This study expands on that work and examines not only the prevalence of substance use in households participating in AFDC, but importantly further analyzes a combined 1991 and 1992 data set to examine extent of use and impairment related to that use. Instead, such issues are more likely to be recognized if a recipient has a high absentee rate in a training program or other activity. In this way it is similar to substance abuse in the work place. In addition, because denial of the disease is typical in substance abusers, problems may not be easily detected simply through intake questions. Because proposals for welfare reform would require participating parents to take part in education and job training programs and benefits would be time limited, intervention with substance abusing beneficiaries takes on an importance it has not held previously.
Substance abuse is clearly a barrier to self sufficiency for some welfare recipients.
In the absence of intervention, at the end of two years beneficiaries with substance abuse problems could be ineligible for the program without the ability to be self supporting. As family self sufficiency becomes an increasingly important goal within the welfare system, treatment and rehabilitation of substance abusers becomes a focus. Typically, analyses of substance abuse focus on prevalence and frequency of individuals' use of particular substances. While prevalence rates of drug and alcohol use are important indicators, the questions of greater interest in the context of welfare reform and potential intervention are ones of impairment and need for services. Drug and alcohol use prevalence analyses by themselves do not address the question of the extent to which substance abuse interferes with individuals' ability to work or participate in job training.