Collaboration: Improving System Linkages

Bringing Families Together: Models of Hope and Recovery
Discover how communities are strengthening linkages among child welfare, mental health services, substance use treatment, and the court systems to improve outcomes for children and families. Click to watch the video. NCSACW video

Collaborative Practice Tools
The National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare helps child welfare agencies, substance abuse treatment providers, and dependency courts to establish cross-system collaboration that sets the stage for positive outcomes. To carry out this work, NCSACW has developed a set of policy tools that support the framework.

Five National Reports on the Substance Abuse-Child Welfare Linkage
Brief summaries and links to national reports on the intersection of substance abuse and child welfare.

Elements of System Linkages
For cross-system collaboration to be effective and sustainable, each system – child welfare, substance abuse treatment, and the courts must be engaged in each of these ten areas. Resources and publications have been compiled and developed in each of these areas:

Related Webinars and Presentations

Partnerships, Policies and Practices: A Collaboration Framework for Addressing the Complex Needs of Drug Endangered Children and Their Families (PDF 447 KB)
Presented by Linda Carpenter at the National Alliance of Drug Endangered Children. Washington, D.C. November 2010
Substance Abuse, Child Welfare and the Courts: What’s the Connection? (PDF 1.35 MB)
Presented by Pamela Peterson-Baston at Children's Law Conference. University of South Carolina November 2010.
Creating Change Through Collaboration: Substance Abuse and Child Welfare Policy and Practice Innovations (PDF 2.37 MB)
Presented by Nancy K. Young, Denise Churchill, Sam Gillespie and Peter Panzarella at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Women’s Conference. Chicago, IL July 2010.
Why It’s Not Just One More Thing: Making a Stronger Case for Building the Bridges (PDF 3.37 MB)
Presented by Sid Gardner at the West Virginia Alliance for Children Conference. Charleston, WV May 2010 (web-conference)
Regional Partnerships: Creating Cross-System, Strategies and Outcomes (PDF 3.51 MB)
Presented by Nancy K. Young and Cheron Crouch at the Child Welfare League of America 2010 National Conference. Washington, DC January 2010.
Family Centered Treatment for Women with Substance Use Disorders
Presented by Ken DeCerchio, M.S.W., Program Director, National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare and Nancy K. Young, Ph.D., Director National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare, Children and Family Futures March 3, 2010.
Overview of Propensity Score Matching, Part 1 of 2
Propensity Score Matching Strategies for Evaluating Substance Abuse Services for Child Welfare Clients - Ken DeCerchio, Program Director, Children and Family Futures, Shenyang Guo, Professor, School of Social Work, University of North Carolina September 1, 2010.
Optimal Propensity Score Matching, Part 2 of 2
Propensity Score Matching Strategies for Evaluating Substance Abuse Services for Child Welfare Clients - Ken DeCerchio, Project Director, Children and Family Futures, Shenyang Guo, Professor, School of Social Work, University of North Carolina September 7, 2010.