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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Mary E. Lutz, DSW, MPH, Quality Improvement, Risk Management, Staff Education, Greenwich House, Inc., 27 Barrow Street, New York, NY 10014, 212-242-4140 x228, mlutz@greenwichhouse.org, Roberta Shafter, LCSW, Childrens Safety Project, Greenwich House, Inc., 27 Barrow Street, New York, NY 10014, and Lolita Silva-Vazquez, MA, Methadone Maintenance Treatment Program, Greenwich House, Inc., 50B Cooper Square, MMTP, New York, NY 10003.

Raising a family is a formidable undertaking, and more so for parents in chemical dependency treatment. This report summarizes an evaluation after 3 years of one family training program for parents in treatment for substance abuse. The agency, Greenwich House, offers drug-free, outpatient, medically supervised and methadone treatment programs and adopted Karol Kumpfer's (NIDA) Strengthening Families Program to address needs of substance abusing parents and their children. Some modification of SFP was needed to meet Greenwich House requirements. Questionnaires that included standardized scales were distributed to parents pre- and post-completion of SFP for each training cycle. The drop out rate (25%) is comparable to what other sites reported. The evaluation revealed the program had only a slight association with improved confidence in parenting, with parent-child affective style, and discipline style. However, the parents reported a marked reduction in their use of alcohol (to intoxication) and marijuana was reduced up to 20% after the program. Hence, despite an unknown level of response bias, these parents were incorporating more socially acceptable values with the combination of the parenting program and traditional treatment. SFP is currently being widely used with both substance abusing and non-substance abusing parents in elementary schools, churches, housing communities, mental health centers, jails, homeless shelters, and protective services agencies. This evaluation of SFP concludes that as an adjunct to substance abuse treatment, SFP introduces parents to practical, developmentally appropriate tools and values that meet many of the challenges of childrearing for substance abusing parents.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participants will be able to

• describe a family training model promoted by NIDA.
• Identify instruments for evaluating cognitive, emotional and behavioral changes in parenting. 3)Assess the utility of family training within their own sites.

Keywords: Chemical Dependence, Family Involvement

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered

Handout (.ppt format, 296.5 kb)