Empowering Support Persons to Enhance the Recovery Capital of Postpartum Women with Opioid Use Disorder

NIH RePORTER · DA · R61 · $448,565 · view on reporter.nih.gov ↗

Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract Opioid agonist treatment (OAT) is highly effective in preventing morbidity and mortality related to opioid use disorder (OUD), but long-term engagement is complicated by physical, social, and structural factors, especially for women. Postpartum women with OUD face the challenging transition from hospital care to the community, both for themselves and their newborns. Fear of judgment from healthcare providers may discourage women from asking for help or accessing necessary support services. The presence of supportive individuals—such as family or friends—can increase recovery capital; however, support people may require additional education and skills to effectively assist their loved ones, representing a critical gap in their ability to influence treatment outcomes. Theory-based, evidence-supported Patient Navigation (PN) interventions improve OAT engagement by addressing social, structural, and internal barriers (e.g. mistrust) using motivational techniques and providing tangible resources. This study aims to leverage the strengths of both PN and supportive family or friend involvement to enhance recovery capital and, secondarily, improve retention in community-based OAT. We hypothesize that training and engaging support persons will promote recovery capital by targeting social capital (by fostering stronger relationships), human capital (through increasing self-efficacy), and cultural capital (by promoting norms and values that support recovery). This project aligns with the objectives of RFA- DA-26-024, which emphasizes innovative strategies to improve care transitions and enhance recovery capital. The proposed study is a randomized controlled trial of a PN intervention called Supporting Treatment for Opioids and Recovery Capital (STORC) that blends PN with an added component designed to enhance recovery capital for postpartum women through additional training for chosen support persons. This intervention will provide patients with care c

Key facts

NIH application ID
11291681
Project number
1R61DA064704-01
Recipient
FRIENDS RESEARCH INSTITUTE, INC.
Principal Investigator
Karen Alexander; Sara L. Kornfield
Activity code
R61
Funding institute
DA
Fiscal year
2026
Award amount
$448,565
Award type
1
Project period
2026-04-01T00:00:00 → 2027-03-31T00:00:00