Friends Research Institute: Doing Right at Birth

Doing Right at Birth, a training program created by researchers at the Friends Research Institute and UCSF, is designed to educate clinicians and hospital staff about the harms that may result from reporting families affected by SUD to the child welfare system, often as the result of indiscriminate urine drug testing. The training covers the history of the child welfare system, its impact on families and early childhood development, and the ways in which urine drug tests are being misused or misinterpreted. “What we’re trying to do with the course is interrupt the test-and-report chain,” says Mishka Terplan, MD, MPH, Medical Director of the Friends Research Institute and co-principal investigator of the project. Terplan and Sarah Roberts, DrPH, from UCSF, who co-leads the project, also support a cohort of healthcare providers who have committed to pursuing changes in drug testing and reporting practices and policies within their own institutions, communities, and states, so they are aligned with individualized, patient-centered care.