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What Happens to Kids Who Are Returned to Drug-Addicted Parents?

Parental substance abuse was shown to be a contributing factor in 60 percent of the child welfare cases reported in 1999, according to the Department of Health & Human Services. When a child is removed from a home as a result of abuse or neglect, reuniting the child with his family is the preferred final outcome. Children who are returned to drug-addicted parents may face difficult developmental challenges.

  1. Drug Addiction

    • The impact of drug addiction on a person's work performance, home life and self identity become less obvious to the addict as the condition progresses. Those closet to the addict also suffer a decline in the quality of their everyday life. This is especially true for children of addicted parents. The removal of a child from a home is a traumatic event for parents and children. Helping an addicted parent create a healthy environment for her child's return is a complicated process with little guarantee that the parent will remain drug-free. The future wellbeing of the child is dependent on the parent's ability to maintain a stable home environment.

    Recovery Process

    • Drug addiction is a way of life in which a person's set of priorities becomes skewed towards using and obtaining drugs. The recovery process requires the addict to retrain his thinking patterns, as well as the body's physical cravings. This is a transitional process where the likelihood of relapse is high if individuals fail to maintain a structured, and purposeful lifestyle. A child who is returned to the home before the parent is able to assume the responsibility of caring for a child may very well impede the parent's recovery process. When this happens, the likelihood of relapse is high, and may require the child to be removed from the home again.

    Child Development

    • The return of the child to the home marks one of many changes an addicted parent has to adapt to during his recovery process. The parent's level of recovery will determine the level of care and safety the child will receive. The age of the child, and the degree to which she's been exposed to drug addiction will play a part in how well she copes with the conditions in the home. Whether the child remains in the home will depend on the parent's ability to provide adequate emotional support and structure for the child. To be able to meet the child's needs, an addicted parent must have adequate emotional support and structure in his own life.

    Effects

    • Children who are returned to drug addicted parents are at risk of experiencing even worse treatment than before in the case of parents who suffer a relapse. As a child's primary role models are his parents, any communication styles, coping styles and emotional expressions carried out by the parents become the standards by which the child conducts his own life. Ongoing conflict, violence and instability will carry over into major areas of the child's life. Problems at school, issues with authority figures, and difficulty with social relationships are all possible effects on the child's life.

    Prevention/Solution

    • To ensure the safety and security of the child, proper support systems should be in place before the child is returned to the home. In addition to the parents' recovery plan, the child and the parents may be in need of counseling treatment before and after the child is returned. A family support system--be it extended family, a church organization or a youth group--can work as an added safety mechanism in the event that conditions within the home begin to decline.

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