Mental health articles

Substance Abuse and Child Placement Many children who are placed outside of their home by the child welfare system come from biological parents who abuse drugs. Additionally, these children are disproportionately likely to stay in substitute care .Increasingly, placement with relatives, also known as relative foster care, kinship care, relative family care, or home-of-relative care, has become more commonplace. Studies show that children in kinship care typically remain longer than children placed in non-relative foster care .Relative foster care families also tend to get less supportive services than non-related foster care families. One study showed no differences in the quality of caregiving behaviors provided by the biological substance abusing mother in treatment compared with relative caregivers, although the quality was below optimal in both groups. This finding is concerning given that the quality of early caregiving has been linked to long-term developmental outcomes especially among biologically high-risk children such as those born with prenatal exposure to alcohol and illicit drugs. Several characteristics of addicted mothers correlated with foster care placement of their children. The severity of their addiction was highly correlated with child placement .It was also found that children whose mothers had a history of sexual abuse in childhood, or ongoing abuse, were more likely to get placement, although maternal physical abuse as a child or adult without sexual abuse was not a factor.Women with co-occurring mental health disorders are more likely to drop out of substance abuse treatment programs, and dropout of treatment negatively correlates with reunification of the child with the parent.Those mothers who are able to have more treatment and mental health service needs met during their treatment program, and are able to stabilize their lives as defined by longer periods of abstinence, secure housing, higher income, and social support, had higher rates of reunification with their children.

Tags: Substance Abuse and Child Placement