Community-Based Track
There is much at stake when those with opioid use disorder (OUD) welcome a new infant into their home. This is a time when birth parents with OUD are often strongly motivated to seek and maintain recovery and provide a safe and nurturing environment for their child(ren). Receiving social support and addiction and recovery services is essential to the well-being of the entire family. Additionally, timely and adequate education about care for infants with NOWS supports active participation from parents and primary caregivers.
Community-based pediatricians may encounter challenges within their communities in initiating successful and sustainable practices for coordinating care for parent-infant dyads with prenatal opioid exposure. This course aims to support community-based pediatricians and their teams in implementing recovery-friendly approaches and care that is focused on patients and families, as well as providing targeted developmental surveillance for children exposed prenatally to opioids.
It is important to acknowledge that not all people that become pregnant identify as women, and that it is challenging to use clear, inclusive language to describe all parents. While it is critical to continue to explore the varying landscape of parenthood and family structures, throughout this course, we will use the terms birth parent and mother to describe people that experienced a pregnancy and gave birth to a child.
Community-Based Track Goals and Objectives
This course track content focuses on the care provided to infants and families after being discharged from the delivery hospital through the infants’ third birthday. The content for community-based pediatricians aims to provide skills to:
- Understand the course for developing, updating and documenting in the patient chart of a plan of safe/supportive care for the infant and the birth parent.
- Identify and address family concerns related to caring for infants exposed to opioids prenatally, including providing appropriate anticipatory guidance to families on caring for their infants.
- Assess families for social drivers of health and behavioral, social, and emotional health, and create appropriate plans to address identified needs.
- Provide appropriate developmental surveillance, screening, and follow-up care for patients with prenatal exposure.
- Assess and address the needs for pediatric subspeciality care, including screening and follow-up care for vision and hearing concerns.
- Assess and address birth parents and primary caregivers needs for ongoing OUD treatment, such as, medication treatment for OUD (MOUD), addiction treatment, supportive recovery services, and mental and emotional health care needs.
The focus of this course is improvement on 2 key clinical activities (KCAs):
- Family Support and Engagement
- Child Developmental Surveillance
Family Support and Engagement
Infants exposed to opioids prenatally will have the most positive health outcomes when the parents are healthy and are involved in caring for their newborn right from the start. Pediatricians play an essential role in supporting birth parents and caregivers during recovery and ensuring they receive education related to infant care as well as access the health services they need to achieve the family health and recovery goals. Understanding the family’s history, behavioral and mental health needs, and social drivers of health position practices to create plans to meet the needs of the family members. Positive visit experiences for your families evolve from a welcoming, stigma-free, nonjudgmental, supportive, and culturally inclusive environment, free of any conscious or unconscious bias.
Child Developmental Surveillance
Children who have been exposed prenatally to opioids or other substances are at increased risk for developmental alterations, behavioral issues, and health concerns and thus require more frequent surveillance, screening, and follow-up. Pediatricians can coordinate follow-up care, health services, specialist referrals, and early intervention through the medical home.