One-year outcomes from the CASAWORKS for Families intervention for substance-abusing women on welfare.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effectiveness of a multiservice intervention designed to move substance-abusing women on welfare to sobriety and self-sufficiency by addressing their substance abuse, domestic violence, employment, and basic needs.


METHODS
A field evaluation with repeated measures at 6 and 12 months on an intent-to-treat sample of 529 women conducted in 11 selected sites across the country. There were significant improvements shown in substance use and family and social functioning by the 6-month point, and additional improvements in employment by the 12-month point. By 12 months, more than 46% were abstinent from alcohol and other drugs, and 30% were employed at least part-time. There were only modest improvements shown in the medical and psychiatric status of these women. These preliminary findings suggest that site-level interagency coordination and program-level case management were associated with improvements in the targeted areas as predicted by the model. Future work will require a more closely specified, manual-guided form of the intervention plus the inclusion of control groups and cost measures to fully evaluate the cost benefits from the final form of the intervention.
McLellan
A Thomas
AT
Treatment Research Institute, University of Pennsylvania, USA.
Gutman
Marjorie
M
Lynch
Kevin
K
McKay
James R
JR
Ketterlinus
Robert
R
Morgenstern
Jon
J
Woolis
Diana
D
D000328:Adult; D003710:Demography; D004651:Employment; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000592:standards*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012946:Social Welfare; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014481:United States; D014932:Women's Health Services / Q000592:standards*