Resource Center

Substance Use Resources for Family Members

• CMC: Foundation for Change provides evidence-based tools to everyone who cares about a person struggling with substance use. Their practical, compassionate, and accessible approach for helping is called the Invitation to Change.
• Partnership to End Addiction is a non-profit organization dedicated to addiction prevention, treatment, and recovery. They offer personalized support and services such as free online support meetings for parents and caregivers of children experimenting with, or dependent on, substances.
• Helping Families Help is a site focused on a scientific approach called Community Reinforcement and Family Training (CRAFT) which as been shown to help almost 70% of families encourage their loved ones to start treatment. CRAFT also helps family members feel better about themselves, get their own life on track, and improve their relationship with their loved one.
• Books for Family Members
  • Beyond Addiction: How Science & Kindness Help People Change by Jeffrey Foote, PhD, Carrie Wilkens PhD, Nicole Kosanke PhD, and Stephanie Higgs gives families, friends, and loved ones hope that they can help someone they care about change their substance use.
  • The Beyond Addiction Workbook for Family & Friends by Jeffrey Foote, PhD, Kenneth Carpenter, PhD, and Carrie Wilkens, PhD, provides a thorough and compassionate guide through the Invitation to Change Approach, a model based in science and compassion.
  • Get Your Loved One Sober: Alternatives to Nagging, Pleading, and Threatening by Dr. Robert J. Meyers and Dr. Brenda L. Wolfe describes a multi-faceted program that uses supportive, non-confrontational methods to engage substance users into treatment called Community Reinforcement and Family Training (CRAFT).
• Mobile Apps and Podcasts for Family Members
  • Talk. They Hear You. is a mobile app that shows parents how to turn everyday situations into opportunities to talk with their children about alcohol and other drugs. The app equips family members with the necessary skills, confidence, and knowledge to start and continue these conversations as their kids get older.
  • Rethinking Rock Bottom is 6-part podcast exploring the complicated and often life-altering experience of loving someone struggling with substance use. Hosts Dr. Carrie Wilkens and Rev. Jan Brown provide ways to approach the helping process that are grounded in the latest science, while guests share how real change happens for a family and the community around them.

Substance Use Treatment Locators

• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration offers a confidential and anonymous resource for persons seeking treatment for mental and substance use disorders in the United States and its territories.
• Get Help Now is the Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Program hotline for information about substance use treatment resources. Calls are confidential and the hotline is staffed by trained professionals 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Call 1-800-662-4357.
• Shatterproof Treatment Atlas is a resource to help people find addiction treatment that will meet their needs.

Crisis Resources

• 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is a national network of local crisis centers that provides free and confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress. The hotline operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in the United States.
• Crisis Text Line provides free, 24/7, high-quality, text-based mental health support and crisis intervention by empowering a community of trained volunteers to support people in their moments of need.

Overdose Prevention and Harm Reduction

• NEXT Distro is an online and mail-based harm reduction service designed to reduce opioid overdose death, prevent injection-related disease transmission, and improve the lives of people who use drugs.
• Opioid Overdose Response Training is a brief 30-minute training, where participants learn what an opioid overdose is, how to recognize one, and how to save a life with naloxone.
• Never Use Alone provides toll-free national overdose prevention, detection, life-saving crisis response and medical intervention services for people who use drugs while alone. Never Use Alone’s peer operators are available 24-hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration provides information on medicine disposal and take-back locations. Medicine take-back options are the best way to safely dispose of unused or expired prescription and nonprescription medicines.

Substance Use Grief Support

• Grief Recovery After a Substance Passing (GRASP) was created to offer understanding, compassion, and support for those who have lost someone they love through addiction and overdose. Local meetings, book recommendations and tributes are featured on their website.
• Eluna provides support for children and families impacted by grief or addiction. Their innovative resources and programs address the critical needs of children experiencing powerful, overwhelming, and often confusing emotions associated with the death of someone close to them or substance abuse in their family.