There is much at stake when parents in early opiate recovery welcome a new baby into their home. Parents are often strongly motivated to maintain recovery and be excellent parents. For the infants, successful support can mean early upstream Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) prevention.

Pediatricians working with young children and families affected by opioid use often encounter challenges when initiating successful and sustainable practices in coordinating care for postpartum people with opioid use disorder (OUD), and infants diagnosed with neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS). This course aims to support community pediatricians and their teams in implementing recovery-friendly approaches and environments within the patient- and family-centered medical home framework.

This course is organized in 3 units.

 Unit 1: Benefits of Coordinated Care

Upon completion of Unit 1, you will be able to:

• Explain the potential positive health outcomes of a strength-based trauma informed approach  for infants with NOWS and birth parents with or recovering from OUD.
• Describe the racial and ethnic disparities in care for newborns and infants exposed to prenatal opioids.

Unit 2: The Pediatric Medical Home

Upon completion of Unit 2, you will be able to:

• Outline the components of a recovery friendly pediatric practice and how they integrate within the pediatric medical home.
• Highlight the disproportionate involvement of children of color in the child welfare system and the role of racism within the medical system contributing to these disparities.

Unit 3: Multidisciplinary Pediatric and Adult Care

Upon completion of Unit 3, you will be able to

• Describe practical strategies for collaboration of multidisciplinary pediatric and adult provider teams to facilitate access to quality, comprehensive, and continuous care.
• Describe the disparities in opioid use disorder treatment for pregnant and postpartum women of color.