Key Takeaways
Extended Takeaways
- This sample reported a pronounced implementation gap: 95.19% considered family support services critical for SUD care and 91.35% thought they should be included in treatment plans, yet 73.08% rarely refer, suggesting that positive attitudes alone are not translating into routine referral behavior.
- Clinicians may overestimate their readiness to use family-based approaches; 63.64% were neutral or disagreed that they felt confident incorporating family support into SUD plans, and 76.92% said introducing these services may bring new challenges to treatment dynamics.
- Family engagement opportunities appear underused even in high-SUD-contact settings: 44.23% of respondents saw patients with SUD daily and 49.04% a few times per week, but only 25.96% engaged with families frequently while 50% did so only occasionally.
- Perceived evidence for family support was not uniform across providers, with 72.12% agreeing that there is adequate evidence; this leaves a sizable minority unconvinced and may help explain low referral rates despite broad endorsement of family involvement.
- Differences by specialty were large enough to affect implementation priorities: psychiatry clinicians were more likely than internal medicine clinicians to endorse reduced relapse (87.04% vs 42%, P<.001), trust the evidence base (87.04% vs 56%, P<.001), and feel able to integrate family support (59.26% vs 12%, P<.001).
