Crack Babies: A National EpidemicDIANE Publishing, 1991 - 21 pages Based on on-site interviews with over 200 respondents in 12 metropolitan areas, including: child welfare administrators and caseworkers, hospital and social service staff, private agency representatives, foster parents, state and local officials, and national experts. Conclusion: "the use of cocaine and other illegal substances is pervasive in women of child-bearing age." Chilling! |
Common terms and phrases
addition Alcohol babies go home caseworkers child abuse Child Health child welfare agencies child welfare system cities continue to support Coordinate Departmental activities costs crack babies go crack cocaine crack epidemic crack mothers crack-addicted mothers DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH developmental disabilities draft report drug abuse training drug treatment programs drug-exposed babies effects of prenatal estimates exposed to crack family reunification Financing Administration form of cocaine foster care foster parents go into foster HCFA Health and Human Health Care Financing hospital delivery Human Development Services HUMAN SERVICES identified at birth infants exposed Institute on Drug interracial placement Kusserow Maternal and Child Methamphetamine National Institute NIDA Office of Human Office of Inspector OIG Recommendation parental rights percent premature birth prenatal care prenatal drug exposure prenatal exposure problem of infants Promote drug abuse Public Health Service reporting and tracking Social Security Administration Substance Abuse termination of parental testing
Popular passages
Page 6 - In the words of one caseworker, working with the mothers "is like beating your head against a brick wall—because you are dealing with someone who has no control over her life. She's worried about her next hit." Caseworkers can spend days tracking mothers who give false addresses to hospitals and then abandon their babies. Other time-consuming activities include finding emergency placements, foster care, parental drug treatment, and services necessary for special needs children. Child welfare casework...
Page 6 - ... fact is that many responsible individuals are not reporting endangered children because they feel that the system's response will be so weak that reporting will do no good or may even make things worse.
Page 28 - Conduct long- term research. The HDS and the PHS should conduct long-term research on the effects of prenatal exposure to drugs, including crack cocaine, on babies and their mothers. PHS Comment We concur. In this regard, the Health Resources and Services Administration's (HRSA) Maternal and Child Health Research Grant Program permits principal investigators to submit applications for long-term research on "drug-exposed* babies.
Page 13 - ... adopted; they are not babies anymore. Respondents cited other hindrances to adoption. One referred to a law which requires a 72-hour waiting period for a mother to voluntarily relinquish parental rights. This respondent added that a crack mother may decide to relinquish her rights when her baby is born, then leave the hospital and disappear. Neither hospital nor child welfare staff can locate her. When this happens, the baby cannot be made available for adoption until the legal process is complete....
Page 1 - Strategy estimates that 100,000 cocaine exposed babies are born each year. Prenatal cocaine exposure can lead to premature birth, low birthweight, birth defects, and respiratory and neurological problems. Crack babies have a significantly higher rate of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) than babies who have not been prenatally drugexposed. While most experts believe that many crack babies will suffer developmental disabilities, the full range of long-term effects of prenatal cocaine exposure is...
Page 12 - But others feel strongly that child welfare's goal of family reunification should remain. The adoption process is long, difficult, and expensive. According to a recent report from a children's advocacy group, caseworkers guiding the process need to be more aggressive "to challenge the hurdles of the adoption process, to face a court which seems reluctant to approve adoption, ...to (confront) the parent, and to negotiate the obstacles of the agency process itself."9 Most prospective parents want babies....
Page 15 - STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS SHOULD REDUCE BARRIERS TO FOSTER CARE AND ADOPTIVE PLACEMENTS. THIS WOULD INVOLVE REVIEWING AND REVISING EXISTING LAWS AND POLICIES ON ABANDONMENT, TERMINATION OF PARENTAL RIGHTS, AND INTERRACIAL PLACEMENT. COURTS SHOULD ESTABLISH PROCEDURES TO EXPEDITE CHILD WELFARE CASES INVOLVING DRUG ABUSE.
Page 1 - OVER 5 MILLION WOMEN OF CHILD BEARING AGE ARE USING ILLEGAL SUBSTANCES. ONE MILLION OF THESE WOMEN ARE USING COCAINE. THE PRESIDENT'S NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL STRATEGY REPORT HAS ESTIMATED THAT EVERY YEAR 100,000 BABIES ARE BORN EXPOSED TO CRACK. PRENATAL EXPOSURE TO COCAINE CAN LEAD TO PREMATURE BIRTH, LOW BIRTHWEIGHT, BIRTH DEFECTS, AND RESPIRATORY AND NEUROLOGICAL PROBLEMS. CRACK BABIES HAVE A SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER RATE OF SUDDEN INFANT DEATH SYNDROME (SIDS) THAN BABIES NOT EXPOSED ' PRENATALLY. WHILE...
Page 7 - ... agency to report cases only when the mother could not care for her child. In another city, drug exposure cases are investigated only if accompanied by other factors, such as mother self-identification or prior abuse reports. Several child welfare agencies are using new approaches to deal with crack baby cases. Some cities have organized high-risk drug baby units to provide intake and risk assessment for drug-exposed infants. The caseworkers assigned to these units are specially trained to deal...
Page 21 - Pediatr Res, April 1989 as cited in the US Congress, House of Representatives, Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families, Born Hooked: Confronting the Impact of Perinatal Substance Abuse...