Casaworks for Families: A New Treatment Model for Substance-Abusing Parenting Women on Welfare

This article provides a brief overview of CASAWORKS for Families(CWF), an innovative intervention designed to help substance-abusing parentingwomen on welfare. CWFwas developed in response to the passage of welfare reform legislation in 1996. Factors that provided a background and context for the development ofCWFare considered. The rationale, key elements, and the conduct of a pilot demonstration of CWFar e described. Evaluation findings that serve to guide the next steps to improve the intervention are reviewed. Finally, new welfare policy priorities emerging around the importance of addressing behavioral health problems among welfare recipients are highlighted.