The Parent-Child Assistance Program (PCAP) is an an intensive, in-home intervention to help mothers who abuse alcohol or drugs during pregnancy. Its goals are to help mothers build healthy families and prevent future births of children exposed prenatally to alcohol and drugs.
PCAP began in 1991 at the University of Washington as a federally-funded research demonstration of an intensive, 3-year advocacy/case management model with high-risk mothers and their children. The intervention has an extensive evidence base, with independent documentation of cost-savings. Based on this record of success, the Washington State Legislature subsequently funded PCAP to develop sites throughout Washington state and the model has been replicated at dozens of other sites in the U.S. and Canada.
In 2017, UW professor and PCAP developer Therese M. Grant, PhD and colleagues created a detailed manual to assist agencies who want to bring PCAP to their communities and agencies. The manual describes the steps to implement the intervention, from start-up and enrolling clients, delivering the intervention, special considerations, and evaluation.
For more information, please visit the PCAP website or contact PCAP staff at the UW or in one of the PCAP community agencies in Washington.
Download the manual: Parent-Child Assistance Program (PCAP). A Model of Effective Case Management Intervention with High-Risk Families / by Therese M. Grant et al, Fetal Alcohol & Drug Unit, University of Washington, Seattle, July 2017.
