Integrative Seminar Assignment Analysis

The next article that was reviewed was focused on a service that is provided for parents struggling with substance abuse. The service is called Family Drug Court and is also referred to as FDC. The FDC is a child welfare court that specifically deals with parental substance abuse cases. This court system helps the parents quickly receive drug treatment that is needed, offers a more structured system for the parents and child, and also holds the parents to higher accountability for recovery. According to Margaret Lloyd, "Testa and Smith (2009) rigorously reviewed the literature and found that substance abuse is reported in 11-14% of investigated child welfare cases and in 50-79% of cases where the child is removed and placed in out-of-home care." The goal of the FDC is to

Establishing positive parenting skills within the community will assist the parents in gaining new alternatives to their current practices. “Often we get the same families that are repeat offenders or they never really learn their ways of parenting are not acceptable” (Ruiz, 2015). Providing the “Strong Families” curriculum will reduce the number of children that are

Growing up with substance abuse parents can potentially put the children at risk for developmental deficiencies. Parents who are substance dependent are oftentimes focus on themselves over their children, and this leads to neglecting the children. Without the attachment with the parents, children are lack of security and trust to explore the outside world. According to Erik Erikson, children develop at different stage. Infants are totally dependent on their parents. If parents provide the good care and support to the children, they will develop the basic trust to their parents and the world, otherwise, they will feel insecure and develop mistrust instead. This mistrust may cause problems later in life. As children begin to grow and navigate the challenges of adolescence, parental substance abuse has a direct impact on their well-being, as well as their behavior. Teenagers are eager to seek their identities. Yet, growing up with mistrust, inferiority, and shame

Mother needs to gain an understanding of how substance use affects her ability to parent. Father needs to support mother’s recovery, as well as cooperate with the department. The family’s strengths are their support system and ability to work diligently as a family. Mother has a natural nurturing trait to her baby and the parents have a strong bond tied to their daughter. Parents and foster parent (grandmother) have worked very well with the department. Grandmother has maintained excellent boundaries and has reported to us weekly on how well visits have been. Parents have been very cooperative and both parents receive two drug screens weekly. The department asked that father received weekly drug screens as well, even though father has no drug issue to our knowledge he still cooperated with the department.

The need for FDTC in Northern California was to decriminalize women with children who use drugs, and also when needed to provide parents or guardians parenting education (Somervell, Saylor & Mao, 2005). According to Worcel, Furrer, Green, Burrus, & Finigan, 2008, for many years, child welfare has had problems providing effective services to families with substance abuse issues and as a result those families have the lowest probability of reunifying with their

It was never my intention to work with addicted clients, but nearly every family therapy course I have taken has, either overtly or covertly, stressed the need to understand addictions. While I understand the concept on a cognitive level, I had judgements about the type of people that become addicted and did not feel compelled to work with them, until my niece died. Her drug addiction deeply affected all members of her immediate family. Her parents and her step-dad, my brother, each reacted to my niece’s addiction in different ways but none were successful and the family began to fail under the stress.

The majority of children living in a dysfunctional family with a drug addicted parent will not develop a secure attachment with another individual, where the relationship revolves around intimacy and mutual understanding. Parents who are codependent on each other have learned to regard the dysfunction as normal, and their children could be susceptible to numerous scenarios. They could become the target of their parent’s abuse, either sexual or physical. The children of codependent parents could easily gain access to drugs or alcohol since no one is paying attention to the child. The codependent parents are preoccupied with the alcoholic or drug addicted parent, and they might never bother to realize their child is in grave danger. The codependent parent’s children might never recover fully from the trauma, abuse, or neglect inflicted on them. In addition, the children learn to become adults who repeat the vicious cycle of domestic violence or abuse themselves. Children of codependent parent might grow resilient despite

The exposure to substance abuse can occur in the early stages of childhood, according to research at least 10% of newborns are exposed to the abuse (Gruber & Taylor, 2006). Research shows that there is correlation between substance abuse and both child neglect and maltreatment (Mendoza, 2013). Not only does substance abuse dull the parent’s ability to adequately care for their child, but it can lead to problems such as violence, neglect, and physical abuse in the family home (Crosson-Tower, 2013). According to Crosson-Tower (2013) 12% of the children live with a parent or guardian who abuses drugs or alcohol. The issue of dependency on drugs and alcohol has continued to increase in adults, adolescents, and even children (Crosson-Tower, 2013).

This program was geared towards helping the children of incarcerated individuals as well as giving parents time with their kids. The project involved a twelve week course put together by the Oregon Social Learning Center (OSLC) and DOC teaching people effective parenting from zero to adulthood. Their goal was to get the parents to see their role in their children’s lives. Once the course is completed, parents get to see their kids and a therapist will provide feedback if necessary (DOC n.d.). As mentioned previously, the goal of the program is to improve relationships between incarcerated parents and their children. In the long run, they hope that the good relationship will help influence the kids to stay out of

Surratt in the article, “Gender-Specific Issues in the Treatment of Drug-Involved Women” talks about how women biologically react to drug different and how they often connect treatment recovery and motherhood together (Surratt, p. 349). Surratt suggests that women become addicted to drug much more quickly than men (Surratt, p. 349). However, most treatment does no not focus on women’s recover and the unique forms of treatment they may need for recovery (Surratt, p. 350). Often women feel more guilt than men when battling drug addiction because women are more harshly judged for drug use, especially when she is pregnant or has children (Surratt, p. 351). Surratt looks at the treatment program at Florida State called “The Village”, which has treatment program called Families in Transition for mothers battling addiction and their children under the age of 12 years old (Surratt, p. 352). This allows for the children to live with their mothers while they are receiving treatment (Surratt, p. 352). The author held interviews with some women in the program and almost all attributed treatment with becoming a good mother for their children (Surratt, p. 353). Many of the women who were battling with addiction had family members who were addicts or had some form of childhood or domestic abuse (Surratt, p. 355). Treatment for these women needs to be more complex than your typical user because they have many layers of issues to over come. This program did not include the

To begin with, I have now spent almost all of my 2017 Fall Semester writing about my practicum experiences that I have acquired from my appointed agency, Center for Addiction and Recovery Studies (CARS) and have established my integrative assignment around the dads parenting classes. The parenting classes that are offered at CARS are constructed around the evidenced-based curriculum, Nurturing Skills for Families – which was part of the intervention phase and discussed in the preceding sections, and also recognized as, The New Connections Parenting/Drug Psychoeducational Program. Now that I have established my integrative seminar assignment, I will be explaining how I approached the intervention phase and how I evaluated the agencies parenting classes, specifically, the dads. However, before I start to explain the ending

and interview with Mr. Martinez was not only an enjoyable experience, but informative as well. Program planning was demonstrated with real world applications. I was able to gather enough information to conclude my ideas on the pros and cons of the agency. Perhaps most importantly, some avenues of career opportunities were demonstrated with a Health Promotion degree in the substance abuse field. Since I closed my Three Quarter Way House in Miami in late 1997 and drifted away from the recovery community, I have had a longing to be involved again. This has formed part of my reason for continuing my educational pursuits. Mr. Martinez and his staff were generous with their time, interaction, and advice. On Mr. Martinez’s advice, I plan to pursue to become a Certified Peer Support Specialist to compliment my degree. Also, I plan to attend the Burke County Substance Abuse Network breakfast with Mr. Martinez on the last Friday of the month. This assignment proved to be a most valuable

Family therapy and education – Education and training for family members to help them in understanding addiction and learning how to live with an addict.

At our time touring CeDAR, we were introduced to the CeDAR Family Program. This week-long program allows for the family members of an individual undergoing substance abuse treatment to learn about addiction and how to better deal with their loved one’s illness. They are also given tools for their own coping and recovery. According to the CeDAR website “research shows participation in our addiction family support program helps increase overall recovery rates” (Family Services: CeDAR, 2016, paragraph 4).

Addicted parents spend a significant amount of time searching for drugs or alcohol and must spend time to obtain money to pay for their “fixes” whether by illegal or legal means. They have to have time to recover from hangovers or withdrawal symptoms. This constant cycle of obtaining, using and coming down from drugs leaves little time left over for their children. Social systems are overwhelmed by the number of children which need care from someone other than their addicted parents. Approximately, eighty percent of the children who enter foster care come from homes of addicted parents (Taylor 2011). Their stay in foster care is lengthened by the need for their parents to meet judicial rehabilitation requirements before being returned to their homes. In addition, these children having come from non-supportive and abusive environments require foster parents who are able to cope with issues of behavioral