OSWEGO COUNTY – The Oswego County Department of Social Services (DSS) received approval to launch Sobriety Treatment and Recovery Teams (START) at the Sept. 15 meeting of the Oswego County Legislature.
START is a new child welfare initiative which focuses on families with children up to 5 years of age that are involved with child protective services due to substance use disorder.
“START is a program with proven results in other areas of the country, so we are expecting to have similar positive outcomes as we implement the program here in Oswego County,” said Oswego County Legislator Roy E. Reehil, District 5, chairman of the Oswego County Legislature’s Human Services Committee. “The results have shown reduced child abuse and neglect, increased sobriety in parents and decreased out-of-home placement of children.”
An evidence-based program, START aims to help parents achieve recovery from substance use disorder (SUD) and keep their children in their home, when safe to do so, or to reunify the family when safety factors have been remediated.
Oswego County DSS will work collaboratively with Farnham Family Services staff to provide intensive and coordinated service delivery to families among child welfare, substance use and mental health treatment providers. In addition to DSS caseworkers conducting safety assessments and providing services in the home, Farnham Family mentors will be assigned to provide each family with intensive support while parents are on their path to recovery.
Oswego County has one of the highest rates of substance use disorder in the State. It follows that DSS has seen a significant increase in substance use disorder presenting child safety concerns in child welfare cases over the past several years. Currently, about 72% of current foster care cases required child placement in foster care due to substance use by parents and/or guardians.
Much focus and effort has been made within Oswego County to educate the public, prevent SUD, and to offer a wide range of services to treat SUD and mental health concerns that are often co-existing.
DSS’s collaboration with Farnham Family Services will build upon Farnham’s Peer Counseling program and fast-track parents into clinical treatment services, getting them on the road to sustained recovery.
START services will bring hope to families struggling with addiction and minimize the traumatic impact of SUD on young children. It will also avoid or shorten the duration of the removal of children from their homes whenever safely possible.
For more information on the START model, visit https://www.cffutures.org/start/.
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