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Many people in recovery are parents. In fact, 70% of women entering treatment have children (Werner, Young, Dennis, & Amatetti, 2007). Many identify caring for their children and strengthening their relationships with them as primary recovery goals. Parenting can be rewarding, extremely stressful, and—for parents with trauma histories—potentially triggering. Parenting-related issues that arise for families in recovery may include coping with stress, including family separation and reconnection; household and financial challenges; isolation; difficulty balancing recovery-related activities with spending time with children; discipline issues; rebuilding trust; and overcoming stigma (Arria, Moe, & Winters, n.d.). In one study related to parenting and mental illness, mothers and other stakeholders identified numerous systemic barriers to developing and supporting mothering roles (Barrow, Alexander, McKinney, Lawinski, & Pratt, 2014).
As investments and initiatives to address people’s needs for recovery supports to advance their health, housing, and employment goals have expanded, much remains to be done to address people’s needs for recovery supports to assist them in moving towards their parenting goals. The purpose of the Parenting in Recovery: Challenges and Opportunities webinar is to provide insight into the experience of parenting in recovery, to offer examples of recovery-oriented approaches to supporting people their roles as parents, and to suggest strategies for increasing parenting supports for people in recovery.
Learning Objectives
Webinar participants will be able to
- identify challenges specific to parenting while in recovery,
- name three ways to support people as parents in recovery, and
- identify one next step on how to increase or improve supports for parents in recovery (either individually or as an agency).
Moderator: Cheryl Gagne, Center for Social Innovation
Presenters:
- Joanne Nicholson, Dartmouth Psychiatric Research Center
- Sharon Dipirro-Beard, Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services
- Evan Kaplan, Child and Family Connections, Inc.
- Julie Maida, Sober Mommies
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