 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
|
| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Laura Schmidt, PhD, Public Health Institute, Alcohol Research Group, 2000 Hearst Ave., Suite 300, Berkeley, CA 94079, 510.642.5208, lschmidt@arg.org, Denise Zabkiewicz, MPH, University of California, Berkeley, Department of Epidemiology, Public Health Institute, Alcohol Research Group, 2000 Hearst Ave., Suite 300, Berkeley, CA 94709, and James Wiley, PhD, San Francisco State University, 1600 Hollaway Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94132-4025.
Prior to welfare reform, substance abuse problems played dramatically different roles in welfare dependency within the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and General Assistance (GA) populations. The pre-reform AFDC program, replaced by Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF), made few demands on clients and did not focus much attention on substance abuse in its clientele. Our prior research showed that having an alcohol or drug problem had no bearing on how long a person remained on AFDC, or whether they left welfare for work. In stark contrast, in the GA program—where clients had to meet rigid work and administrative requirements to stay on aid—alcohol and drug problems were strong predictors of short welfare stays, repeat welfare dependency and revolving door service use. This analysis reexamines these relationships in light of welfare reform. Using first year follow-up data collected from a representative sample of TANF and GA applicants (n=718) in a large California county during 2001-2002, we examine the role of alcohol and drug problems (assessed at welfare application) on patterns of service utilization and reasons for leaving welfare. A guiding hypothesis is that, as the new reformed TANF program makes stricter demands on clients for work and program participation, alcohol and drug problems will emerge as predictors of unstable service careers and repeat welfare dependency, as it has in GA. This represents an important change from the pre-reform era when alcohol and drug use, abuse and dependence were not statistical predictors of welfare patterns or dependency among AFDC populations.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Substance Abuse, Welfare Reform
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.