Improving Service Utilization for Parents with Substance Abuse Problems: Experimenting with Recovery Coaches in Child Welfare

Abstract

Substance abusers often face substantial systematic and personal barriers to receiving required substance abuse treatment services as well as other services; hence, various linkage mechanisms have been proposed for drug abuse treatment programs to overcome such barriers. Although there is a growing interest in the use of case management with a substance abuse background, its effectiveness in child welfare has yet to be explored. In this study the author attempts to investigate the effectiveness of case management in service utilization by systematically evaluating the five-year Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse (AODA) waiver demonstration project with Recovery Coaches in Illinois. A classic experimental design with a control group was used. Random assignment occurs at the agency level. Parents in the experimental group (N = 1562) received recovery coaches in addition to traditional child welfare services while parents in the control group (N = 598) only received traditional child welfare services. Bivariate and multivariate analyses (Ordinary Last Square regressions) were used. Compared to parents in the control group, parents in the experimental group were more likely to utilize substance abuse treatment. The results suggest that gender, education level, employment status, and the number of service needs were significantly associated with service utilization. Controlling other factors, recovery coaches improved overall service utilization. Because the outcome of child welfare often depends on the improvement of risks or resolution, it is important for parents to utilize the needed services. Future studies need to address what aspects of recovery coaches facilitate the services utilization.

Keywords::

• Parents with substance abuse problems
• child welfare
• case management
• service utilization

Acknowledgments

This research was completed with support from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and the Children and Family Research Center at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Notes

¹ Service log data that collected quarterly by caseworkers, recovery coaches, and AODA service providers.

² Recovery coaches help ensure that the DCFS service plan, the AODA agency's treatment plan and other requirements are coordinated. In addition, recovery coaches conduct independent clinical assessment not only for substance abuse but also a wide range of services needs (clinical assessment) and then prioritize plans (service planning). To achieve successful, recovery coaches provide continual and aggressive outreach efforts including home visiting (outreach) for parents to access to services and re-engage parents in treatment when necessary (case management). Recovery coaches also identify other resources and help them to obtain it (advocacy).