The Family Check-Up Online: Development of an asynchronous training program for providers to enhance wide-scale dissemination

Project Summary/Abstract Substance abuse is rising due to multiple factors, with over 20 million adults seeking treatment for substance use disorders (SUD) every year. Increasing rates of substance abuse, depression, and anxiety during COVID- 19 coupled with reduced access to mental health care have culminated in a critical need for evidence-based, telehealth interventions to support families and reduce digital inequities in treatment delivery for populations at high risk. Research suggests a developmental pathway to SUD that includes problem behavior in early childhood and disrupted family relationships that lead to deficits in self-regulation and risk behavior during adolescence and adulthood. This pathway to SUD’s can be disrupted through effective prevention. In response to this critical need, we have developed the Family Check-Up Online (FCU Online), a digital, web-based application designed to support parents and children in the development of parenting skills and reduction of stress and other risk factors associated with a range of long-term outcomes, including substance abuse. In the proposed application, we will develop and test an asynchronous, online training program for health care providers that will lead to large-scale dissemination of the FCU Online model in community settings. We will develop the product with a series of interviews that will guide the development and content of the training modules. We will then test the training program with 20 providers who will give feedback on the feasilbity and acceptability of the training model in real-world settings. Our team includes experts in implementation and dissemination, evidence-based interventions for at-risk families, business development and marketing, and product development. Letters of support from primary care and community health providers demonstrate our strong partnerships that will facilitate this research. The study will significantly contribute to our understanding of mobile ehealth interventions for families and children at risk of SUD to reduce digital inequities and barriers to delivery of evidence-based interventions in community settings.