Spotlight: Sobriety Treatment and Recovery Teams

A brief overview of the Sobriety Treatment and Recovery Teams (START) model for serving families with active child protective services (CPS) cases and parental substance misuse. The START model pairs a CPS caseworker with a family mentor who has lived experience with recovery and CPS system and the 2 engage the family in a sustained strengths based approach. START teams have limited case loads of 12 to 15 families. Research has shown that families who receive START services as opposed to usual care in the CPS system were more likely to achieve abstinence, children were less likely to be placed in state custody, and the state saves money in foster care costs. This report is part of the Addiction Policy Forum’s spotlight series.

Funding source: Various grants and donations

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