NASW Practice Snapshot:
Parental Substance Abuse and Child Welfare

Office of Social Work Specialty Practice

As reported in the October 2003 NASW Child Welfare Practice Update, one of the most significant problems facing the child welfare system is parental substance abuse. It is estimated that 80 percent of children in out-of-home placements are there due to parental substance abuse problems (DHHS, 2000).

Focusing on alcohol abuse, it has reported that up to 66 percent of children raised by alcoholic parents were physically abused or witnessed family violence, and 26 percent of the children had been sexually abused (Hayes & Emshoff, 1993). Physical or sexual abuse was reported to occur regularly in one-third of alcoholic homes.

Given the scope of this issue, social workers serving this population may look to programs that have shown promise in helping these families. One such program is the Miami , Florida Dependency Drug Court, which has instituted a comprehensive approach to providing services to substance abusing parents involved in child protective services, recognizing that these families often have different needs from others in the child welfare system.

The interdisciplinary plan to help the whole family includes a parenting program, intensive case management and monitoring, communication across systems facilitated by a drug court caseworker, a high level of involvement on the part of the judge, and continual assessment.

The Miami program, seen as a promising evidence-based parenting program working with substance abusing parents, has identified the following essential components for developing an effective parenting program for substance abusing families:

• Choice of Partner: Select a community agency with experience in serving families affected by substance abuse to provide parenting training.
• Parenting Curriculum: Base curriculum on the needs of the targeted population.
• Staff: Train staff in diversity, substance abuse, mental health issues, and behavioral issues. In addition, provide child care for children with behavioral or emotional problems.
• Group Size : Restrict groups to eight to ten families, culturally diverse in makeup, to allow for exposure to different cultural norms for parenting and more openness to new parenting practices.

Additional information is available through the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges at www.ncjfcj.org/publications/

Resources

 

Hayes, H. R. & Emshoff, J. G. (1993). Substance abuse and family violence. In R. L.Hampton, T. P. Gullotta, G. R. Adams, E. H. Potter III & R. P. Weissberg (Eds.), Family violence: Prevention and treatment, Issues in children's and families' Lives ( Vol.1),. Newbury Park , CA : Sage Publications.

National Association of Social Workers. (2003). Child welfare practice update: ASFA and substance abuse: Understanding the issues impacting two systems of care. Washington , DC : NASW.

 

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2000). Rethinking child welfare under the adoption and safe families act of 1997: A resource guide [Online]. Available at: http://www.cwresource.org/Online%20publications/ASFA%20Resource%20Guide.pdf

NASW, March 2005