The National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare (NCSACW) has operated since 2002. Joint funding comes from the Children’s Bureau (CB), Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT).

NCSACW strives to improve local, state, and tribal agencies’ services and the safety, permanency, recovery, and well-being outcomes for children and families affected by substance use and co-occurring mental health disorders and child abuse and neglect who are involved with or at risk for involvement with the child welfare and family judicial systems.

Goals include

• To collect, develop, and disseminate information that increases the capacity of child welfare, SUD treatment, and court professionals to meet the needs of families involved with the child welfare system because of parental substance use or mental health disorders.
• Improve the health, social and emotional well-being of children and youth who have experienced maltreatment, exposure to violence, or trauma associated with parental substance misuse and mental health challenges.
• Enhance the use of data-driven decision-making to improve outcomes for children and families and inform the implementation of effective and innovative programs and practices.

NCSACW staff research, compile, and share examples of successful programs to expand best practices in communities across the country. Tailored consultation and support occur via virtual sessions, in-person site visits, and individualized coaching to provide relevant information, resources, publications, guidance, and effective strategies. 

NCSACW has specialized TA programs that provide capacity building and implementation support to strengthen partnerships, sustain innovations, measure performance, and improve outcomes. Through its In-Depth Technical Assistance (IDTA) Program, the Family-Centered Systems Innovation Team (FCSIT) assists states, Tribes, and community partner agencies in implementing the 2016 amendments to the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) in the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA), Public Law 114-198.

The Family-Centered Systems Innovation Team focuses on improving the safety, health, permanency, well-being, and recovery outcomes of families affected by substance use and co-occurring mental health disorders. This specialized team helps states develop state policies and practice protocols in four critical areas identified in CARA:

• infants and their families identified as being affected by prenatal substance exposure,
• the development of Plans of Safe Care (POSC),
• family-centered practice, and
• pregnant and post-partum women’s substance use and mental health treatment programs.

NCSACW also provides programmatic TA to the Regional Partnership Grants (RPG) Program, which is administered by the Administration for Children, Youth and Families (ACYF), Children’s Bureau (CB), to improve the well-being of children affected by parental substance use disorders. NCSACW provides TA to the RPG awardees on various topics to strengthen grantee implementation of selected interventions. Technical assistance also helps strengthen cross-system collaborative practice and policy, which reduces the duplication of effort and resources. Areas of focus include:

• Cross-systems collaborative capacity to streamline communities’ and states’ efforts to save resources
• Program sustainability to ensure outcomes generated through the grant program are integrated into practice
• Trauma-informed and evidence-based and evidence-informed services to children, parents, and family members to resolve root causes of intergenerational effects of addiction and child abuse or neglect
• Family-centered substance use and mental health disorder treatment and recovery support services to ensure all members of the families heal and reduce long-term costs to service systems and programs
• Lasting systems change to institutionalize programs and practices, resulting in reduced costs over time