The experience of former substance abusing mothers who achieve and maintain care and custody of their children

Abstract

The study explored the narratives of five mothers who have previously lost care and custody of their children due to past substance abuse and have went through the process of achieving and maintaining it. Through the research question, this study explores the mothers process of constructing their story by delving into their past substance abuse, the loss of their children’s care and custody and their ultimate fight in redeeming their identity as mothers and getting their children back to their care and custody. A narrative research design is employed using individual semi-structured interviews that enabled the participants to construct their stories of redemption. Each story was unique however all had a similar trajectory. All women experienced a rough start to life that led to their drug use and eventually led them to experience loss of care and custody of their children. While their wish to mother was snatched from them, they chose to re-write a different ending to their stories. These women’s narratives highlight their resilience and fight to redeem their identity as mothers. The conclusion elaborates on these findings while speculates the implications they have for practice and interventions which practitioners can adopt in supporting mothers in similar predicaments. The implementation of a more family-oriented practice could support the mother, child and the relationships between the members across the mother’s system.