Through federally- and foundation-funded projects, Children and Family Futures provides training and technical assistance on the topic of opioid use disorders and medication-assisted treatment, with particular emphasis on strengthening collaboration and linkages across child welfare, substance use disorder treatment, medical providers, and early child care and education systems. Through the National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare contract, we provide long-term technical assistance to state efforts to strengthen the capacity of states and local jurisdictions to improve the safety, health, and well-being of pregnant and postpartum women with opioid use disorders and their infants with prenatal substance exposure, family, and other caregivers.

As the rate of opioid misuse and dependence has escalated across communities, hospitals have also seen increases of infants born with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome and substance use disorder treatment systems are reporting increases in the number of individuals seeking treatment for opioid use disorders. Child welfare agencies cannot be charged with the sole responsibility of responding to prenatal substance exposure and infants who are affected by prenatal substance use, just as treatment systems cannot be charged with the sole responsibility of responding to meet the treatment needs of pregnant and postpartum women with opioid and other substance use disorders. Children and Family Futures facilitates the implementation of multi-system collaborative approaches to improve early identification of opioid use disorders and engagement into treatment.