Familias Unidas: A lifeline for our youth

Familias Unidas is a family-centered, evidence-based intervention aimed at preventing and reducing substance abuse and risky sexual behaviors in Hispanic adolescents, a significant public health problem in this community.  The intervention is delivered through parent group sessions and family visits in which parents develop skills to improve family functioning. Since 2001, this public health intervention has shown to be efficacious across three randomized controlled trials.  An effectiveness study in half of all middle schools in Miami-Dade County, Florida is currently ongoing. The intervention was selected as a focal topic for a University of Miami (UM) public health documentary filmmaking class. Familias Unidas : A Lifeline for our Youth is the final product. The goal of the film was to increase awareness and support of the intervention for wide-scale implementation and dissemination throughout the Miami-Dade County Public School system. The target audience consists of school board members, counselors, teachers and parents. The film describes the intervention’s success from a public health standpoint through interviews with research team members and through personal experiences of intervention facilitators and previous study participants. Throughout the development process, students held meetings with study team members to discuss film content and direction to ensure fidelity to the science behind the intervention. In addition, fellow students and instructors critiqued narrative flow and technical details. The film has been screened in public health classes and various events in UM’s Department of Public Health Sciences. It is currently being used as the foundation for another film. Usually, public health researchers and professionals are the few privy to evidence-based prevention programs. Translating scientific information to an accessible and appealing medium such as film could be a powerful tool to increase awareness among lay audiences and garner support from key decision-makers around the prevention of substance abuse and risky sexual behavior.