Families at risk of separation associated with parental substance use disorders (SUD) can find healing and evidence-based treatment in comprehensive family treatment programs. These specialized programs provide substance use disorder treatment, therapy, parenting skills training, life skills, and job readiness education with the support of professional staff who ensure the safety of children while their parents and families achieve sobriety and recovery. While programs may vary in their therapeutic approach and specific modality, the goal is consistent: keeping families together so they can recover. 

New light has been shone on the importance of these programs through the passage of the federal Family First Prevention Services Act. This law, enacted in 2018, presents an opportunity for child welfare professionals to work together with family-focused residential treatment program staff to keep families together during treatment for substance use disorders BEFORE separation occurs...To ensure that child welfare agencies and the public at large are aware of the residential family treatment programs that are currently available, Volunteers of America (VOA) commissioned Wilder Research to
create a directory of residential substance use disorder treatment programs that have program models for parents and children in the same treatment facility. The goals of compiling the directory were: (1) to provide parents seeking treatment with information on family residential treatment centers; (2) to provide child welfare professionals with information about family treatment centers that may be eligible for Title IV-E reimbursement; and, (3) to provide policy-makers with information on the capacity and need for familybased residential treatment services. Read More >>