Treatment Needs and Services for Mothers with a Dual Diagnosis: Substance Abuse and Mental Illness.

Summary Women who are diagnosed as substance abusers and as mentally ill are at risk for psychosocial, legal, and economic problems. When these women are mothers, the challenges they and their children face are evermore serious. This paper reviews the treatment needs of dual diagnosed, substance abusing and mentally ill mothers. Next, the paper suggests treatment strategies and programmatic options for comprehensively serving and meeting the needs of these mothers and their children. Particular attention is devoted to the promise of residential and continuing care services and skills based interventions for the target clients. After describing research methods suitable to the evaluation of the recommended human services, the paper concludes with an agenda for further investigations of the needs and appropriate services for dual diagnosed mothers with a history of substance abuse and mental illness.