Foster Care Training

On the one hand, it is impossible to make simple statements about how parental substance abuse impacts kids and teens. The scope of the impact depends on numerous factors. At the same time, research suggests that children are negatively impacted by prenatal exposure to drugs, as well as growing up in homes where one or more parent abuses substances. This training will explore the ways that parental substance abuse affects attachment styles in children, as well emotional and behavioral functioning. Children and teens in the foster care system can be impacted by parental substance abuse at many points along their development (from pre-removal stressors, to reunification barriers, and mixed-messages sent from their parents while they are in care). Concrete scripts and conversations will be offered to participants to help them support children trying to make sense of parental substance abuse. We will highlight specific interventions that can be helpful for youth and teens in the child welfare system.

**Participants can utilize skills learned in this course in the following ways:

1. Participants will leave having practiced concrete scripts and conversations with foster youth.
2. Participants will leave with resources to further their learning in the effects of parental substance abuse on system-involved children and youth.