On the Job 

With foster care programs being innundated by an influx of children of addicts, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced a new pilot program to provide targeted treatment for troubled families in 18 counties.

Ohio START (Sobriety, Treatment, and Reducing Trauma), an intervention program that will offer specialized services — such as intensive trauma counseling — to children who have suffered victimization due to parental drug use is modeled on a successful effort in Kentucky. Ohio START will also provide drug treatment for parents of children referred to the program.

“Children with a parent or parents addicted to drugs tend to stay in foster care longer, and they enter foster care having experienced significant trauma. While mom and dad are high, these kids may go days without food or supervision. They may have witnessed a parent inject drugs, overdose, or even die,” DeWine said. “By creating this program, we hope to help these counties give the silent victims of the opioid epidemic — the children — the best care possible, while also helping their parents recover from their addiction.”

Statewide, 50 percent of the children placed in foster care in 2015 ended up there because of abuse and neglect associated with parental drug use, according to the Public Children Services Association of Ohio.

Ohio START will bring together child protective services, peer mentors, the courts, and behavioral health and treatment providers to work closely with families whose children have been abused or neglected due to parental addiction in Adams, Athens, Brown, Clinton, Fairfield, Fayette, Gallia, Highland, Hocking, Jackson, Lawrence, Meigs, Perry, Pickaway, Pike, Ross, Scioto, and Vinton counties.

The program is primarily being paid for through a $4.8 million Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) grant from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office. The money is to be shared among the counties over 2½ years.

Casey Family Programs, which joined with the Ohio Attorney General's Office to develop the Ohio START program, is providing an additional $75,000 for the pilot program. Both grants are being administered by the Public Children Services Association of Ohio.

Child welfare workers will work with a certified peer mentor to meet with each family once a week to ensure the safety of the child and provide support to parents. If a child can safely stay in the home during the process, the child can do so with the oversight of caseworkers. Otherwise, kids will have regular visitation with their parents as they undergo drug treatment, which will be paid for by either Medicaid or private insurance. Children in the program will receive specialized treatment for behavioral or emotional trauma.

“The ultimate objective is to stabilize these families so children and parents can recover and move on to abuse-free and addiction-free lives,” DeWine said.

Family reunification will occur after parents have at least six months of documented sobriety.

Angela Sausser, executive director of the Public Children Services Association of Ohio, said the children services system is in crisis and children are suffering as a result of the opiate epidemic.

“Ohio’s children services system has experienced an 11 percent increase in the number of children removed from their homes and a 19 percent increase in children staying in care longer due to how challenging it is for parents addicted to opioids to successfully recover,” she said. “This grant opportunity allows us to pilot a model that could positively improve children’s safety, well-being, and permanency with their birth families.”

In Gallia County, 17 of the 18 children in custodial placement in March were taken because of parental opiate abuse, said county Children Services Director Russ Moore. Five of the children were newborns.

“We are facing an epidemic and we are in desperate need of any lifelines we can acquire and the Attorney General has provided us with a much-needed lifeline,” he said.

Judge Patricia FitzGerald, senior director of Casey Family Programs, said creative new approaches such as START are needed.

“This is a proven, effective program to battle drug abuse and keep families together,” she said. “This program will reduce the numbers of children with poor outcomes. This program will bring families home.”

The effectiveness of Ohio START will be studied by partners with Ohio State University's College of Social Work and the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs at Ohio University. If the program is deemed successful, it may expand to other counties.