about COAF

contact us | donate now | site map

catalog | Phoenix House | home

      

about COAF > our programs > Building Bridges

 

BUILDING BRIDGES

In the United States, approximately 2.8 million adolescents and adults enter substance abuse treatment every year; more than half are parents.  Some are able to access drug treatment services while continuing to live at home with their children.  But many others are separated from their children when they enter residential treatment programs, send their children to a relative, lose custody, or find themselves incarcerated or in other situations that involve long or short periods of time away from home.  As these parents progress through treatment, most continue to struggle with issues such as parenting long-distance and during periodic visits, separation, and the possibility of reunification.  Unfortunately, few drug treatment programs adequately address these issues during treatment or provide appropriate support as part of after-care, setting parents up for problems and potential relapse.

Children of Alcoholics Foundation’s Response:

Building Bridges - a new program to help parents in alcohol and other drug treatment cope with the issues of parent/child:

 Building Bridges will be a multi-format program, offering:

Typically, parent/child issues are addressed at a single point in time in treatment through a formal parenting class which typically focus on issues such as effective discipline and child development.  However, when a parent comes into treatment, the parent/child issues are present from day one, and continue throughout.   Recognizing this fact, Building Bridges’ is being designed for use throughout the duration of treatment to help parents prepare both emotionally and behaviorally for interactions with their children.  It also includes specific emphasis on healing strained or broken bonds with all family members, strategies for talking with children about parental addiction, and preparation for the emotional realities of reunification.

Materials for professionals will focus primarily on attitudes, values, and strategies useful in assisting parents during the reunification process.  COAF will also develop train-the-trainer sessions and published materials to assure that counselors are adequately prepared to work with parents around these issues.

Currently COAF is in the initial research and development stage of Building Bridges, reviewing best practices literature, conducting focus groups of parents in residential drug and alcohol treatment and the staff who work with them, and beginning to assemble an Advisory Committee of local and national experts to determine what content to include in the program. 

Our findings have indicated that the staff development component of Building Bridges is going to have to be stronger than initially anticipated, given the existing attitudes and skill levels of treatment staff.  We have found that staff who themselves are parents in recovery are going to need a greater level of assistance assistance in resolving issues before being able to positively support clients than originally anticipated.  This fact is exacerbated by the reality that staff who themselves are treatment program graduates have had different exposure to family systems issues than those who have a more academic or structured experience in the field.  These findings point toward the need for careful consideration of attitudes and values of staff around the role of family in treatment.

COAF is working with Phoenix House as the “living laboratory” for development and pilot testing of the materials, with New York City and eventual national dissemination planned for latter stages of the two-year project.

For more information:

Kim Sumner-Mayer, Ph.D.

646-505-2063

ksumner-mayer@phoenixhouse.org