Suchergebnisse

Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of a multiservice intervention designed to move substanceabusing women on welfare to sobriety and self-sufficiency by addressing their substance abuse, domestic violence, employment, and basic needs. Design: A field evaluation with repeated measures at 6 and 12 months on an intent-to-treat sample of 529 women conducted in 11 selected sites across the country. There were significant improvements shown in substance use and family and social functioning by the 6-month point, and additional improvements in employment by the 12-month point. By 12 months, more than 46% were abstinent from alcohol and other drugs, and 30% were employed at least part-time. There were only modest improvements shown in the medical and psychiatric status of these women. These preliminary findings suggest that site-level interagency coordination and program-level case management were associated with improvements in the targeted areas as predicted by the model. Future work will require a more closely specified, manual-guided form of the intervention plus the inclusion of control groups and cost measures to fully evaluate the cost benefits from the final form of the intervention.

This article provides a brief overview of CASAWORKS for Families(CWF), an innovative intervention designed to help substance-abusing parentingwomen on welfare. CWFwas developed in response to the passage of welfare reform legislation in 1996. Factors that provided a background and context for the development ofCWFare considered. The rationale, key elements, and the conduct of a pilot demonstration of CWFar e described. Evaluation findings that serve to guide the next steps to improve the intervention are reviewed. Finally, new welfare policy priorities emerging around the importance of addressing behavioral health problems among welfare recipients are highlighted.