To foster more discussion between practitioners and scholars, this book explores unified approaches for prevention of, and treatment for, children in abusive situations and their parents.

The contributors probe: the history of abusive behaviour and intoxication, the research literature on drug-exposed children in the welfare system and the interventions that facilitate their optimum development, the legislative and policy contexts in which potential collaborations between the fields of substance abuse and child welfare are being deployed or abandoned, the damaging effects that parental and family substance abuse add to a host of child welfare problems, the need for clinicians to develop a sound therapeutic foundation to enhance their effectiveness with clients, and what can be done within drug-abuse treatment systems to develop services that directly affect the quality of life for children living with a drug-dependent parent.