Direct practice with substance abusing mothers in the child welfare system: A system perspective

Abstract

This paper explores the needs and related issues of substance abusing mothers in the child welfare system. Using a framework and through literature review, issues at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels are pinpointed. Six guidelines, incorporating these identified issues, are developed to help practitioners better engage and more effectively work with their clients: (1) treating mothers and children as one unit, (2) providing gender, mother role, and cultural sensitive practice, (3) offering life-skills training, (4) mobilizing old and facilitating new, nonusing support systems, (5) devising safety plans for children, and (6) organizing an interdisciplinary team and assuming the leadership.

The impact of foster care and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) on women's drug treatment outcomes

“…Several studies indicate that better drug recovery outcomes are achieved when women receive more services, in addition to drug treatment services (Ashley, Marsden, & Brady 2003;Smith, 2002;Sun, 2000). However, voluntary and involuntary services may differ in their overall benefit.…”

“…Similarly, in the welfare arena, one study examined the relationship between TANF recipients' history of substance abuse and their employment functioning (Gorske, Larkby, Daley, Yenerall, & Morrow, 2006). While the well-being of children and having employment are certainly important, less is known about how having a child in foster care and TANF work requirements affect women's recovery process.Several studies indicate that better drug recovery outcomes are achieved when women receive more services, in addition to drug treatment services (Ashley, Marsden, & Brady 2003; Smith, 2002;Sun, 2000). However, voluntary and involuntary services may differ in their overall benefit.…”

Applying a complex systems perspective to alcohol consumption and the prevention of alcohol‐related harms in the 21st century: a scoping review

“…The studies we identified conceptualized, described or modelled systems of interest to alcohol-harm prevention research primarily in the United States (n = 38) [22,23,29,, Australia (n = 17) [28,31,[77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91] and the United Kingdom (n = 7) [26,[92][93][94][95][96][97]. We also found examples of generic alcohol systems (n = 16) [24,93,[98][99][100][101][102][103][104][105][106][107][108][109][110][111], as well as examples from Sweden (n = 2) [112,113], South Africa (n = 2) [114,115], Canada (n = 1) [116], Denmark (n = 1)…”

“…Other studies explored the influence of the environments in which alcohol is regulated, sold and consumed, including characteristics and density of alcohol retailing outlets [28,42,43,45,47,51,57,66,68,70,71,77,78,80,82,83,87,95,103,108,112,116], transportation policies and regulation [47,70,71,84,91,108,109] and multi-national commercial interests and practices that seek to influence regulation, social norms and drinking environments [24,93,121]. Finally, a small group of studies looked at the development and practices of the alcohol work-force [86,94,102,106].…”

“…Table 3 gives a description of the theories and their application in this literature. Twelve studies reported being informed by systems theory [57,71,80,85,102,106,108,109,112,113,117,118], which authors also referred to as systems thinking, a systems perspective or a systems approach. Systems theory was used to either inform prevention approaches or to analyze interventions from a systems perspective.…”