Prescription Drug Use Leads to Child Neglect
By Rita Farlow, St. Petersburg Times—Case workers are seeing an alarming new trend among child abuse and neglect cases in Florida—prescription drug use. Regardless of their legality in some cases, social workers and police officers are witnessing the abuse of prescription drugs leading to dangerous and even deadly situations for children.
The increase in cases involving drug use has occurred rapidly. In Pinellas County Florida, the child protection services saw the percentage of cases involving drugs increase from about one-third of all cases in 2008 to almost 60% of all cases in 2010.
"This prescription drug thing has just exploded over the last 18 months or so," said Gregory Handsel, former child protection services director. "It's almost doubled, which is really significant and puts an increased workload on our investigators."
Another county in Florida saw an increase of 108% in the number of cases in which drugs were being misused, from 318 cases in 2008 to 663 cases in 2010 (not including December).
Even more disturbing is the type of parent running into problems with prescription drug abuse. The Sheriff’s Offices in both counties attest to the fact that many of these parents have no previous encounters with the law related to drugs or child abuse and neglect.
"It really could be anybody," said Brandi Lazaris, program administrator for the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office child protection investigations division. "We're seeing younger people, first-time moms … parents who may not have had any prior contact with us."
Many prescription drugs have a ”zombie-like” effect on parents. They spend much of the day sleeping, and this can put their children in dangerous situations. There have been instances of toddlers in the streets while their parent lies asleep in the home or car accidents from parents nodding off behind the wheel.
Handsel explains possible reasons for the dramatic increase in prescription drug use. "It's a sign of the times," Handsel said. "With the economic difficulties, it's drawing more and more people … looking for that escape, and they're finding it in their medicine cabinet."
The protective service divisions of counties in Florida want more statistics on the issue as currently drug use is not categorized by prescription or non-prescription drugs, but they don’t need statistics to know that it is a serious problem.
"We've got mothers that don't get out of bed three or four days at a time and the fourth- or fifth-grader is dressing themselves in the morning," Handsel said. "I don't see an end in sight. That's the alarming part."
Courtesy of St. Petersburg Times
Original Article: Prescription drug abuse leads to spike in neglect cases, child protection investigators say