RELEASE: February 5 , 2004

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Davy Commits $10 million to treat substance-abusing parents:
DHS to Assume Oversight of Addiction Services

Department of Human Services Acting Commissioner James M. Davy announced that $10 million will be earmarked to treat drug- and alcohol-abusing parents who are involved with the state child welfare system, a groundbreaking step that helps lay the foundation to reform the Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS).

“Despite the fact that substance abuse is a huge factor in child maltreatment, DYFS had relatively little funding committed to treatment for parents – until today,” said Davy, during a joint press conference with Clifton R. Lacy, M.D., Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services.

The funds will be used to create 850 new treatment slots for drug- and alcohol-abusing parents who are in danger of losing their children. It is estimated that the influx of treatment dollars will serve about 2500 families in the coming year, said Davy.

The funding increase includes $3 million previously allocated under the settlement of a class-action lawsuit brought by Children’s Rights Inc., plus $7 million in state and federal welfare funds that is being redirected to provide treatment for parents who are both on public assistance and involved with DYFS.

Also today, Davy and Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) Commissioner Clifton R. Lacy, M.D., announced that the Division of Addiction Services, which coordinates and implements substance-abuse treatment and prevention services statewide, will be transferred from DHSS to the Department of Human Services. Governor James E. McGreevey transmitted an executive order to the state legislature on Thursday making the transfer effective.

“It just seems logical that the Department of Human Services assume this function,” Davy said. “Thousands of our clients already receive services, yet many more need them – whether you’re talking about people with mental illnesses, parents and individuals on welfare, or parents and teens who are involved with DYFS. This administration feels we can better serve people if this department, which is already monitoring people who need addiction services, takes the lead in determining where and how these services are delivered.”

“The transfer of the Division of Addiction Services moves these important services to DHS, where closer integration with DYFS and other DHS programs will result in more efficient service delivery to individuals and families in need. This is an example of positive structural change to increase efficiency and effectiveness in state government,” stated Dr. Lacy.

Joseph P. Miele, chairman of the Governor’s Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, said he fully supports the reorganization.

“This is a significant announcement. Investing $10 million to increase treatment services for DYFS families is unprecedented, and reorganizing addiction services under the Department of Human Services is logical and overdue,” Miele said.

The DAS, with offices in Trenton and Newark, employs 122 people and has a $130 million budget for the current fiscal year. Various units within the division focus on prevention; treatment; administrative support; planning and new initiatives; research and information systems; and licensing of residential treatment programs. The division funds more than 250 local agencies and community-based organizations that comprise a comprehensive network of prevention, intervention and treatment services.

The Department of Human Services does not plan any personnel changes. Carolann Kane-Cavaiola, currently an Assistant Commissioner in the Department of Health and Senior Services, will remain in charge of the division but will now report to Davy instead of Commissioner Lacy.

The Comprehensive Tobacco Control Program, formerly part of the DAS, will remain under the DHSS and be closely coordinated with the department’s cancer and cardiovascular initiatives.

The transfer of addiction services coincides with DHS efforts to craft a long-term DYFS reform plan. Substance abuse treatment will be one of the key elements in the reform plan. DYFS reports that at least one-third of substantiated abuse or neglect cases each year involve a parent with a known substance abuse problem. In addition, prenatal substance abuse accounts for approximately 11 percent of substantiated abuse or neglect cases each year and was present in 23 percent of the deaths of children under the age of 1 between 1998 and 2002.

Davy said the $10 million boost in funding for DYFS-involved parents represents a 33-percent increase in the roughly $30 million spent each year to provide addiction services through various DHS divisions, including DYFS, Mental Health Services, and Family Development, which oversees public assistance programs.

Some of the new funds will be devoted toward creating and expanding programs that work to reunite mothers with children who have been removed by DYFS and placed with relatives or foster parents because of the mothers’ addiction problems.

“If we can help people beat addictions, they are more likely to be loving parents who can provide their children with safe and stable homes. We want children to be able to go home, when it’s appropriate, because it’s less traumatic for them,” said Davy. “I realize we have many huge-hearted foster and adoptive parents in this state, and we certainly need more of them. But we must make every effort to work with parents who can become functional and provide for their own children. And increasing substance abuse treatment programs is one of the best ways that we can do that.”

The plans for the $3 million allocated under the Children’s Rights settlement call for 20 long-term residential treatment beds – 10 beds each at Sunrise House in Lafayette, Sussex County, and the Newark Renaissance program; 60 intensive outpatient treatment slots using local providers in various counties; and 22 slots in residentially assisted partial care programs.

The additional $7 million is an expansion of substance abuse treatment initiatives for parents who receive benefits under Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), the federal welfare program for families with dependent children. About 31 percent of the parents involved with DYFS also receive welfare benefits.

The funding will support 190 outpatient treatment slots, 220 intensive-outpatient slots, and methadone maintenance for 350 clients.

All told, the $10 million in new funds will provide 862 treatment slots that will serve about 2,500 DYFS-involved parents each year.

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Robert L. Johnson, M.D., a professor of psychiatry at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, and a member of the expert child welfare panel overseeing DYFS reforms issued the following statement:

“The $10 million in new funding and the transfer of addiction services to DHS are important first steps in crafting a better child welfare system. It signals that the state is beginning to view child welfare services in a much broader way. In New Jersey, parental substance abuse is a significant root cause of dysfunction and toxic families. You cannot really protect children and strengthen these families until the root cause of dysfunction is addressed. The transfer of addiction services to DHS will facilitate the type of joint planning and coordinated treatment that is essential to effective outcomes.”

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