Lessons Learned: Implementing Substance Abuse Treatment Services for Welfare Reform Recipients

• NCJ Number: 196592
• Journal: Counselor Volume: 3 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2002 Pages: 20-28
• Author(s): Katherine S. Jacobi; Edward L. Hendrickson; Cheryl Wallace
• Date Published: February 2002
• Length: 9 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article describes one community's effort to integrate substance abuse treatment services with welfare reform activities and provide recommendations to other communities working toward this goal.

Abstract

The community profiled is a small, urban, multiethnic county located within a large metropolitan region of approximately four million persons. In April 1996, the county implemented welfare reform in accordance with a State mandate to enroll all welfare recipients into the new program within 6 months of implementation. The State emphasized that work was the primary focus of the program. As the program evolved, staff identified critical substance abuse and mental health service needs that were not being effectively addressed; approximately 30 percent of the recipients participating in the program needed substance abuse and mental health services. As a result, the community welfare reform and substance abuse program was established to facilitate substance abuse treatment through a combination of several strategies. The strategies included staff training to increase recognition of substance abuse problems, establishing a regular referral process for accessing treatment, and targeting a specific substance abuse counselor to be the single point of contact for all welfare reform clients. The on-site placement of a substance abuse professional within the welfare reform program has resulted in an increased number of welfare reform clients participating in services for their substance use and mental health issues; however, during this 18-month period, several systemic issues had to be addressed in the areas of policy, procedures, and philosophy. The following are the issues that emerged and that resulted in lessons learned while addressing them: confidentiality, urine and breath testing, leveraging clients into treatment, the referral process, supervision, staff training, role and function expectations, integrating intervention strategies, staff selection, and when co-location is not possible. 14 references