Parental substance use, child protection and drug treatment services Dr Stephanie Taplin Professor Richard Mattick National Drug & Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW

Parental substance misuse in CP population Anecdotally, increasing reporting of parental substance misuse and referral to treatment Estimates of alcohol and other drug use amongst those reported to child protection services ranges from 20% to 80%. Most commonly around 50%.

Source: CIS & KiDS annual statistical extracts, Corporate Information Warehouse annual data. Produced by, DoCS Information and Reporting.

Is substance use increasing?

Drugs used recently (in the last 12 months) (NDSHS, 2008)

Is there increased substance misuse amongst parents?

Does substance use cause maltreatment? Associated with high rates of child maltreatment But causal relationship not established Most research does not take into account the other factors in substance-using families e.g. mental health problems, poverty Substance use may be a marker for these

Some common risk factors Age Gender Family functioning Socio-economic status & disadvantage Mental health problems

Effectiveness of AOD treatment Counselling Detoxification Residential rehabilitation Pharmacological treatments Australia’s first large scale examination of addiction treatment outcomes, the Australian Treatment Outcome Study (ATOS), has supported findings of positive outcomes from treatment, including decreased drug use (Teesson et al. 2003)

Pre-treatment childcare arrangements among parents (Stewart et al 2007) Men (n=340) Women (n=154) Mean number of children Parent caring for children (%) Partner caring for children (%)65 23 Relative caring for children (%) 9 34 Social services caring 2 12 for children (%)

Treatment programs for women Different needs More likely to have childcare responsibilities Concern over children’s welfare may encourage/discourage women to enter treatment Fear of having children removed Stigma Drug-using partners

Effectiveness of AOD treatment with CP population Contradictory evidence Little research with this population Low rates of treatment completion Losing custody of child may decrease motivation Those in treatment have higher re-report rates Better results if enter quickly & obtain services More research needed

How do we make treatment more effective with CP population? Good assessments Timely provision of services Working across sectors Providing comprehensive services Matching to treatment and additional services Specific services for women

Description of child protection & methadone study Aims Recruiting 200 women in methadone treatment in NSW who have children under 16 years 100 involved with DoCS and 100 not involved with DoCS Interviews with women and administrative record examination Key informant interviews Qualitative and quantitative data

Australian Resources Australian National Council on Drugs National Drug Strategy National Drug Research Institute National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre

Contact Dr Stephanie Taplin * National Drug & Alcohol Research Centre University of NSW Sydney NSW 2052 * Fellowship funding provided under a collaborative research scheme between NSW DoCS and NDARC, UNSW.