Family Drug Treatment Courts

A further model of postnatal parent‐targeted services is the network of family/dependency courtsponsored drug treatment courts. The main goals of Family Treatment Drug Courts are to protect infants and children whose safety and welfare may be negatively impacted by substance‐abusing parents, to support and reinforce the family unit, to increase parental capacity to meet the physical and developmental needs of their infants, and to accelerate permanency for infants and children under the State’s care.

In October 2001, the Specialized Treatment and Recovery Services (STARS) program was created in Sacramento County, California, to assist parents in the child welfare system with substance abuse disorders. An integral part of the Sacramento County Drug Dependency Court (DDC), STARS also focuses on engaging fathers in intensive treatment and case management. Through identifying the obstacles in seeking drug treatment and by offering many support services, STARS is committed to increasing reunification rates for parents and their children. Initially, parents undergo a thorough intake process in which they are assessed for substance abuse during their Detention Hearing. Immediately thereafter, alcohol and drug treatment services are available, and parents are assigned to a Recovery Specialist.

Three main strategies of the STARS program are motivational interviewing, role modeling, and accountability. Motivational interviewing techniques integrate four key components that include showing empathy, supporting self‐efficacy, rolling with resistance, and developing discrepancy between thoughts, aspirations and personal behaviors that interfere with reaching their goals. Recovery Specialists play a critical role in helping parents to achieve program goals through their unyielding support, non‐judgmental attitude, continuous belief, and ability to relate through their own experience in recovery.

Since the program’s inception through 2006, 1,738 parents have participated in the DDC.

At 12‐month follow‐up:

  • If the parent graduated, 58.9% of the children were reunified;
  • If the parent received a 90‐day certificate, 42% of the children were reunified;
  • If the parent did not meet either landmark, only 15.6% of the children were reunified.

At 18‐month follow‐up:

  • If the parent graduated, 72.9% of the children were reunified;
  • If the parent received a 90‐day certificate, 52.3% of the children were reunified;
  • If the parent did not meet either landmark, only 18.7% of the children were reunified.

At 24‐month follow‐up:

  • If the parent graduated, 70.9% of the children were reunified;
  • If the parent received a 90‐day certificate, 49.9% of the children were reunified;
  • If the parent did not meet either landmark, only 17.9% of the children were reunified.

(The dip in reunification rates from 18–24 months is due to the re‐entries seen with the DDC cohorts.) (Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services, 2006; Boles & Young, 2007)