Collaboration for Iowa Families

OJJDP is seeking to infuse effective family drug court practices established at the local level and institutionalize them in the larger state-level child welfare, substance abuse treatment, and court systems. The purpose of this state systems improvement effort is to expand the scale of family drug courts and scope to serve all families in the child welfare system affected by parental substance abuse issues more effectively and improve child, parent, and family outcomes.

The Judiciary Courts for the State of Iowa seeks to institutionalize state level improvements to promote the safety and permanency for children and families where substance use is an identified factor in to child welfare involvement. It is part of a continuing effort of the Collaboration for Iowa Families where the Judicial Branch of Iowa serves as the lead agency. The project will expand an integrated system of care that identifies the developmental, behavioral, and mental health needs of the affected child and family. A working group consisting of organizations and key agencies in the child welfare will work to identify and resolve barriers to integrated treatment for these families. This project will (1) expand the integration of key elements from family treatment court in a piloted format for courts in four counties who were not able to or chose not to participate in family treatment court and move the existing family treatment courts to scale, (2) expand the healthcare provider system of assessing, preventing, and treating prenatal and perinatal substance exposure in children, (3) support the continuing development of assessment and treatment clinics in Polk county for substance exposed infants and children, and (4) implement a comprehensive plan leading to statewide implementation with a data sharing plan of substance use related child welfare case data. CA/NCF