Session: The Science behind Doing Interventions for Mothers with Substance Use Disorders and Their Young Children from the Perspective of Those That Are "Doing the Work" (Society for Social Work and Research 25th Annual Conference - Social Work Science for Social Change)

In 2017, 194,000 pregnant mothers reported using illicit substances, an increase of 8.5% from 6.3% in just one year (National Survey on Drug Use and Health). Mothers with substance use disorders (SUDs) face a variety of challenges, which make parenting difficult. Stigma, histories of trauma, stress, depression, insecure attachment and disrupted neurological reward systems contribute to harsh and insensitive parenting. Harsh and insensitive parenting can disrupt children's development with long-term consequences. Additionally, infants born in active withdrawal are irritable, and face increased difficulties feeding and sleeping. These co-occurring factors create challenges for parenting effectively, place children at greater risk for abuse and neglect and underline the importance of effective intervention.

This symposium includes scholars from four different institutions to explore the process and foci of conducting interventions for mothers with SUDs and their young children. These four papers inform social work professionals and researchers how to "do the work" while understanding the particular challenges of working with and/or conducting research with a vulnerable and stigmatized population - starting in pregnancy, through post-delivery, and at-home care. The goal of this symposium is to provide recommendations for best practices for social workers conducting research and developing interventions for caregivers with SUDs and their young children.

Paper 1 used ethnographic participant-observation and identified implementation barriers surrounding in-home substance use treatment programs for caregivers with SUDs. They found that intensive communication between service providers and CPS supported continued in-home treatment of caregivers with SUDs, preventing out-of-home placement. Paper 2 conducted in-depth phenomenological interviews with social workers to provide insight into how young mothers with SUDs can best be supported to prevent the maltreatment of young children. They brought attention to systematic level barriers, including mental/medical health services and the introduction of medical marijuana. Paper 3 included the perspective of nurse partners of a hospital-based intervention for mothers with SUDs and their newborns post-delivery while in the NICU. They found that babywearing resulted in increased infant well-being, stronger patient-nurse relationships, and subsequently, a higher quality of patient care. Paper 4 shares details of conducting research with a highly vulnerable population of pregnant/parenting women with SUDs in a randomized controlled trial of a therapeutic parenting intervention. Findings from baseline data highlight the importance of attending to trauma when trying to break the intergenerational cycle of insecure attachment.

The symposium provides insight for how social workers can more effectively conduct research and implement interventions that are sensitive to the needs of mothers with SUDs and their young children across ecological settings to improve maternal and child health outcomes nationally. This is even more necessary in the COVID-19 era where isolation further increased recovery challenges and stressful parent-child relationships in this population. In recognition of the 25th anniversary celebration of SSWR's annual conference, we discuss how research with and interventions for mothers with SUDs has resulted in significant social change and we call attention to where there is still more work to be done.