Transcript Taplin

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%.
Child Prote ction Re ports by prim ary re porte d is s ue s
2004-05 & 2005-06
58,758
64,916
Domestic Violence
Neglect
32,018
35,116
Physical abuse
31,286
34,755
19,230
22,487
Drug/alcohol use of carer
Carer: mental issues
16,919
17,631
Sexual abuse
16,668
17,355
16,597
20,864
Psychological abuse
5,691
6,865
Runaw ay child
Carer: other issues
4,620
6,161
Suicide risk f or child
3,729
3,657
Child inappropriate sexual behaviour
3,513
3,776
Drug/Alcohol use by child or young person
3,052
3,472
Other
No risk of harm
938
109
3,367
3,839
2004-05
2005-06
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)
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Cannabis
Heroin
Meth/amphet
Cocaine
1993
1995
1998
2001
2004
2007
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
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Age
Gender
Family functioning
Socio-economic status & disadvantage
Mental health problems
Effectiveness of AOD treatment
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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
2.1
1.9
Parent caring for children (%)
39
64
Partner caring for children (%)
65
23
Relative caring for children (%)
9
34
Social services caring
for children (%)
2
12
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
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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?
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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
www.ancd.org.au
• National Drug Strategy
www.nationaldrugstrategy.gov.au
• National Drug Research Institute
www.ndri.curtin.edu.au
• National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre
www.ndarc.med.unsw.edu.au
Contact
Dr Stephanie Taplin *
National Drug & Alcohol Research Centre
University of NSW
Sydney NSW 2052
[email protected]
* Fellowship funding provided under a collaborative research scheme between
NSW DoCS and NDARC, UNSW.