Clark County (Washington state) Family Drug Treatment Court: Children Affected by Methamphetamine Enhancement

Status: complete


Purpose: The target population for this enhancement is children ages 0-17 affected by methamphetamine in families participating in family treatment drug court. The primary goal of this grant is to provide evidence-based services to these children with the intention of increasing reunification rates and decreasing use of foster care for these families as well as reducing any involvement in the criminal justice system. This involves adapting existing programs, creating new procedures and practices, as well as forging new roles and responsibilities for existing staff and program partners.

Project Design: NPC Research is conducting three evaluation components that will include: Process, Outcome and Cost Evaluations. The measurable outcomes examined will include whether there is: 1) An increase in parental reunifications versus the traditional dependency system. 2) A decrease in recidivism (child welfare and criminal justice) for parents in dependency. 3) A decrease in the amount of time that children are in foster care placement compared to the traditional dependency process. 4) A positive cost/benefit ratio for the family dependency treatment court program.

Funding Source: Clark County (Washington state) through SAMHSA grant

Start Date: October 2010

NPC Project Team

Principal Investigator / Project Director

Shannon Carey, Ph.D.

Project Coordinator

Kate Kissick, B.A.

Cost Analyst

Mark Waller, B.A.