From the CADCP June 2003 Newsletter:

San Diego County’s System-Wide Approach to Helping Families With Substance Abuse Issues in the Child Welfare System

“Since April 1998, San Diego County’s Juvenile Court and Department of Health and Human Services have been providing all parents with substance abuse problems a coordinated system of assessment, referral, access and monitoring of substance abuse services as a significant component of the County’s Dependency Court Recovery Project (Recovery Project).

The substance abuse component of the Recovery Project is built on the Substance Abuse Recovery Management System (SARMS). Each month, more than a 1,000 parents are active in the program. The critical ingredients in SARMS include:

1. Intensive case management;
2. Clear court orders, particularly related to expectations regarding substance abuse;
3. Timely feedback to court and social workers on treatment events;
4. Immediate access to treatment;
5. Consistent consequences for non-compliance with treatment and violation of court orders;
6. Positive reinforcement for achieving milestones of recovery.

During the first three months of a dependency case, the assigned dependency court judge sees the parent at 30 and 60 days for compliance monitoring. Five lead Recovery Specialists and 36 SARMS Recovery Specialists monitor parents’ progress through weekly face-to-face contacts, random drug testing, and twice monthly standardized reporting to the court and Children’s’ Services Social Workers.

Findings from a retrospective evaluation of five family drug treatment courts showed impressive results for families participating in SARMS. Compared to a demographically similar group of families who received standard services and entered the dependency system just prior to SARMS implementation:

• Significantly more SARMS parents entered substance abuse treatment (80% vs. 56%.)
• SARMS parents entered treatment in significantly fewer days (73 days vs. 232 days.)
• SARMS families had significantly fewer subsequent removals of children (18% of parents vs. 35%.)
• Over half of SARMS children (58%) were reunified with one or both birth parents compared to 40% of Comparison children.
• SARMS children were reunified in significantly fewer days (8 days vs. 16 months.)
• Permanent placement plans, other than reunification, were court ordered for 39% of SARMS and 58% of Comparison group children.
• Significantly more SARMS children were with their biological father or in an adoptive home for their last out-of-home placement prior to their permanent plan.
• Significant difference in the timing of case resolution in four critical areas were found:
  • SARMS children spent significantly less time in out-of-home care (averaging 13 versus 45 months.)
  • Non-reunified SARMS children moved to the home that was court ordered as their permanent plan in significantly less time (averaging 7 versus 23 months.)
  • Non-reunified SARMS children had an alternate permanent plan court ordered in significantly less time (17 versus 45 months.)
  • SARMS cases closed in significantly less time (average of 19 versus 35 months.)