Substance abuse treatment completion in child welfare: Does substance abuse treatment completion matter in the decision to reunify families?

The question of why and under what circumstances family reunification takes place in the context of the child welfare system is complex and the presence of substance abuse only further complicates the picture. Past studies have explored a multitude of factors that are associated with family reunification among caregivers and children engaged with the child welfare system. Yet there is limited understanding of how families with substance abuse problems experience family reunification. This study attempts to fill this gap by investigating to what extent treatment completion is related to the likelihood of family reunification, using a sample of 858 mothers with substance abuse problems and their 1548 children in public child welfare. We utilized descriptive analysis and hierarchal nonlinear models (HNLM) to understand the effects of treatment completion on reunification. This current study provided important empirical evidence for the link between family reunification and treatment completion. Based on these findings, improvements in the way that treatment services are provided to mothers in child welfare are discussed. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.