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Assessment of Children, Youth, and Families Affected by Substance Abuse
According to the National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare (2007), child welfare workers and others who have direct contact with adults or adolescents involved with the child welfare system are in a critical position to identify substance use issues that may impact parenting and child and family safety and well-being. When substance abuse is not already evident, the answer to the question, "Is there a substance use issue?" is arrived at through a variety of sources, such as observations in the home or information gathered from neighbors or other family members. For cases in which the worker is unsure whether substance use is a problem, screening or the use of a standardized set of questions is recommended.
Once a substance use issue has been identified through screening, further assessment may be needed to determine the nature, extent, and impact of the substance use. The assessment process is longer and more detailed than screening, and it requires more experience and expertise. Assessment in both substance abuse and child welfare systems is a cumulative process of gathering and weighing information from several sources, including results from screening tools, reports from service providers, and information provided by family members themselves.
Use the following resources to learn more about screening and assessment with families affected by substance abuse.
Drug Testing in Child Welfare: Practice and Policy Considerations. | |
Author(s): | National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare., United States. Children's Bureau., United States. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. Young |
Availability: | Download (PDF - 904KB) Order (Free) - Add to Cart |
Year Published: | 2010 - 49 pages |
The purpose of this paper is to guide child welfare agency policymakers in developing practice and policy protocols regarding the use of drug testing in child welfare practice. This guidance describes the practice and policy issues that policymakers must address to include drug testing in the comprehensive assessment and monitoring that child welfare agencies provide. The paper focuses primarily on drug testing of parents who come to the attention of child welfare agencies and courts through reports of child abuse or neglect. However, court practices and policies might use testing in other child welfare contexts. For example, drug testing might ... |
Screening and Assessment for Family Engagement, Retention and Recovery (SAFERR) | |
Author(s): | National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare., United States. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Young, Nakashian, Yeh, Amatetti |
Availability: | Download (PDF - 3,510KB) Order (Free) - Add to Cart |
Year Published: | 2007 - 318 pages |
This guidebook presents the SAFERR (Screening and Assessment for Family Engagement , Retention, and Recovery) model for helping staff of public and private agencies to families affected by substance use disorders. SAFERR was developed in response to frequent requests from managers of child welfare agencies for a "tool" that caseworkers could use to screen parents for potential substance use disorders in order to make decisions about children's safety. (Author abstract, modified) |