Parents’ perspectives on using a Family Medication Safety Plan designed to promote appropriate opioid prescription practices with adolescents

Abstract

BackgroundResearch has underscored the vulnerability of adolescents to opioid misuse, creating a call to action for researchers and practitioners to identify ways to reduce the youths’ risk of opioid misuse. Although strategies have previously been proposed, few studies have targeted and designed interventions for adolescents and their families. The Family Medication Safety Plan (FMSP) was developed to provide families with a tool to encourage early education and conversation and promote safe use of prescription opioid medications in their homes. ObjectivesThis study aimed to understand parent perceptions of using the FMSP for potential opioid prescriptions and identify opportunities for widespread application and improvement. MethodsParents living in the United States with access to a webcam-enabled computer were recruited via social media, e-mail listservs, snowball sampling, and Qualtrics research panels. Parents were given the FMSP and asked to complete the worksheet with their child aged 12-18 years. Parents were then scheduled for a 30-minute, semistructured interview to elicit feedback. Interviews were transcribed verbatim by professional transcriptionists before being uploaded to NVivo for thematic and content analysis. ResultsParents (N = 59) were interviewed and had positive impressions of using the FMSP in their homes. Prevalent themes identified included how the FMSP format could be modified and how the parents would use it in their family. Many participants identified ways in which different health care providers could be used as a resource to make the FMSP more accessible and useful for their family unit. ConclusionParents indicated that the FMSP was a beneficial tool for integration and evaluation of safe medication practices in homes. Participants suggested that this tool was most valuable when used for the specific needs of each family, indicating that modifying the FMSP to make it in a more flexible format such that it may improve uptake.