Problem-Solving Courts Problem-Solving Courts

Family Dependency Treatment Court is a juvenile or family court docket of which selected abuse, neglect, and dependency cases are identified where parental substance abuse is a primary factor. Judges, attorneys, child protection services, and treatment and other social and public health personnel unite with the goal of providing safe, nurturing, and permanent homes for children while simultaneously providing parents the necessary support and services to become drug and alcohol abstinent. Family dependency treatment courts aid parents in regaining control of their lives, ensure the provision of necessary services for children, and promote long term stabilized recovery to enhance the possibility of family reunification within mandatory legal time frames (Wheeler & Siegerist, 2003).

The Family Dependency Court works with parent(s)/guardian(s) who are in danger of losing custody of their children due to abuse or neglect charges.

Goals of family/dependency courts include:

• Provide parent(s)/guardians(s) with an opportunity to be clean and sober;
• Provide support to aid them in resisting further criminal activity; and skills that will aid them in leading productive, substance-free and crime-free lives;
• Help the parent to become emotionally, financially, and personally self-sufficient;
• Increase the personal, familial, and societal accountability of offenders;
• Help the parent(s)/guardian(s) develop adequate parenting and "coping" skills to be able to serve as an effective parent on a day-to-day basis; and
• Decrease the amount of time needed to determine if reunification is a plausible goal.