Saturday, 15 January 2005 - 12:00 PM

This presentation is part of: Poster Session II

Predicting Treatment Completion for Substance Abusing Parents in Child Welfare

Purpose: Although the efficacy of substance abuse treatment has been supported, a significant number of substance abusing parents do not complete their treatments. Consequently, children experience longer stays in substitute care settings and parents experience an increased risk of the termination of parental rights. The purpose of this study was to determine factors of treatment completion for substance abusing women in child welfare.

Methods: This study examined pre-treatment characteristics as predictors of substance abuse treatment completion with 209 caretakers who are involved with public child welfare. Subsequent to temporary custody, parents received substance abuse services. More than 20 factors including sociodemographics, substance use, legal involvement, psychological functioning, previous treatment history, and social relations were examined for their potential relationship with treatment completion. Univatiate and logistic regression analyses were performed.

Findings: The findings revealed that only 31 caretakers (14. 8%) completed their treatment. The univariate analysis indicated that those who completed treatment had fewer medical problems, were less likely to experience violence, and higher rates of employment. The results of logistic regression analysis indicated that controlling for socio-demographic variables, previous treatment history, and medical problem were statistically significant predictors of treatment completion for substance abusing parents.

Implications: This study highlights the need for the continual development for the intake profiles for parents with high risk of future treatment dropouts. In addition, findings indicate that substance abuse treatment programs must develop interventions that are specifically tailored to meet the need for this at-risk population.

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