September/October 2011Vol. 12, No. 7Responding to Drug-Endangered Children

Effective practices for responding to the problem of drug-endangered children (DEC) are presented in a new publication, Promising Practices Toolkit: Working With Drug Endangered Children and Their Families. The toolkit is the result of an assessment conducted by DEC Task Force Federal Partnerships Subcommittee of promising practices in the field and of training modules provided by Federal, State, local, Tribal, and community-based providers across the country.

Those practices are separated into three categories:

• Increasing DEC awareness with first responders and the community
• Fostering community collaboration, including fostering a continuum of care
• Creating a more effective response, including documented medical evaluation, effective evidence collection, coordinated child investigative interviews, and development of substance abuse treatment and mental health services

For each practice, the toolkit provides information about the practice ("what is working"), information about how this practice can be helpful ("why it works"), and information and other resources for implementing the practice in the community ("how to get started"), such as checklists and useful websites.

The DEC Task Force Federal Partnerships Subcommittee is part of the Federal Interagency Task Force on Drug Endangered Children, which was established by the U.S. Department of Justice with participation from the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Education, Homeland Security, Transportation, and Interior.

The toolkit is available on the White House Drug Policy website:

http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/pdf/promising_practices_toolkit.pdf (1.41 MB)