Family Wellness Court for Infants and Toddlers

In October 2007, FIRST 5 Santa Clara County began an exciting collaborative venture

with the Social Services Agency, the agency’s Department of Family and Children’s Services, Superior Court, Juvenile Defenders, the Department of Alcohol and Drug Services, the Mental Health Department and the District Attorney’s Office. As a result of our long history of working together, coupled with a substantial match from FIRST 5, this group was awarded a 5-year grant in the amount of $3,742,000 from the Administration of Children and Families to serve children affected by their parent’s methamphetamine and other substance use.

The funding has been used to expand and enhance the Superior Courts' highly successful Drug Dependency Treatment Court. The Family Wellness Court for Infants and Toddlers (FWC) serves pregnant women and mothers with children 0 to 3 whose abuse of methamphetamine and other substances have placed their children at risk of out-of-home placement. A primary goal of this model is to assist these mothers in maintaining sobriety, overcoming personal obstacles, becoming better parents and reunifying with their children.

In keeping with our vision and mission of promoting the healthy development of young children, we are ensuring that the children in Family Wellness Court receive in-depth developmental and behavioral assessments and services as needed to improve their well-being. Other project goals are to prevent subsequent births of substance exposed newborns, to create a unified system of care for this target population and to implement this model across the dependency system.

While we are still in the first year of implementation of the Family Wellness Court, we have already experienced many successes such as mothers immediately accessing treatment services, children having their needs identified early and receiving age and developmentally appropriate services, systems focusing on the mother and child together to strengthen their relationship and bond and all systems working through challenges and seizing opportunities to ensure these mothers and their young children receive the support they need to live happy and healthy lives together.