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Journal ArticleDOI

Collocation: Integrating Child Welfare and Substance Abuse Services

21 Feb 2009-Journal of Social Work Practice in The Addictions (Taylor & Francis Group)-Vol. 9, Iss: 1, pp 55-70
TL;DR: Findings suggest that clearly defined procedures and sufficient staffing of qualified substance abuse counselors could lead to better programs.
Abstract: This article presents findings from a process evaluation of a pilot program to address parental substance abuse in the child welfare system. By placing substance abuse counselors in a local child welfare office, the collocation program was designed to facilitate early identification, timely referral to treatment, and improved treatment engagement of substance-abusing parents. Frontline child welfare workers in 6 of the 7 pilot sites endorsed the program as they found that the collocated substance abuse counselors provided additional resources and facilitated case processing. Findings suggest that clearly defined procedures and sufficient staffing of qualified substance abuse counselors could lead to better programs.

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Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A review of empirical literature reveals improvements in service utilization and outcomes for women when substance abuse and child welfare services are integrated, and strategies developed provide useful guidelines for developing components of effective, evidence-based programs for substance-involved women in the child welfare system.

97 citations


Cites background from "Collocation: Integrating Child Welf..."

  • ...Whereas collocation initiatives are still early in an evaluation process, initial evaluation findings suggest that the approach can lead to increased understanding among child welfare and substance abuse staff, improved relationships among service providers, and better coordination of services for clients (Lee et al., 2009; McAlpine et al., 2001)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Preliminary outcomes from a pilot study of Multisystemic Therapy-Building Stronger Families support the viability of a more rigorous (i.e., randomized) evaluation of the MST-BSF model.

59 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Analysis of data from a national, longitudinal study of families involved with the U.S. child welfare system suggests that child welfare agency collaboration with schools has a significant effect on children's use of both school-based and outpatient mental health services.
Abstract: This article uses data from a national, longitudinal study of families involved with the U.S. child welfare system to examine how collaboration between local child welfare agencies, schools, and co...

31 citations


Cites background from "Collocation: Integrating Child Welf..."

  • ...Co-location of staff ensures that staff in different agencies are operating in the same physical space, which inherently provides staff with increased opportunities for communication and can help reduce service fragmentation (Ginsburg, 2008; Lee et al, 2009)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Sobriety Treatment and Recovery Teams (START) as discussed by the authors is an integrated model that pairs child protective service workers with family mentors and partners with treatment providers, and the results support START as an effective integrated program.
Abstract: Families with child maltreatment and parental substance use disorders are a growing population with complex needs. The Sobriety Treatment and Recovery Teams (START) is an integrated model that pairs child protective service workers with family mentors and partners with treatment providers. This is a prospective naturalistic evaluation comparing rates of adult sobriety and child placement in state custody using provider-collected data merged with state administrative data sets. All families in the served and comparison groups had equal risks to child safety. Mothers achieved sobriety at 1.8 times the rate of typical treatment; children were placed in state custody at half the rate expected. These results support START as an effective integrated program.

31 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore factors that facilitate or impede collaboration in a Canadian context and highlight the importance of examining cross-system collaboration specific to regional policy contexts, such as British Columbia's harm reduction approach to substance use and addiction.
Abstract: The aim of this study was to explore factors that facilitate or impede collaboration in a Canadian context. Qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 24 managers and direct service staff from substance use treatment and the child welfare fields in different regions of a Canadian province. Findings underscore the importance of examining cross-system collaboration specific to regional policy contexts, such as British Columbia's harm reduction approach to substance use and addiction. At the same time, many of the barriers and driving forces for collaboration found in this study echo the experiences of other countries.

23 citations

References
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Book
01 Jan 1984

1,831 citations


"Collocation: Integrating Child Welf..." refers methods in this paper

  • ...Substance abuse specialists are trained to utilize empirically based techniques, such as the transtheoretical model of change (Prochaska & DiClemente, 1984; Prochaska & Norcross, 1999) and motivational interviewing (Miller & Rollnick, 2002), a process of engagement that is designed to overcome…...

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors examined some methodological issues associated with the use and analysis of focus groups in social science research and argued that what distinguishes this methodology from other methods is the interactions which take place within focus groups, and that this should be reflected in analysis of the data.
Abstract: The paper examines some methodological issues associated with the use and analysis of focus groups in social science research. It is argued that what distinguishes this methodology from other methods is the interactions which take place within focus groups, and that this should be reflected in analysis of the data. Interactive features considered here include individuals dominating within the groups, constructing the Other, tendencies towards normative discourses, and conflicts and arguments within focus groups. These are considered in relation to examples from a study of young adults' expectations of the future, and their orientations towards work and family. Possible moderator strategies and analysis approaches which take account of the interactions are discussed.

904 citations


"Collocation: Integrating Child Welf..." refers background in this paper

  • ...Focus groups include the tendency for certain types of socially acceptable opinions to emerge and for certain types of participants to dominate the research process (Smithson, 2000)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors synthesize the main literature in the field to consider the critical elements for effective collaborative endeavors at this level including predisposing factors, mandate, leadership, machinery, process, and outcomes and concludes that the drive towards integrated services is occurring in a climate of continuing change.

240 citations


"Collocation: Integrating Child Welf..." refers background in this paper

  • ...Need for Collaboration Between the Two Systems To address the challenges associated with substance abuse in child welfare, strategies for integrating substance abuse treatment and child welfare services have gained increased popularity (Horwath & Morrison, 2007; Ryan et al., 2006)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Estimates of the overlap between populations, including the number of infants born each year with prenatal substance exposure, are provided; and important opportunities to close the data gap between the systems are suggested.
Abstract: There are relatively few empirically sound studies or nationally representative data on the number of children in Child Welfare Services (CWS) who are affected by their parents' substance abuse or dependence. The two systems that could systematically monitor this population, CWS and substance abuse treatment, are not required to capture the data elements that would identify families in both systems. The studies that are based on CWS populations or parents in treatment indicate that there is a substantial overlap in client populations. This review provides a summary of the available data; provides estimates of the overlap between populations, including the number of infants born each year with prenatal substance exposure; and suggests important opportunities to close the data gap between the systems. The findings underscore both the need for obtaining accurate data within the systems and the opportunities for states to improve their cross-system data efforts as part of their outcome monitoring.

221 citations

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Findings suggest that clearly defined procedures and sufficient staffing of qualified substance abuse counselors could lead to better programs.