Drug Treatment: What to Give Child Welfare
When child welfare and drug treatment professionals share a client, they need to exchange information. But what should be shared? Who really needs what?
The first step is to make sure the client has signed appropriate consent forms, allowing the drug treatment provider to communicate with the child welfare agency. This consent can be filled out as part of the admissions interview.
With permission to disclose information, as soon as possible after an assessment and level of care determination has been made, the child welfare provider should be told:
- Referral status
- Assessment summary
- Diagnosis
- Level of care determination
- Urine screen results
Assuming the individual is admitted to the program, the child welfare professional should also be told:
- Counselor name and contact information (phone and email)
- the best way to reach the client
- services that will be provided to the client that correspond to Court or agency mandates
And information should continue to flow back and forth throughout treatment. Child welfare professionals need to have regular updates on:
- Progress and attendance
- Compliance, including urine screen results
- Identification of co-occurring issues
- Significant changes
- Observations of parent/child interactions
- Discharge status and aftercare plans/needs
- Any changes in a parent’s personal permanency goal
This information can be communicated through a report for Court (which should be submitted to the Caseworker at least one week (and preferably more) before each Court date. The caseworker may request more frequent exchanges of information – this should be worked out together between the drug treatment provider and the child welfare agency.
