A Multifamily Group Curriculum for Family Members of Individuals with Substance Use Disorders: Updates, Perceptions, and Outcomes

ABSTRACT

Substance use disorders (SUDS) are highly prevalent chronic health conditions that have dire impacts on the health and wellbeing of not only the individual with an SUD, but on their family members as well. This is important as the family is often one of the most important support groups for an individual seeking recovery from an SUD. The present study provides an update regarding a previously published and implemented multifamily group curriculum (MFGC) for family members of those with an SUD. More specifically, changes to the curriculum are highlighted, and results from data analyses on important factors associated with individual and family member recovery are shared and discussed. There is evidence of this updated MFGC continuing to be an effective intervention for family members with a loved-one seeking recovery from an SUD; however, greater and more long-term support for family members is still needed. Additionally, results of this study showed that change in important factors associated with family member wellbeing and family recovery is associated with relapse status of the loved-one seeking recovery from a SUD at a follow-up time point.

KEYWORDS:

• Substance use disorder
• family
• recovery
• multifamily group
• curriculum
• addiction

Authors’ contributions

All authors contributed in some way to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Spencer Bradshaw, Sterling Shumway, and Mazie Zielinski. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Mazie Zielinski, Carissa D’Aniello, Sterling Shumway, and Thomas Kimball. Kristy Soloski along with all authors, contributed to and approved previous versions as well as the final manuscript.

Availability of data and material

Data can be made available upon request

Code availability

Code/Scripting can be made available upon request

Consent to participate

This study involved human participants and informed consent was obtained from participants.

Consent for publication

This work is original and has not been published elsewhere, nor is it currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. If accepted, the authors provide their consent for publication in the Journal of Mental Health and Addictions.

Ethics approval

This study involved human participants and was approved by an institutional review board.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The authors did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work.