Parental Substance Use Disorder, Increasing Child Welfare Caseloads

Public Consulting Group (PCG) can help you assess your state’s capacity to treat families involved with the child welfare system.

Moving Parents to Recovery. We can help.

As the substance use crisis in America has continued to grow, the impact on child welfare agencies has also grown substantially. Substance use has driven the rise of the number of children in foster care to over 400,000, the highest number since 2009. Over one third of the removals were due to parental substance use. Of the removals, nearly 40 percent of them represent children under six years of age.

Multiple studies have shown that children under 3 are especially at risk for long-term trauma as a result of being removed from their parents. It is important for child welfare agencies to assist substance using families with treatment options so that children can remain in their own homes when possible.

Our team can help you identify evidence based practices that lead to recovery from Substance Use Disorder (SUD), facilitate cross agency collaboration, and identify federal funding to increase services and capacity in underserved areas.

How can we help you?

PCG’s team of experienced consultants and subject matter experts offers a variety of supports, tailored to meet your needs:

  • Use of geo-mapping to plot available services and beds to treat SUD, including availability of medically assisted treatment, to identify specific geographies where capacity does not meet needs.
  • Identify evidence-based practices that lead to recovery from SUD.
  • Policy and procedure development.
  • Implementation and organizational change management.
  • Needs assessments and data analysis.
  • Identify funding models.

Work with an experienced partner.

PCG has extensive experience working with child welfare, public health, and provider agencies across the country. We understand the impacts of substance use and the trauma, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), and the evolving neuroscience of child development and executive functioning. PCG can educate all stakeholders on how trauma of removal impacts executive function and how it manifests in specific behaviors, including the long-term impacts on social and educational outcomes.

Interested in learning more about how PCG can help you manage your growing caseloads due to parental substance use? Contact us today!


About Public Consulting Group

Public Consulting Group, Inc. (PCG) is a leading public sector management consulting and operations improvement firm that partners with health, education, and human services agencies to improve lives. Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, PCG has nearly 2,000 professionals in more than 50 offices around the US, in Canada and in Europe. PCG’s Human Services practice helps state, county, and municipal human services agencies to achieve their performance goals in order to better serve populations in need. PCG’s Human Services’ seasoned professionals offer proven solutions to help agencies design programs, services, and systems; increase program revenue; cut costs; and improve regulatory compliance with state and federal regulations. To learn more, visit http://www.publicconsultinggroup.com/human-services/.

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