COLUMBUS, Ohio (WDTN) – Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced the creation of a new pilot program that will serve families harmed by parental opioid abuse in more than a dozen southern Ohio counties Wednesday.
DeWine says Ohio START (Sobriety, Treatment, and Reducing Trauma) is an intervention program that will provide specialized victim services, such as intensive trauma counseling, to children who have suffered victimization due to parental drug use. The program 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,” said Attorney General DeWine. “By creating this program, we hope to help these 14 counties give the silent victims of the opioid epidemic – the children – the best care possible, while also helping their parents recover from their addiction.”
According to the Public Children Services Association of Ohio, 50 percent of children placed in foster care in 2015 were placed due to abuse and neglect associated with parental drug use.
The Attorney General says 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 Athens, Clermont, Clinton, Fairfield, Fayette, Gallia, Highland, Jackson, Perry, Pickaway, Pike, Hocking, Ross, and Vinton counties.
The program will primarily be funded through a $3.5 million Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) grant from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office which will be shared among the counties over two and a half years. These grant funds will be specifically spent to help county child welfare agencies identify children who have been victimized due to parental drug use and provide them with specialized treatment for any resulting behavioral or emotional trauma. The grant will also fund victim services for parents with underlying victimization that may be contributing to their addiction.
Casey Family Programs, which partnered 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 will be administered by the Public Children Services Association of Ohio.
Family reunification will occur after parents have a minimum of six months of documented sobriety.
Ohio START is modeled on a similar program in Kentucky that resulted in about half as many children returning to foster care due to parental addiction. Parents involved in the Kentucky program were also found to have twice the sobriety rate.
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 found to be a success, it may expand to other counties.Keep checking WDTN.com for the latest news, weather and sports. To get alerts for breaking news, grab the FREE WDTN News App for iPhone or Android. You can also sign up for email alerts here.Don’t miss another post on Facebook or Twitter for all the latest breaking news
