New course series addresses addiction within the child welfare system

Substance abuse is the biggest issue effecting child welfare today. Some California counties estimate as many as 85 to 90 percent of the families involved with the child welfare system (child protective services) are also struggling with drug or alcohol addiction. The reality is that most children in foster care today are there because their parents are addicted…and this addition has led to abuse, neglect and/or the dangers of children living in unsafe homes often with meth labs. The problem is bigger than most of us want to admit.

Beginning this fall, UC Davis Extension's The Center for Human Services will offer a new series of one-day seminars for child welfare social workers on substance abuse awareness, treatment and recovery options. Offered in both Davis and Redding, the five-seminar series will teach social workers how to provide better support to their clients in need of treatment for drug and/or alcohol abuse.

The first two sessions will examine current trends of drug use and its impact on children and families. For example, in Recognizing Drug Abuse in the Home: A Survival Guide, participants will learn from a former undercover narcotics agent and national expert on drug abuse detection and meth lab identification. The session will prove particularly valuable to social workers who make home visits because they will be armed with the knowledge and tools to better identify drug use and manufacturing in the homes they visit.

The last three sessions in the series will highlight treatment strategies for specific groups, including women and adolescents. The focus of these seminars will illustrate that a "one size fits all" approach to substance abuse treatment and recovery is not effective. Historically, addiction research and treatment have been focused on men and have ignored the issues and experiences that typically lead women and youth to addiction. This part of the series will help social workers understand how substance abuse, trauma and mental health are often interrelated with women and adolescents, and thus need to be addressed with an integrated response.

According to Susan Brooks, director of The Center for Human Services' Northern California Training Academy, the new series grew out of a children's summit held last fall for the welfare directors of California's northern counties. "The summit addressed the lack of AOD [alcohol and other drug] resources in northern California, especially rural counties which struggle to find and allocate scarce resources," Brooks explained. "The summit also examined a collaborative approach to enable the child welfare system to provide appropriate services to families in need. That's what this new series is all about."

The series Supporting Child Welfare Clients in AOD Treatment and Recovery expects to draw participants from throughout Northern California—with the objective of enabling and empowering social workers to improve the lives of the many families they serve.

For more information, visit the Center's Web site at www.humanservices.ucdavis.edu/academy.