An interventional study of Relational Health Enhanced Parenting Support (RHEP) implementation bundle and First Steps Together in Substance Use Disorders (SUDs), sponsored by Baystate Medical Center. Not yet recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-08-20.
Sponsored by Baystate Medical Center · Not applicable, Interventional, and Supportive care
The goal of this clinical trial is to evaluate the effectiveness and implementation of Relational Health Enhanced Parenting Support (RHEP), an implementation strategy designed to improve delivery of evidence-based parenting support within family-focused peer recovery support services (PRSS), for parents with substance use disorders (SUDs) receiving services through the FIRST Steps Together (FST) home visiting program. The main questions it aims to answer are:
Researchers will compare FST alone to FST plus RHEP to determine whether RHEP enhances parenting support delivery and improves parent and recovery outcomes.
Participants will:
Peer recovery support specialists participating in the study will:
This study evaluates Relational Health Enhanced Parenting Support (RHEP), an implementation strategy designed to strengthen delivery of evidence-based parenting support within family-focused peer recovery support services (PRSS) for families affected by substance use disorders (SUDs). Parents with SUDs often experience challenges in the parent-child relationship that can negatively affect both recovery and child well-being. Although family-focused PRSS models are increasingly used to support families affected by SUDs, peer recovery support specialists may face barriers to integrating parenting support into routine service delivery.
RHEP was developed to address these barriers through a multilevel implementation approach that includes workforce training, consultation, and site-level implementation planning. The study is conducted in partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health through FIRST Steps Together (FST), a statewide home visiting program that uses a family-focused PRSS model.
Using a hybrid type 2 effectiveness-implementation design, the study will examine both the effectiveness of RHEP-enhanced services and the implementation processes required to support adoption across six FST sites. A stepped-wedge cluster randomized design will allow each site to transition from FST alone to FST plus RHEP during the study period. Data collected from participating parents and peer recovery support specialists will be used to evaluate intervention effectiveness, implementation outcomes, and factors that influence successful integration of parenting support within peer-led recovery services. Findings will inform future dissemination of parenting support strategies across peer-led, community-based models of care.
2,238 studies on the registry are indexed under Substance-Related Disorders; 409 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 288 is above the median of 108 across 1,840 interventional studies indexed under Substance-Related Disorders.
Browse Substance-Related Disorders studies →Baystate Medical Center is the lead sponsor of 48 studies on the registry; 8 are open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Exclusion criteria:
-Parents who are actively suicidal or homicidal or not able to give because of severe cognitive impairments or psychosis
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Informed consent
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Relational Health Enhanced Parenting Support (RHEP) + FIRST Steps Together (FST)
Other: Relational Health Enhanced Parenting Support (RHEP) implementation bundle
FIRST Steps Together alone
Behavioral: First Steps Together
Relational Health Enhanced Parenting support (RHEP) is an implementation bundle to promote more effective delivery of evidence-based parenting services within the PRSS model. It encompasses three primary implementation strategies: 1) Mirror training, 2) reflective consultation, 3) implementation blueprint. RHEP is delivered at the agency level for all FST staff with the intent to shift practice towards a more strengths-based, process-oriented, relational approach to enhance reflection within organizations and between peers and parents.
FIRST (Families in Recovery SupporT) Steps Together (FST) is centered on the Peer Recovery Support Service (PRSS) model and involves service delivery by people with lived SUD experience combined with specialized training. PRSS can employ case management, patient navigation, mentoring, or public health education strategies to assist with the unique needs of parents with SUDs in connecting to care, navigating child welfare systems, and preventing future substance misuse and overdose. By virtue of their lived experience, peers may serve as critical liaisons or ambassadors between systems of care and clients. FST further combines evidence-based parent home visiting with peer-led recovery supports to provide flexible, trauma-informed, community-based outreach and care. Mental health clinicians are affiliated with each site.
Parenting Related Factors
A composite of five parent measures including: Closeness to Child - Inclusion of Other in Self Scale (Parent Version); Parenting Satisfaction - Kansas Parenting Scale; Competence in Parenting Role - Parenting Sense of Competence; Positive Emotion - Positive And Negative Affect Scale (Positive Affect Scale) Parent Emotion Regulation - Parent Emotion Regulation Inventory-2
Time frame: Baseline, 1, 3, and 6 months
Child Protective Service Involvement
Child Protective Service (CPS) involvement assessed using the CPS Involvement Scale, a 4-item self-report measure developed for this study to evaluate participants' involvement with child protective services. Higher scores indicate greater CPS involvement.
Time frame: Baseline, 1, 3 and 6 months
Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Treatment Retention
A composite of three parent measures including: SUD Service Engagement - SUD treatment Service Log (type, count); SUD Service Retention - Duration in FST (days); Desire to Continue Services - Service Engagement Survey
Time frame: Baseline, 1, 3 and 6 months
Substance Use
The Timeline Followback (TLFB) is a method to assess recent drug use. It involves asking clients to retrospectively estimate their drug use 7 days to 2 years prior to the interview date. TLFB data can be scored in various ways to quantify different aspects of substance use - for this study, we are looking at whether participants have recent drug use or not.
Time frame: Baseline, 1, 3 and 6 months
Depression
Depressive symptoms will be assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), a 9-item self-report measure of depression symptom severity. Higher scores indicate greater depressive symptom severity.
Time frame: Baseline, 1, 3 and 6 months
Anxiety
Anxiety symptoms will be assessed using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), a 7-item self-report measure of anxiety symptom severity. Higher scores indicate greater anxiety symptom severity.
Time frame: Baseline, 1, 3 and 6 months
Plan to share: Yes — De-identified individual participant data (IPD) collected throughout the study will be shared, including demographic data, survey and assessment results, coded qualitative interview data, and implementation process measures from participating parents and peer recovery support specialists. Direct identifiers and other information that could reasonably identify participants will not be shared. Accompanying documentation, including study protocols, survey instruments, interview guides, fidelity measures, codebooks, procedure manuals, and data dictionaries, will also be made available. Data will be shared in accordance with the study Data Management and Sharing Plan and made publicly available through a HEAL-approved repository.
Data sharing details ↗ · www.motheringfromtheinsideout.org
Start is estimated for Oct 2026; primary completion for Sep 2029, 35 months later.
Of 814 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Substance-Related Disorders, half reached primary completion within 35 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 18 and three quarters within 53. This study's planned 35 months is close to that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 854 studies reached it within 34 months; a quarter within 17 and three quarters within 53.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
This study is not yet recruiting, as verified in Aug 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.
Sign in to followQuestions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.
Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.
Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.
Baystate Medical Center