{"id":120710,"date":"2017-01-19T08:33:46","date_gmt":"2017-01-19T13:33:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=120710"},"modified":"2017-01-19T10:34:54","modified_gmt":"2017-01-19T15:34:54","slug":"road-family-based-recovery-goes-uconn-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2017\/01\/road-family-based-recovery-goes-uconn-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Road to Family-Based Recovery Goes Through UConn Health"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s little doubt in the mind of public health researcher Jane Ungemack<\/a> that keeping children with their parents \u2013 and out of the child welfare system \u2013 gives them the best chance of success in life.<\/p>\n

With evidence from two decades of research collaboration with state agencies and community-based organizations, the bigger question for her is, what\u2019s the best way to do it?<\/p>\n

Connecticut recently started a six-year study of Family-Based Recovery, a method of intervention for parents who need substance abuse treatment that has been shown to reduce both the substance abuse and the chances of children having to be removed from their homes.<\/p>\n

That may be the answer, and it is Ungemack\u2019s job to analyze its effectiveness.<\/p>\n

\"Large
Large quantities of data are central to the research of Jane Ungemack, assistant professor in UConn Health\u2019s Department of Community Medicine and Health Care. (Janine Gelineau\/UConn Health Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cParents with substance abuse disorders are a huge problem in child welfare,\u201d says Ungemack, assistant professor in UConn Health\u2019s Department of Community Medicine and Health Care<\/a>. \u201cOur own analyses show that these substance-involved families are less likely to be reunited, and the children may also have longer stays in foster care and within a DCF placement than those that are not involved. The costs of taking a child out of the home and going through the legal process could way offset the cost of providing effective substance abuse treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Family Stability Project will conduct a randomized control trial with 1,000 families to determine the effectiveness of Family-Based Recovery compared to standard services in keeping children in their home. The intended families are those with children up to age 6, who are involved with the Department of Children and Families, and who have a parent with a substance abuse disorder. Family-Based Recovery teams\u00a0\u2013 consisting of two clinicians, a substance abuse specialist, and a family support worker\u00a0\u2013 will make regular visits to provide intensive in-home treatment that focuses on parent-child attachment and substance abuse recovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy work for almost 20 years has been bringing data to bear, as well as the evaluation services or needs assessment services, to really execute and implement these types of projects. They\u2019re frequently statewide, and they\u2019re frequently tied to state policy and directions that the state wants to go in,\u201d Ungemack says. \u201cVery often this information helps support development of evidence-based models and practices in substance abuse services. It capitalizes on the research expertise of the University, as well as our knowledge base, in addressing state public health and social welfare issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the independent evaluator of the Family Stability Project, Ungemack will compare outcomes of those families in the Family-Based Recovery group to those receiving standard service options. She will measure success based on carefully defined metrics, including prevention of out-of-home placements, prevention of re-referrals to DCF, and reduction of parental substance abuse.<\/p>\n

Adding to the importance of Ungemack\u2019s evaluation is the fact that the results will have a direct correlation to the expenses the state will incur to run the program.<\/p>\n

This is Connecticut\u2019s first \u201cPay for Success\u201d project, a relatively new concept in which private investors, not the government, provide the initial funding for social programs. The government gradually repays the investors, but only if the program achieves success as quantified by the metrics. Repayment of the original principal \u2013 in this case more than $11.2 million \u2013 plus a modest return would require significant outcomes across all metrics. If no positive outcomes are achieved, the government makes no payments. This approach is also known as social impact bonding.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s increasing emphasis on data-driven planning, and there is much more emphasis on accountability showing results for funding,\u201d Ungemack says. \u201cThe agencies don\u2019t necessarily have those skills, but the University has lots of that skill.”<\/p>\n

DCF says parental substance use is a factor in more than half the cases it investigates, and that the family-based recovery approach has a track record of success in reducing the agency\u2019s involvement and in keeping families together.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery often people believe something is going to work, and right now DCF line staff think this is the best thing going,\u201d Ungemack says. \u201cBut they don\u2019t know it for sure. If you\u2019re going to make a huge investment, you want to look at the data and what it says.\u201d<\/p>\n

While DCF has supported Family-Based Recovery services for nearly seven years, Ungemack\u2019s evaluation will help determine if this approach is worth the expense. A high rate of repayment of these social impact bonds would mean the program is indeed successful. At that point, the expense incurred by the state could be weighed against the savings from an associated reduction in health care, child welfare, criminal justice, and special education costs, as well as productivity losses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese sorts of partnerships create enormous opportunities for us as researchers and academics. It also opens the door to enormous amounts of data,\u201d Ungemack says. \u201cOur mission in the University at large, and specifically at UConn Health, is to contribute to the benefit of the population of Connecticut.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A community health researcher at UConn Health is evaluating a DCF project to determine if it is effective in treating parents\u2019 substance abuse and keeping kids in their homes, and whether it is less costly than alternative approaches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":120774,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1715,2231,1868,179],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[57,2010],"class_list":["post-120710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-impact","category-health-well-being","category-meds","category-uconn-health"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 04:42:14","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120710"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121217,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120710\/revisions\/121217"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/120774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120710"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=120710"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=120710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}