Substance Abuse and Child Welfare

There are many different problems present in the child welfare system these days. Each individual family has it own set of unique circumstances that effect its members individually. Problems of abuse and neglect are often what the public hears the most about. However, there are other issues that can have an effect a child’s home. Substance abuse is one of those troublesome issues. Child abuse and substance abuse are almost interrelated. Various studies and reports have come to show a direct link between the two. The following paragraphs will show reports that many children who have experienced abuse in their home lives have a large chance of developing an addiction in the adult years. Also, it will discuss the correlation between the mental health of drug-dependent women and their child abuse histories. Finally, it will show findings that parents who abuse drugs and alcohol have an increased rate of involvement in the child welfare system. There is such a strong relation between the two issues that it is obviously a serious problem that needs to be addressed in today’s system.

The link between child abuse and substance use is obvious. Christiane Brems illustrates this connection in her report, “Childhood Abuse History and Substance Use Among Men and Women Receiving Detoxification Services,” in The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse. Brems collected information from a sample size of 830 individuals who were being treated for substance dependency. Through individual interviews with the patients, of which 274 were women and 556 men, Brems was able to calculate the percentage of patients that reported abuse as children. “Result revealed 20% of men and more than 50% of women reported childhood physical and sexual abuse.” Childhood abuse has a profound effect on an individual and the choices he or she will make in there future. Victims of any type of childhood abuse are more likely to develop psychiatric disorders, have extensive legal troubles, and also report using illegal substances at an earlier age. Reports documenting findings strikingly similar to that of Brems have been published worldwide. This is very important for the child welfare system to consider because it illustrates a psychological component to substance abuse. Those who suffer through abuse as children often develop mental disorders and have difficulties functioning in stressful environment as adults. Also, those who abuse substances are more likely to continue the cycle of physical or sexual abuse. It would be very beneficial for both the child welfare system and the clients involved in it to further explore the link between these devastating social issues.

There are many other reports that have been published with findings similar that of Brems. Deborah L. Haller offers her illustration of the link in her report, “Personality Disturbances in Drug-Dependent Women: Relationship to Childhood Abuse,” which was also published in The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse. Haller’s study focused solely on drug-dependent women. Of the 228 drug-dependent women involved in the study, “50% reported emotional, 42% physical, and 42% sexual abuse.” Where Haller‘s study differs from Brems in that it shows not only a link between childhood trauma and substance dependency, but also a correlation between those traumas in substance users and the development of severe psychiatric disorders and personality disturbances. To quote Haller directly, “Childhood trauma predisposes drug-dependent women to develop troublesome personality characteristics that are independent of drug addiction and other psychological problems associated with childhood trauma.”

As one can see, Haller’s study even further illustrates the devastating effects that abuse can have on an individual. This makes the job of child welfare workers more difficult. Not only is there a link between those who have experience child abuse and the development of an addiction, but there is obviously a risk of these clients developing severe psychiatric disorders. Child welfare workers whose client’s case have progressed as far as Haller’s drug-dependent women are obviously going to have a more difficult time overcoming their addictions and maintaining healthy environments for their own children.

As students will learn in various Child Welfare classes, reunification is the number one goal of child service workers. However, parents who have become involved in the child welfare system due to substance abuse issues seem to have a more difficult time becoming reunified with their children. Joseph Ryan, among others, recently published an article, “Integrating Substance Abuse Treatment and Child Welfare Services: Findings from the Illinois Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Waiver Demonstration,” in the journal of National Association of Social Workers that discusses this growing problem. According to Ryan’s findings, a very