Where lived experience and best practice meet!
BCAPOP’s Perinatal Substance Use (PSU) 101 Training combines professional expertise, lived experience, evidence-informed practice, and practical tools to strengthen support for pregnant, postpartum, and newly parenting people who use substances. Designed for professionals, peers, and community helpers, this training supports participants to build confidence, increase knowledge, and strengthen compassionate, relationship-based care.
Who Should Attend?
PSU 101 is designed for professionals, peers, and community members supporting perinatal populations.
What You Will Learn
Participants will explore practical approaches, tools, and strategies to strengthen support while increasing confidence and comfort in working with families affected by substance use.
Day One: Foundations of Perinatal Substance Use Care
Topics include:
✓ Language matters and reducing stigma
✓ Effects of substance use in pregnancy
✓ Withdrawal management in pregnancy
✓ Opioid Agonist Treatment (OAT)
✓ Chest/breastfeeding, substance use, and harm reduction
Day Two: Building Supportive Systems of Care
Topics include:
✓ Trauma-informed and culturally safer approaches
✓ Creating wrap-around supports and “building the village”
✓ Supporting transitions through healthcare, institutions, and child welfare systems
✓ Provincial resources and practical tools
✓ Reflection and closing discussion
Facilitator: Heather Cameron, RN, BScN
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Heather Cameron is honoured to live, work and play on the ancestral, traditional and unceded territory of the Secwépemc Nation.
Heather is a Registered Nurse with a Perinatal Specialty Certificate and has worked with pregnant and postpartum people since 2005. Her clinical experience includes labour and delivery, maternity care and withdrawal management, alongside extensive experience in program development, education, community engagement and systems change.
As Executive Director of BC Association of Pregnancy Outreach Programs (BCAPOP), Heather works to strengthen supports for pregnant and postpartum people and the professionals who serve them across British Columbia. She has led the development of innovative initiatives including Mothers for Recovery, a peer-based recovery support program for parents affected by substance use disorder, and the Healthy Care Pregnancy Program, developed to improve care for perinatal people who use substances.
Heather is also the creator of BCAPOP's Perinatal Substance Use Training, which she has delivered since 2007 to audiences throughout British Columbia, across Canada and beyond. Her work is grounded in bringing people, organizations and systems together to create practical and meaningful change for pregnant and postpartum people and their families.
Registration Fees:
BCAPOP Members: $375.00
Non-members: $450.00
Groups of 5 or more? Contact admin@bcapop.ca for group pricing.
This workshop will NOT be recorded to ensure the privacy of attendees. Registration is non-refundable, however tickets are transferrable.
