Interagency collaboration and receipt of substance abuse treatment services for child welfare-involved caregivers

Caregivers dealing with problematic substance use pose persistent challenges for families involved with the child welfare (CW) system. Research has indicated that receipt of substance use disorder (SUD) services help improve family outcomes. However, there are many challenging stages of intervention in the SUD treatment process, including detection, assessment, referral, entry, and completion. Considerable work is needed to illuminate factors that strengthen the delivery of SUD-related services at various points in the treatment services continuum. Although a growing body of work has focused on individual-level correlates, few studies have examined organizational factors that potentially affect the delivery of SUD-related services. This study sought to further understanding of the relationship between CW organizational factors (interagency collaboration and organizational resources) and delivery of SUD-related services in a nationally representative sample of CW-involved caregivers. In this study sample, engagement in collaboration through a memorandum of understanding (MOU) and co-location supported caregiver receipt of a referral to SUD services. Caregivers were more likely to receive a formal assessment for SUD problems when their CW agencies reported the availability of a standardized SUD assessment tool. Also, having arrangements with SUD agencies so that CW-involved families had priority status to enter treatment was pertinent to caregiver receipt of SUD treatment services. These results provide evidence that engagement in collaboration activities and greater organizational resources can increase an organization's capacity to deliver services to clients.