{"id":2402,"date":"2017-04-27T16:51:00","date_gmt":"2017-04-27T22:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/co4kids.org\/?p=2402"},"modified":"2023-10-12T15:47:12","modified_gmt":"2023-10-12T21:47:12","slug":"enhancing-practice-with-families-impacted-by-substance-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co4kids.org\/es\/child-welfare-blog\/enhancing-practice-with-families-impacted-by-substance-use\/","title":{"rendered":"Enhancing Practice with Families Impacted by Substance Use"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Child Welfare Blog<\/a><\/div>\n\n

Enhancing Practice with Families Impacted by Substance Use<\/h1><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The intersection of child maltreatment and parental substance use is a growing concern across the state of Colorado. Recently, The CDHS Division of Child Welfare has received a number of questions regarding how and when to administer drug testing when working with children, youth, and families. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We, at the CDHS Division of Child Welfare, encourage child welfare professionals to focus on behavioral change rather than compliance<\/strong>. To this end, we revisited guidance on proper considerations when determining appropriateness of testing for substance use in Drug Testing in Child Welfare: Practice and Policy Considerations <\/em>published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, summarized below, to aid county administrators and caseworkers grappling with this issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Substance use drug testing refers to the use of various biologic sources, such as urine, saliva, sweat, hair, breath, blood, and meconium to determine the presence of specific substances or their metabolites in an individual\u2019s system. Drug tests, however, do not provide sufficient information for substantiating allegations of child abuse or neglect, or for making decisions about the disposition of a case. Drug testing is one tool that child welfare workers often use to determine if a parent is using substances and to facilitate decision making with families affected by substance use disorders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, limited information has been available to child welfare workers, judges and attorneys on the utility of drug testing and how to correctly interpret the results in the context of child welfare practice:<\/p>\n\n\n\n