Exploring Parental Substance Use in the Child Welfare System: Early Mixed Methods Results and Lessons Learned

Allyson Dir, PhD, HSPP
Indiana University

ABSTRACT:
Parental substance use is a top reason for child welfare involvement and child removal. The  presentation will discuss results from qualitative data exploring parents' experiences navigating the child welfare system and substance use treatment as well as perspectives from child welfare personnel and community substance use providers on the facilitators and barriers to supporting families. Early preliminary results from administrative child welfare data exploring system assessment and monitoring of parental substance use and system decision-making will also be presented, with a focus on plans for future analysis and lessons learned.