Understanding child protection decisions involving parents with mental illness and substance abuse
| Autor: | Jaclyn E. Chambers, Bridgette Lery, Joseph N. Roscoe |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: |
Male
Mental Health Services Parents medicine.medical_specialty Mediation (statistics) Substance-Related Disorders media_common.quotation_subject Decision Making Child Welfare Risk Assessment 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine 030225 pediatrics Surveys and Questionnaires Developmental and Educational Psychology medicine Humans 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences Child Abuse Psychiatry Child media_common business.industry Mental Disorders 05 social sciences Infant Cognition Mental illness medicine.disease Mental health Substance abuse Psychiatry and Mental health Harm Child protection Pediatrics Perinatology and Child Health Female business Welfare 050104 developmental & child psychology |
| Zdroj: | Child abuseneglect. 81 |
| ISSN: | 1873-7757 |
| Popis: | Among children investigated for maltreatment, those with parents experiencing mental illness or substance abuse are more likely to be placed out-of-home; however, little is known about why these children are at greater risk. Using a sample of 2488 Structured Decision Making® assessments administered in San Francisco county from 2011 to 2015, we identified a profile of safety threats that accounts for why workers are more likely to determine children of parents with mental illness and/or substance abuse unsafe in the home. Eight percent of assessments in our sample involved parents with current mental illness only and 10% had comorbid substance abuse. The odds of an unsafe determination more than doubled among parents with mental illness (OR = 2.52, p < 0.001) and were nearly tenfold higher among parents with comorbid substance abuse (OR = 9.62, p < 0.001). Three safety threats accounted for all of the effect of parental mental illness on safety determination: caretaking impairment due to emotional stability/developmental status/cognitive deficiency (57%), failure to meet a child's immediate needs (30%), and threats of harm (14%). Three safety threats accounted for 55% of the effect of comorbid mental illness and substance abuse on safety determination: failure to meet a child's immediate needs (21%), presence of a drug-exposed infant (21%), and caretaking impairment due to emotional stability/developmental status/cognitive deficiency (14%). Results suggest that sustained linkage to effective mental health services and material resources at the outset of a child welfare case may help to promote faster and more likely reunification, and prevent future maltreatment. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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