Opiate Epidemic
The opiate epidemic has reached every corner of Ohio. State leaders have responded by expanding Medicaid, which makes treatment options available to more people struggling with addiction, as well as by limiting prescriptions and piloting evidence-based practices such as the Maternal Opiate Medical Support (MOMS) program.
Children of parents addicted to opiates began flooding into the state’s child protection system in 2013. They are the invisible victims of the epidemic. A 2015 survey by PCSAO found that half of children taken into custody that year had parental drug use identified at the time of removal, and 28 percent of children removed that year had parents who used opioids, including prescription opiates, heroin and fentanyl. That means nearly a third of children in custody were there because of the epidemic, and that number doesn’t count many children who continued to be served in their homes or placed with kin.
The impact on the system has been devastating:
- Children services agencies struggle to find homes for these children, who are often babies in need of a loving family either temporarily while the parent recovers from the addiction or permanently when the parent has died from an overdose or had her/his rights severed.
- More children were remaining in care longer due to the time it takes a person with substance use disorder to recover, thus reducing the number of available foster homes.
- The system’s historic reliance on kinship families has been checked because, too often, multiple members of the same family also struggle with addiction.
- Placement costs are sending agencies into a significant deficit.
- Caseworkers are often the first responders to assess homes with opioid-addicted parents. The secondary trauma and burnout they suffer is only compounded by their frustration at not being able to reunify children with their parents because of relapses associated with opioids.
In response, PCSAO launched Ohio START.
PCSAO Resources
- One year later: Children services remains in severe crisis (December 2018)
- Caseworker Safety Policies, Including Carrying Narcan (March 2018)
- Best Interests for Abused and Neglected Children: Working Toward Reunification During the Opioid Crisis (November 2017)
- Opiate Epidemic Child Protection Presentation (Spring 2017)
- Impact of the Opioid Epidemic on Children (infographic)
Related Resources
- Innocent Victims – Ideas in Motion (produced by then-Attorney General Mike DeWine)
- An Ohio Family Rebuilds after Addiction (produced by Vice Video)