Mental health articles

substance abuse treatment interventio Parenting Interventions in Substance Abuse Treatment
A woman’s relationship with her children and her identity as a mother play a vital role in her sense of self. Many women view parenting as the central purpose in their lives (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration 2000). Improving parenting improves outcomes for mother and child. Evidence shows that effective parenting skills may also improve the mother’s self-esteem and sense of competence. By improving
parenting skills through comprehensive treatment, the risks to children of women with substance use disorders can be minimized. In a review of studies with female substance abusers who were pregnant and/or parenting and receiving parenting treatment in addition to substance use counseling, Niccols et al. found that integrated treatment programs helped women to strengthen bonds with their children, use more positive discipline techniques, and gain influences into intergenerational
influences on parenting.
A number of substance abuse programs incorporate parenting interventions into treatment. The Strengthening Families Program  is a 12–14 session behavioral and cognitive skills training program originally designed to reduce vulnerability to drug abuse in 6–12 year old children of substance abusing parents, which has now been modified to include 10–14 year olds. The program consists of parent training, which focuses on limit-setting, developmental characteristics of children, conflict management and sharing expectations about using substances,
children’s skills training, and family skills training. It has been shown to be effective in several populations, including children of substance users, abused and neglected children, and low-income urban minority families .
The Nurturing Program for Families in Substance Abuse Treatment and Recovery is a parent training program developed for pregnant
and parenting women in substance abuse treatment. In the initial part of this project, pregnant and parenting women with substance use disorders received specialized individual and group services including a structured parenting skills group based on the curriculum of The Nurturing Program for Parents of Children Birth to Five years old for two and a half hour weekly sessions over 23 weeks. Interventions focused on
improving parenting skills and reducing the risk of child maltreatment . Findings showed that women who completed the skills training
made improvements in self-esteem and parenting skills. The program was later modified to become the Nurturing Program for Families in Substance Abuse Treatment and Recovery. The curriculum was expanded to include information about the recovery process and parenting development, as well as intergenerational patterns of substance abuse and child maltreatment, and has been implemented in multiple substance
abuse treatment programs.
An additional program which incorporates parenting skills into substance abuse treatment is the Relational Psychotherapy Mother’s Group (RPMG), a 24-week manualized treatment that was introduced in methadone maintenance as a supplement to treatment for heroin-addicted mothers and their children. RPMG uses an interpersonal psychotherapy model to address deficits in parenting, focusing on specific issues such as conflict resolution, limit setting, and effective parenting style through modeling effective parenting and communication. In a randomized treatment trial the 37 heroin-addicted mothers assigned to RPMG showed greater child involvement and greater reductions in opioid use as well as more positive psychosocial adjustment than women who
received methadone and drug counseling alone. This suggests that addressing the psychological and interpersonal issues of substance abusing women can have substantial beneficial influence on their substance use.

Women, especially those who are pregnant or parenting, have unique characteristics of substance use which demand treatment to meet their specialized needs.
Recognition of these distinct features is vital to establishing effective treatment systems and an essential feature of the recovery process. Several components of treatment have been shown to correlate with improved outcomes: (1) child care, (2) prenatal care, (3) women-only programs, (4) supplemental services and workshops for women, (5) mental health treatment, and (6) comprehensive programming. With appropriate interventions, mothers with substance use
disorders are able to not only achieve abstinence from alcohol and drugs of abuse, but can demonstrate improved mental health, increased socioeconomic functioning, and more effective parenting. Though some programs offer comprehensive services that incorporate these areas, there is still a great need for development and empirical study in this area.ns

Tags: interventions, substance abuse