At this point, most Americans are aware of the incredibly high number of heroin users currently in the United States. Heroin and other opiates have permeated all different types of communities resulting in a spike in need for services. This article talks specifically about how heroin use and addiction has coincided with increased need for foster care services. While there don't seem to be specific numbers to back it up, caseworkers and judges involved in these cases agree that heroin is behind many of the problems occurring within families today. Some child welfare agencies have even begun screening a family for opiate use at the very start of their service provision with the family.
The question that remains for social workers and other helping professionals is where and how to intervene in order to achieve the best results for our families. Addiction and child abuse/neglect are two very complex issues and it can be very difficult to parse out what the true catalyst of the problem was. The article does mention Ohio's progressive family drug court program as well as interventions being used in other states.
Last year, the state of Indiana hired an additional 113 child welfare caseworkers in order to keep up with the high caseloads. Many counties and states are reporting unprecedented numbers of children (especially very young children) in the foster care system which could be partially due to the rise in opiate use. How much more can our child welfare system sustain? How can social workers intervene in this issue?
It is great to see that Ohio is in the forefront of innovative interventions for the "epidemic". While a agree with the evidence that heroin usage is on the rise in more Ohio communities, I find it hard to understand why state leaders
ReplyDeleteAre not better prepared to handle this because in the 1980s and 90s cocaine hit the African American ( inner city) communities causing some of the same stresses on the system(s).
DeleteI'm not sure how much the system can truly handle. I think the most imperative thing to do is provide prevention services to mothers and more addiction services to everyone, including prevention and intervention. If we can find a way to reduce the number of opiate users, we can have lesser cases due to this problem.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with you Sierra, I think we need to sink more money into prevention! I also think we need to provide better treatment for those struggling with addiction. If addiction is a disease just like heart disease and diabetes, why do those who are addicted to drugs/alcohol not get the same level of treatment than those who have heart disease or diabetes? There aren't even enough beds in treatment facilities to help those who want help! Furthermore, when someone does receive treatment, there is no long term check ups as far as I know. We really need to look at the drug/alcohol treatments we provide currently.
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