Reframing child protection social worker talk about mothers who use substances: providing safer contexts for them and their children

Eileen Joy and Suzette Jackson

Chapter 16 in Handbook on Intersectionality and Social Work, 2026, pp 212-224 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Women who use substances (WWUS) while pregnant or parenting are among the most marginalised globally, with Indigenous women especially impacted by Western child protection policies and enforced child removal. Using critical discourse analysis of interviews with 24 child protection social workers from New Zealand, this study examines how they reinforced or challenged patriarchal motherhood discourses regarding mothers and substance use. Although patriarchal and child-centric views dominated, some practitioners countered these narratives by considering intersectional factors and articulating how securing a prenatal alcohol admission affected the mother within the broader context of child protection practices. These findings emphasise the need for social workers to adopt a matricentric, intersectional, and decolonised approach, particularly in settler colonial contexts, that includes family networks and recognises the structural and intergenerational oppressions affecting mothers who use substances.

Keywords: Matricentric; Mothers; Substance Use; Child Protection; Indigenous; Intersectionality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035324453
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