Paper
Wednesday, 19 July 2006
This presentation is part of : Initiatives for Culturally Competent Care
Family Drug Treatment Court: Merging the Power of the Court with Nursing Knowledge, Interventions and Research
Elaine D. Kauschinger, MS, ARNP, BC, University of Miami School of Nursing and Health Studies, Coral Gables, FL, USA
Learning Objective #1: Ientify the complex health needs of adult substance abuse clients involved in legal proceedings of dependency drug courts.
Learning Objective #2: Identify essential components of interdisciplinary collaboration involving legal, nursing, social, and pyschological issues.
Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Primary Health Clinic for Family Drug Court
Elaine D. Kauschinger, MS, ARNP, BC
University of Miami School of Nursing and Health Studies
Purpose: The Dependency Drug Court (DDC) Health Clinic was developed to provide an innovative family-based health promotion program for substance abusing parents in the DDC.  This pilot project assessed the feasibility of providing health services to a primarily female minority population. Due to complex health and social problems, these clients experienced extensive barriers in assessing traditional health care clinics. This program also provided a system of referrals, provided culturally sensitive health education, developed an interdisciplinary approach to health care, and an assessment of the effectiveness of this program was performed.
Framework: The Haack-Darnell Community Care Model was the basis of the development of the clinic and a nurse practitioner based model of health care utilized the US Public Health prevention guidelines.
Methods: A family nurse practitioner (FNP) and FNP students enrolled in the Masters Program at the University of Miami School of Nursing provided an initial health history and physical examination for the 51 adult parents that participated in a family drug court. In addition, clients were provided with health education and counseling, referrals, and follow-up care. These health care providers were members of an interdisciplinary team that included the collaboration of judicial, social, psychological and correctional experts.
Results and Conclusions: Health outcomes provided evidence that the DDC health clinic delivered appropriate health care in a timely fashion to a complex population. In addition, this program provided opportunities for the development of an interdisciplinary approach to substance abusing parents involved in a family drug court.

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