NFD Accomplishments to Date
The NFD has worked as a coalition and networking group. The NFD has contributed to the field by providing educational webinars to family members, partners, grantees, and SAMHSA staff. Currently we are continuing to connect substance abuse family members to other family members through individual contact, monthly calls and web-based communication mechanisms. The NFD has also is developed family–professional partnerships to help sustain, improve, and expand access to the youth substance abuse treatment systems. These activities have been supported by a subcontract from SAMHSA for providing technical assistance activities to substance abuse treatment programs that have received SAMHSA grants, and the populations they serve. Family members have been engaged, equipped, and mobilized to advocate for improving inadequate systems and sustaining effective treatment system practices, programs, and policies.
Infusing Family Focused Voice
- Representing the family voice within BRASS-TACS (Bringing Recovery Supports to Scale and Technical Assistance Center) at national summits and through webcast presentations
- Partnering with the to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network to bring substance abuse family involvment into the conversation
- Providing substance use disorder family voice within the System of Care
- Developed and implementing a work plan for the growth of the NFD
- Held 3 annual NFD Meetings
- NFD Co-chairs developed the first youth/family plenary for the 2012 Joint Meeting on Adolescent Treatment Effectiveness(JMATE)
- Assured that family members are on the planning committee for the annual 2012 CSAT Joint Meeting for Adolescent Treatment Effectiveness and developed the first family tract.
- Developed and disseminated the first family-focused report, “Families of Youth with Substance Use Disorders: A National Family Dialogue (June 2010)
- Assured that family members were on the planning committee for the annual CSAT Joint Meeting for Adolescent Treatment Effectiveness (JMATE) 2010
- Held the first National Family Dialogue Meeting in Washington DC in 2009
Public Education
- NFD acontributing to peer to peer Within BRASS-TACS (Bringing Recovery Supports to Scale and Technical Assistance Center) at national summits and through webcast presentations
- Educated on "Family Involvement" within the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) grantee programs, practice, and policy arena’s
- Published and distributed the NFD Brochure to a wide audience including our NFD listserve, NFD website page, NFD facebook page national organizations, and participants at Georgetown Institutes.
- Held several substance abuse educational webinars for families
- Holding Monthly NFD conference calls on various informative subjects, eg. trauma informed care, evidence baced practices
- Developed a second issue brief "Family Involvement in Child-Serving Systems and The Need for Cross-Systems Collaborations(August 2014)
- Completed an environmental scan to examine how many systems(ie. juvenile justice and children and youth) families intersect inlooking for treatment
- Completed input and recommendations regarding Health and Human Services Federal Block Grant application thus securing the inclusion of, adolescents, family involvement, tribal consultation and a focus on the provision of recovery supports and services
- Collaborated with the ATTC and Faces and Voices of Recovery for the “In My Own Words” substance abuse family story contest
- Developed the first "Family Involvement in Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment" issue brief (2009)
Parent Support Peer to Peer
- NFD members collaborating with The Partnership for a Drug Free.org to bring the CRAFT program to peer to peer parent support
- 6 NFD members participated in the development of the National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health, Parent Support Providers credentialing process to ensure the family voice of youth with substance use disorders was represented in the credentialing process