ca Robuck, pol­i­cy direc­tor, ChildFocus
• Heather D’Onofrio, research ana­lyst, Nation­al Asso­ci­a­tion of State Alco­hol and Drug Abuse Directors
• Melanie Whit­ter, direc­tor of research and pro­gram appli­ca­tions, Nation­al Asso­ci­a­tion of State Alco­hol and Drug Abuse Directors

Learn more about Fam­i­ly First

• Sup­port­ing Kin­ship Care­givers Through the Fam­i­ly First Pre­ven­tion Ser­vices Act
• New Tool Kit Helps Lead­ers Com­mu­ni­cate the Ben­e­fits of Fam­i­ly First Law
• Fam­i­ly First Pre­ven­tion Ser­vices Act Will Change the Lives of Chil­dren in Fos­ter Care
• Webi­nar: Three Fis­cal Ele­ments for Using the Fam­i­ly First Act