Promoting Resilience: Helping Young Children and Parents Affected by Substance Abuse, Domestic Violence, and Depression in the Context of Welfare Reform

• NCJ Number: 198352
• Author(s): Jane Knitzer Ed.D.
• Date Published: March 2000
• Length: 26 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: Annie E. Casey Foundation; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Admin (SAMHSA)
• Corporate Author: National Ctr for Children in Poverty (NCCP)
• Sale Source: National Ctr for Children in Poverty (NCCP)
• Publication Format: Document (Online)
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Children and Welfare Reform, Issue Brief 8; downloaded on 12/27/2002.

Annotation

This report examines the challenge from both a policy and service perspective in ensuring the needs of every family affected by welfare reform, specifically those who experience domestic violence, alcohol, drugs, and other substance abuse, and serious mental health issues.

Abstract

The National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) developed a series of issues and briefs that focus on ways States and communities can achieve the adult-focused goals of welfare reform and enhance the well-being of their young children. This report is the eighth in the series and addresses the needs of a vulnerable population of young children and families affected by welfare reform, those in which the adults, particularly mothers, either singly, or more often in combination, experience substance abuse, domestic violence, and serious mental health problems. This research argues that both welfare reform and the national goal to ensure that every child enters school ready-to-learn provide a framework for community, State, and Federal action on behalf of a vulnerable and ignored population. Significant findings from the research include: (1) parental risk factors are disproportionately high among low-income women in general and those receiving welfare in particular; (2) parental risk factors affect children’s development; and (3) early childhood staff report recognizing the needs of these young children and parents, but lack the strategies and back-up support to assist them. Key recommendations are presented utilizing multiple entry points as promising strategies and include: (1) strengthen the capacity within the early childhood community to serve the most vulnerable young children and their families in the context of welfare reform; (2) enhance adult-focused substance abuse, mental health, and domestic violence services to better meet the needs of the most vulnerable young children and their families in the context of welfare reform; (3) use welfare reform as a catalyst to address the needs of hard-to serve adults on transitioning off, looking to stay off, or sanctioned under TANF and their young children; and (4) create Federal legislative and other incentives to develop strong policy and research agendas promoting cost-effective prevention and treatment for the most vulnerable young children and their families in the context of welfare reform.