 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
|
| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Marion Becker, RN, PhD, Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, Department of Mental Health, Law & Policy, University of South Florida, 13301 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., MHC 2735, Tampa, FL 33612-3899, (813)974-7188, becker@fmhi.usf.edu, Kathleen A. Dailey, MEd, Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, Policy & Services Research Data Center, University of South Florida, 13301 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., Tampa, FL 33612, Julienne Giard, MSW, Florida Mental Health Institute / Mental Health Law & Policy, University of South Florida, 13301 Bruce B. Downs Blvd, Tampa, FL 33612, and Sharon Slavin, Tri-County Human Services, 100 W. College Drive, Avon Park, FL 33825.
Objectives: This study examines parenting support needs of women in the Triad Project. Triad is one of nine sites in the SAMHSA funded Women, Co-Occurring Disorders and Violence Study designed to gain knowledge about needs of women with co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders who are survivors of physical and/or sexual abuse.
Methods: Data were from baseline interviews of 236 study participants. Data included demographics, custody status, as well as interactions with the criminal justice and child protective services systems. The study examined women’s physical health, mental health, substance abuse and trauma symptom status measured with the Brief Severity Inventory (BSI), the Addiction Severity Index (ASI) and the PTSD Symptom Scale (PSS). The report examines associations among women’s health, mental health, child custody status, and potential for child abuse as measured with the Child Abuse Potential (CAP) Inventory and mother’s level of parenting satisfaction, measured by the Therapy Attitude Inventory (TAI).
Results: Average age was 35.8 years. Participants were from diverse backgrounds and in general, were poor, poorly educated, underemployed and in poor health. Many women (48%) reported a serious physical illness or disability and 56% took psychiatric medication. On average women had 2 children under the age of 18. A full 41% of women had lost custody of all their children. The average CAP abuse score was 276, well above the cut-off of 215. Elevated CAP scores are associated with problems in parent-child interactions and risk factors that increase the likelihood of both current and future abuse.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Adult and Child Mental Health, Substance Abuse Treatment
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.