On a winding trail in southeastern Ohio, four children symbolize the
devastating consequences of the opioid epidemic.
Delaney, Liam,
Finnian and Connally are living with their aunt Suzanne Valle now. She
and her husband are raising them as their own because their parents are
heroin addicts.
"It's heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking to see
that parents will take the drugs over the children," Valle said. She is
talking about her own brother.
"What do you tell those children
about their parents?" Reynolds asked.
"I tell them that their
parents love them, but they just are not able to take care of them,"
Valle replied.
She is raising a fifth child, a boy named Ronny
who just turned one. His mother is an addict somewhere in town.
It is estimated that due in large part to the opioid catastrophe, at
least 2.5 million children nationwide are being raised by grandparents
or other relatives. But some have no relatives who will take them in,
and go directly to foster care.
"We think about 50 percent of the
kids who are in foster care in Ohio are there because one or both
parents are in fact drug addicts," said Mike DeWine, the state's
attorney general.
Across the state, 14,000 children are in agency
custody – up 14 percent in five years. Case workers are stressed to the
limit.
"We're removing one to three infants a month that are born
addicted to drugs," said Jill Wright, executive director of Children's
Services in Adams County. "Those infant mothers? A lot of them we never
see again. They never come to visit. They just leave their child and
continue on with their addiction," she said.
"You've been doing
this for 26 years. Is the current situation the worst you've ever seen
it?" Reynolds asked.
"Yes," she said.
Suzanne Valle agrees
that this is not a gathering storm. Instead, the storm is upon us.
"I do do foster care. But it's almost like it's not enough because
there are so many kids who need somebody," she said.
Kids like
Jack, who has been in and out of foster care four times:
"I
called my dad one day … and I was like, 'Dad … why can't you just try
and get me.' And he was like, 'I just can't stop,' like the drugs
overtook him," Jack said. "And I was like, 'You're one messed up dad, to
pick drugs over your own kid.' And I just hung up."
There are
thousands more just like him.
By Dean Reynolds.
7 August 2017
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ohio-foster-care-system-flooded-with-children-opioid-epidemic/
