Resources by Profession

 Resources for Law Enforcement Professionals

• Drug Endangered Children: Investigations – A National Children's Advocacy Center video presentation on developing a Drug Endangered Children Response Team.
• Iowa Drug Endangered Children (DEC) Response Guidelines for Law Enforcement Officers (PDF) – Iowa Governor's Office of Drug Control Policy guidelines that law enforcement should follow when a drug endangered child is discovered during a criminal investigation or by Child Protective Services.
• Police Practice: Drug-Endangered Children – An article describing the dangers posed to children who live in methamphetamine laboratories and discusses Oklahoma's collaborative response to the growing problem.
• Rural Law Enforcement Meth Initiative: Drug Endangered Children – National Meth Summit information on the "methamphetamine use cycle" and associated risks to children.
• The CPS and Law Enforcement Relationship (PDF) – A National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children training presentation on fostering a strong working relationship between law enforcement and child protective services to handle DEC cases effectively.
• The DEC Investigation for Law Enforcement (PDF) – A National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children training presentation that prepares law enforcement officers for drug endangered children investigations.
• Federal Law Enforcement Training Center – A group that provides services to state, local, tribal, and international law enforcement agencies.

Resources for Healthcare Professionals

• Acute Methamphetamine Laboratory Exposure: A Guide for Clinicians and Health Care Professionals Responding to Meth Lab Exposures (PDF) – Society for Public Health Education guide that provides guidance for health care professionals on responding to patients who have been exposed to methamphetamine labs.
• Children in Methamphetamine Homes: A Survey of Physicians Practicing in Southeast Tennessee – Study examining how emergency medical practitioners view the problem of drug endangered children living with individuals who have methamphetamine substance use disorders, and the approaches they take in managing the problem.
• Children in Methamphetamine 'Labs' in Oregon – CD resource that reviews the problems faced by children in the environment of methamphet­amine production and provides guidelines for health care providers when dealing with children who have been exposed to methamphetamine labs.
• Drug-Endangered Children and the Manufacture of Methamphetamine (PDF) – Article for school nurses that highlights the signs and symptoms of exposure, short- and long-term effects, and the child's increased risk of exposure to neglect and abuse.
• NIDA MED Screening for Tobacco, Alcohol and Other Drug Use – National Institute for Drug Abuse's (NIDA) extensive resources for healthcare professionals for screening and treatment of substance abuse within primary care settings. 
• SAMHSA's SBIRT grant program – Webpage that includes variety of information on implementation of SBIRT programs, insurance codes for SBIRT, and other resources.
• Yale University SBIRT Training Program – This website includes case studies, training videos, screening tools, slides sets, training manuals and training modules.
• Massachusetts Department of Public Health Bureau of Substance Abuse Services Provider Guide – Medical providers guide to using the CRAFFT adolescent screening tool to treat adolescents with the SBIRT model. (PDF) 
• Health Team Works Alcohol and Substance Use Guidelines – Colorado-based program includes variety of SBIRT screening tools, evidenced-based best practices, and training in motivational interviewing videos. 

Resources for Child Welfare Professionals

• National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare (NCSACW) works to improve systems and practice for families with substance use disorders who are involved in the child welfare and family judicial systems by assisting local, State and tribal agencies. NCSACW resources and training  offerings are available online here.
• Methamphetamine Addiction, Treatment, and Outcomes: Implications for Child Welfare Workers – In order to make sound decisions for the benefit of children and families, child welfare workers need accurate information about methamphetamine, its effects on parents and their children, and the effectiveness of treatment. This paper presents the most current research in these areas, and offers recommendations for child welfare workers to help them identify and assist children and families.
• Understanding Substance Abuse and Facilitating Recovery: A Guide for Child Welfare Workers – This publication is intended for front line child welfare staff. This brief can help staff recognize when substance abuse is a risk factor in their cases; describes strategies to facilitate and support alcohol and drug treatment and recovery; and explains the benefits of partnering with substance abuse treatment and dependency court systems to improve outcomes for families.
• Child Welfare Training Toolkit: Helping Child Welfare Workers Support Families with Substance Use, Mental, and Co-Occurring Disorders – This on-line training package is designed for child welfare trainers. This toolkit is composed of six modules, where each module includes a training plan, fully developed trainer scripts, PowerPoint slides and handouts.
• Online Courses – These self-paced online tutorials focus on the subjects of substance abuse and child welfare; they support and facilitate collaboration between the child welfare system, the substance abuse treatment system, and the courts. There is no cost to enroll in the online tutorials, although registration is required. Continuing Education Units are available upon successful completion of a tutorial.
• In 2006 the Administration for Children and Families' (ACF) Children's Bureau (CB) and Child Care Bureau (CCB), and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA) Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) sponsored the conference: Methamphetamine: The Child Welfare Impact and Response. Many conference materials and resources are available on line.
• Child Welfare Information Gateway Page on Methamphetamine and Child Welfare provides information on 1) Statistics and the scope of the problem, 2) Responding to and treating methamphetamine use 3) Additional information on methamphetamines and child welfare and 4) State and local examples.
• Targeted Grants to Increase the Well-Being of, and to Improve the Permanency Outcomes for, Children Affected by Methamphetamine or Other Substance Abuse: First Annual Report to Congress Children's Bureau, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2010) Presents profiles of the 53 grantees and describes their program activities and accomplishments from October 2006 through July 2008. The report includes information on progress made in achieving the goals of the program, establishment of the performance indicators to assess the performance of the Regional Partnership Grants, and technical assistance activities carried out to support the grantees.
• Protecting Children in Families Affected by Substance Use Disorders – This manual provides an overview of how child welfare and other related professionals can assist families affected by substance use disorders (SUDs), which also often may be referred to as "substance abuse." It is part of the Child Abuse and Neglect User Manual Series, which is published by the Office on Child Abuse and Neglect, Children's Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The manual addresses the nature of SUDs; the impact of parental SUDs on children; in-home examination, screening, and assessment for SUDs; treatment of SUDs, and the role of child protective services.
• Screening and Assessment for Family Engagement, Retention, and Recovery (SAFERR) provides guidance for using efficient screening and assessment tools and communication strategies that support sound and timely decisions about the safety of children and about the treatment and recovery of parents. It also includes methods for developing collaborative relationships between the systems to help improve outcomes for these families.

Download a PDF of key resources and products for child welfare professionals.

Resources for Collaboration

• Building Bridges: The Case for Sharing Data between the Court and Child Welfare Systems – Article on the importance of interagency data sharing in order to enhance efficiency, improve communication, evaluate performance, and monitor improvement efforts.
• Children at Clandestine Methamphetamine Labs: Helping Meth's Youngest Victims (PDF) Bulletin from the Office for Victims of Crime that describes the health and safety risks of children who live at or visit clandestine methamphetamine (meth) labs, including measures to use when responding to children's mental and physical issues when law enforcement officers seize methamphetamine labs.
• Collaborative Capacity Instrument: Reviewing and Assessing the Status of Linkages across Alcohol and Drug Treatment, Child Welfare Services and Dependency Courts (PDF) – Self-assessment tool designed to elicit intra- and interagency discussion about progress in addressing specific issues and about prioritizing programs and policy plans.
• Collaborative Values Inventory: What Do We Believe about Alcohol and Other Drugs and Services to Children and Families? (PDF) – Questionnaire that serves as a neutral, anonymous way of assessing how much a group shares the values that underlie its work, and it identifies issues that may not be raised if the collaborative begins its work together without clarifying the underlying values of its members.
• Framework and Policy Tools for Improving Linkages between Alcohol and Drug Services, Child Welfare Services and Dependency Courts (PDF) – Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration paper that provides a ten-element framework for assessing the collaborative efforts that address substance abuse issues among families in the child welfare and dependency court systems.
• Navigating the Pathways: Lessons and Promising Practices in Linking Alcohol and Drug Services with Child Welfare (PDF) – Report on the challenges of child welfare and substance abuse agencies from working together.
• Pathways to Collaboration: Factors That Help and Hinder Collaboration between Substance Abuse & Child Welfare Fields (PDF) – Presentation on the need for collaboration between child welfare and alcohol and other drug treatment/prevention systems, including provides guidelines for collaborative models, and addresses factors that help and hinder collaboration efforts.
• The Matrix of Progress in Building Linkages among Alcohol and Drug Agencies, Child Welfare Services, and the Dependency Court System (PDF) – Matrix for assessing collaboration across systems, and identifying benchmarks for improving system linkages.