Connecting Caregivers to Substance Use Treatment in Florida

Impact Highlight: Following GPL support, 300 more parents per year in the Suncoast region of Florida received substance use treatment within one month of being referred to services.

Project Context:

• Florida’s Department of Children and Families (DCF) found that caregiver substance misuse was a contributing factor in more than half of CPS investigations. However, few caregivers successfully accessed treatment services to address these needs.
• GPL analysis done with Florida DCF revealed that only 7% of caregivers referred from child welfare workers actually began treatment within the month following their referral to Family Intervention Specialists (FIS), a program designed to help link families involved with the child welfare system to substance use treatment.
• Florida DCF leaders wanted to improve how staff members they referred caregivers with substance use disorders, and how those caregivers engaged with and received treatment, with a goal to improve child safety and family stability and reduce involvement with the child welfare system.

How the GPL Supported:

• Helped strengthen coordination and service delivery across the child welfare and behavioral health systems by:
  • Revamping collaboration and coordination, including by having new monthly meetings, involving staff from DCF, the regional intermediary Central Florida Behavioral Health Network (CFBHN), and behavioral health service providers.
  • Developing new key performance metrics for providers — such as timely successful contact, completion rates for intake and assessment appointments, and time to begin and complete treatment. Individual client-level data was also matched to child welfare information to track long-term child safety and family well-being outcomes.
  • Standardizing a referral form to increase the consistency of information that providers shared with providers and to improve communication with clients.
• Supported DCF, CFBHN, and providers as they tested ways to increase caregiver engagement in treatment including:
  • Launching a telehealth system with flexible hours so caregivers could complete assessments from their homes.
  • Sending caregivers reminders about appointments via text message.
  • Reserving priority treatment slots for caregivers referred from the child welfare system so they could access treatment more quickly.

Results:

• In less than one year in the Suncoast region DCF:
  • Decreased the average time between referral and completed assessment by five days, meaning that parents were connected to the services they needed more quickly.
  • Doubled the share of caregivers who began substance use treatment within 30 days of being referred. This meant that 300 more parents per year in the Suncoast region stated receiving substance use treatment within that faster timeframe.
• CFBHN added new performance metrics to all FIS program provider contracts, incorporated effective practices into contract expectations, and developed new dashboards to monitor and support provider performance in real time.