Collaborative Approaches to Child Welfare Involved Families with Substance Use Disorders

Literature reveals many detrimental effects on child-welfare involved families that have untreated substance use disorders. As child welfare involved families have complex needs and are commonly faced with numerous barriers, a coordinated effort between systems is required. In 2012, a well established collaboration of 8 family-serving agencies was awarded a Regional Partnership Grant (RPG) through the US Department of Health and Human Services. The program is designed to enhance collaborative community efforts toward court-involved child-welfare families where at least one parent is identified as having a substance use disorder. The RPG program, named STARS, provides families with expedited linkages into alcohol or other drug (AOD) treatment and related services including several evidence based practices. Parents involved with Summit County Children’s Services (SCCS) have routinely refused or have not engaged in AOD services. As a main partner in this collaboration, SCPH provides a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor that administers in-home AOD assessments for the purpose of identifying substance use disorders for all court-involved families reported for abuse or neglect. SCPH provides a program coordinator to facilitate the collaboration between the participating agencies and assist with coordination of AOD services for involved families. An outreach specialist is provided to advocate and help reduce barriers that are frequently encountered by families. This team of professionals provided by SCPH plays an integral role in the day-to-day implementation of STARS. This session will highlight the innovative approaches used by SCPH to expedite and engage STARS families into substance use treatment and services.