One-Year Outcomes from the Casaworks for Families Intervention for Substance-Abusing Women on Welfare

Abstract

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.

Program factors related to women's substance abuse treatment retention and other outcomes: A review and critique

“…Five of these (Evenson et al, 1998;Jansson et al, 2003;Laken & Ager, 1996;Lanehart et al, 1996;McLellan et al, 2003) found that case management enhanced retention or treatment outcomes. Two other studies (Howell & Chasnoff, 1999;Marsh et al, 2000) found inconclusive or paradoxical findings regarding the effect of case management.…”

“…The path analysis results of Laken and Ager (1996) showed a significant association between case management service and treatment retention for pregnant women. McLellan et al (2003) showed that welfare-recipient women who participated in the CASAWORKS for Families program made significant improvements in the areas of substance abuse and social/family functioning at 6-month followup and employment at 12-month follow-up. The CASAWORKS for Families program emphasized interorganizational coordination so that women could receive comprehensive and concurrent services.…”

“…For example, Lanehart et al (1996) evaluated AOD use, employment, incarceration, and birth weight; Jansson et al (2003) focused on AOD use, AOD treatment service use, and child custody right; and Laken and Ager (1996) targeted retention. Furthermore, only two of the five studies (Laken & Ager, 1996;McLellan et al, 2003) provided a detailed description regarding case management content.…”

“…It might also be interesting to compare four groups in a continuum: no case management, regular case management, case management that specifically emphasizes interagency coordination, and case management that provides onsite comprehensive services (e.g., McLellan et al, 2003). In addition, the outcome variables need to be standardized and include not only AOD use but also measures of parenting, depression/ anxiety, criminal behavior, and employment.…”

Substance-Abusing Parents in the Criminal Justice System: Does Substance Abuse Treatment Improve Their Children's Outcomes?

“…In some cases, researchers also documented changes in related problems such as criminal recidivism, physical and mental illnesses, and employment (e.g., Brady & Ashley, 2005;Clark, 2001;Dodge & Willander, 2001;Greenfield et al, 2004;Hall et al, 2004;Hser, Evans, & Huang, 2005;Inciardi, Martin, & Butzin, 2004;McLellan et al, 2003;Peters, Haas, & Hunt, 2002;Sowers et al, 2002). Although the nature of treatment programs varies substantially (e.g., therapeutic communities, 12-step programs, residential treatment, outpatient programs), the findings on substance abuse treatment can be summed up as showing that substance abuse treatment is not 100% effective, but it is generally more effective than no treatment.…”