Family-Focused Prevention and Early Intervention of Substance Use in Pediatric Primary Care Settings

Prevention of substance misuse and substance use disorders is a national public health priority. The home environment can represent risk or protective factors for development of substance misuse. Children in homes with caregiver substance use are biologically, developmentally, interpersonally, and environmentally vulnerable to substance misuse and associated consequences, making it necessary for substance use prevention to focus on families early. Children and families who are minoritized, marginalized, and disenfranchised experience disproportionate consequences of substance use, through experiences of poverty, racism, trauma, and the built environment. Strengthening protective factors in early childhood by improving the health of caregivers and supporting the caregiver-child relationship can have enduring benefits over the life course. Pediatric primary care practices are an important setting for adopting a family-focused approach to prevention and early intervention of substance use. By engaging families early, identifying substance use in the family and household, recognizing the intersection of social needs and substance use, providing culturally tailored, trauma-informed, evidence-based care, and advising and supporting families on ways to minimize substance-related harm, pediatric care providers can play an important role in preventing substance use and substance-related consequences to children and families. Pediatric care providers are ideally suited to deliver prevention messages in a nonstigmatizing manner and serve as a conduit to evidence-based, family-focused intervention programs.