SAMHSA's New Family Guide to Substance Use Care Is Now Available (and Worth Sharing with Your Clients)
When a loved one is struggling with mental health challenges, substance use, or co-occurring conditions, families are often thrust into a world that feels overwhelming, confusing, and isolating.
They want to help, but knowing where to start, who to call, and how to navigate behavioral health systems is rarely straightforward. Too often, families are left to figure it out on their own.
That is exactly the gap that SAMHSA's newly released guide aims to close.
Published in June 2026, Navigating Mental Health and Substance Use Care: An Introductory Guide for Families is a free publication from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) designed to help families understand behavioral health systems, access resources, and support a loved one across different life stages and circumstances.
The guide was developed with insights from more than sixty family representatives who convened in February 2025, representing a wide range of family-led organizations and family roles. That foundation gives the resource a depth and authenticity that sets it apart, reflecting the real experiences of real families, not just clinical or policy perspectives.
Key areas covered within the guide include:
- How to navigate mental health and substance use treatment systems.
- Strategies for family wellness and resilience.
- The value of peer support and family-led organizations.
- Crisis preparedness and what to do in moments of acute need.
- Recovery-focused approaches that support the whole family (not just the individual in treatment).
Importantly, the guide takes a whole family approach, recognizing that the experience of supporting a loved one shifts across different family roles and life stages. It's a resource designed to meet families where they are, whether they are just beginning to seek help or have been navigating these systems for years.
A Tool You Can Share Directly With Families
For the therapists, counselors, social workers, and behavioral health professionals in our community, this resource is more than a reference, but a tool you can share directly to the families you work to help and support. Whether you work with individuals navigating substance use, support families affected by a loved one's mental health challenges, or simply want a trusted, accessible resource to share with clients who are struggling to find their footing, this is a guide worth keeping in your toolkit.
It is also a reminder that our clients do not exist in isolation. Their families are part of the picture and equipping those families with knowledge, language, and a sense of direction can meaningfully extend the impact of the clinical work you do in the room.
Keep Learning With Impact CE
If this resource has sparked your interest in deepening your clinical knowledge around mental health and substance use care, Impact CE has a growing library of self-paced courses, live events, and recorded webinars on this very topic, many of which offer CE credits toward your licensure renewal.
Click the button below to explore our own resources on this topic, and beyond. ◼
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