CANSFORD LABS

Non-attendance for hair collection for drug and alcohol testing in child care court cases

May 15, 2019

Social Services become involved in assessing and planning the care of children in cases where the parents’ life style may affect the child’s upbringing.
 
This includes comprehensive risk assessments of the parents’ life style. Parental substance abuse is a significant factor when it comes to assessing children at risk.
Drug and alcohol hair testing is now widely used to assist the decision making process as it helps to identify a parent’s drug and alcohol habit.
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In our experience, a significant number of individuals fail to turn up on the arranged date for hair sample collection. Speculation might arise about the underlying reasons that lead to failure to attend hair sample collection.
 
We found that drug levels for most of the analytes were lower in the “No show” group, suggesting that inconsistency in attending collection appointments might be linked to drug use withdrawal.
Our data supports the premise that when clients fail to attend sample collection appointments, although it might merely indicate a disorganised life style, it can also be linked to a drug behaviour change to obtain a satisfactory hair testing result.

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