Snowe Supports Programs For Children Affected By Parental Substance Abuse

SNOWE SUPPORTS PROGRAMS FOR CHILDREN AFFECTED BY PARENTAL SUBSTANCE ABUSE

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

WASHINGTON, D.C. -U.S. Senator Olympia J. Snowe (R-ME), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, today expressed her support for programs that aid children affected by parental substance abuse at a Finance Committee hearing on the economic and societal effects of the methamphetamine epidemic on the child welfare system.

"The welfare of children throughout our country is greatly impacted by parents who abuse drugs and alcohol," said Snowe. "Through no fault of their own, these children have increased chances of being abused and neglected. Congress must ensure that we comprehensively address the problems exacerbated by substance abusing parents and protect the health and well-being of our children."

The following is Snowe's statement as prepared for delivery:

While the meth epidemic has not hit Maine at this point, we are well aware that the problem is heading eastward. In fact, officials in my state have been warned that should meth take hold, we'll long for the days when we were fighting narcotics and heroin.

All too often statistics paint an unhappy picture for children of substance abusing parents. Children whose parents abuse alcohol and drugs are almost three times likelier to be abused and more than four times likelier to be neglected than children of parents who are not substance abusers.

We know that meth poses even greater problems. In the past five years, meth lab seizures by local or federal law enforcement have affected over 15,000 children. Media reports are full of horror stories—children who have been taught how to cook meth by their addicted parents; young children who are forced to take up responsibilities far beyond their years because their parents aren't providing basic necessities or supervision; children who are playing with contaminated toys and wearing contaminated clothes—the list goes on.

Yet even before meth abuse starts occurring in more significant numbers in New England, our substance abuse and social services providers are already stretched thin. Greater capacity for residential treatment and family treatment in particular is desperately needed in my State. I'm happy to see that members of the first panel have successfully gone through family treatment—your personal experiences remind us that despite the grim stories we hear about in the media, we should not abandon all hope.

It is obvious, both anecdotally and statistically, that child welfare is significantly impacted by parental substance abuse. For every $1 invested in alcohol and drug treatment, $7.14 dollars are saved by reductions in health costs, violence and crime, lost work and school productivity, and social services including child abuse, neglect, and foster care. So it makes a lot of sense to fund state programs to address these two issues in tandem. That's why I plan on reintroducing the Child Protection/Alcohol and Drug Partnership Act this Spring—legislation I have worked on with my friend Sen. Rockefeller.

This bill provides five-year grants linking substance abuse treatment for families that come to the attention of the child welfare system. The program is designed to increase the capacity of both the child welfare and alcohol and drug systems to comprehensively address the needs of these families to improve child safety, family stability, and permanence, and to promote recovery from alcohol and drug problems. Our underlying belief, and the point of this bill, is to encourage existing agencies to work together to keep children safe.

At the same time, we also know that reunification of families isn't always possible. According the National Association of Counties study, almost 60 percent of child welfare officials surveyed stated that meth use is creating increased difficulty in family reunification. This is truly tragic and it is overwhelming our already overburdened foster care system. While relatives may want to step in to provide for these often neglected, abused or orphaned children, in many instances they are not even made aware when their grandchildren or nieces or nephews become wards of the state. Senator Clinton and I have introduced a bill - the Kinship Caregiver Support Act—that provides assistance to families in which children are being raised by relatives other than their parents.

When Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez came to Portland last July to speak at the National District Attorneys' Association summer meeting, he said "meth is now the most dangerous drug in America.'' In order to meet this great challenge, we need to fight this problem on all fronts—through effective education and prevention efforts, law enforcement and family drug courts, and good treatment and recovery options for individuals and their families.

http://snowe.senate.gov/news.htm