Creating Safe Pathways to Perinatal Care for People Using Substances: An Academic Community Partnership

About Session

Session Description: 

Perinatal substance use is a public health concern that has grown exponentially over the last decade. Recent data confirm the prevalence of illicit drug and alcohol use among pregnant people in Montana as 11.6% and 8.9%, respectively. Utilization of substances during pregnancy can result in multiple poor health outcomes for both pregnant people and their infants. Further complications arise through the lack of safe and trusted pathways to care, leading to decreased utilization of prenatal care and medication-assisted therapy. To address this issue, seven persons with lived experience of perinatal substance use and two spouses, representing seven family units, were recruited to engage in weekly focus group sessions over an eight-week period.

Group sessions prioritized individual experiences with healthcare, social work, and child welfare systems, allowing community members to provide their personal experiences with each entity. Major themes, including stigma, trust, punitive measures, and community support, were identified. Following the Engaging for Equity process and integrating focus group data, participants assisted the researchers in building a model of care intended to drive systemic change. Model creation followed a systematic approach to comprise four components of change: contexts, partnership processes, intervention and research, and outcomes. Structural changes supporting home-visit nursing, residential treatment facilities for families, and peer support were identified as potential facilitators to accessing perinatal care.

Learning Objectives: 

1. Identify key barriers to perinatal care for individuals and families impacted by substance use.
2. Describe the Engaging for Equity process and how focus groups with those with lived experiences led to the development of a care model.
3. Identify the major themes from focus groups and their implications for improving perinatal health outcomes.
4. Explain the components of the proposed model of care (context, partnership processes, intervention and research, outcomes) and how they support systemic change.