A comprehensive and individualized assessment of the family's needs may prevent inappropriate placement of drug-exposed infants and children in foster care.
To achieve the goal of keeping families intact, the drug-exposed infant and his or her family should have access to the following services:
- Availability of case manager services on a 24-hour, on-call, basis
- Quality day care
- Individual / family counseling and crisis counseling
- Housing assistance and emergency shelters
- Procedures and arrangements for access to emergency financial assistance
- Arrangement for provision of temporary or respite care
- Availability of outreach workers who may be able to visit the woman and her family in her own environment.
A new program in New York City provides intensive supervision and counseling to substance-using women who have been permitted to take their babies home from the hospital.
Under the program, social workers visit families at least once a week to help ensure that mothers remain in treatment and assist them in other areas, including health care for the infant and housing and other social services (Treaster, 1991).
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