Pubdate: Thu, 16 Dec 2004
Source: Courier-Journal, The (KY)
Copyright: 2004 The Courier-Journal
Contact:  http://www.courier-journal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/97
Author: Deborah Yetter, The Courier-Journal
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)
Note: does not publish LTEs from outside their circulation area

METH EFFORT TARGETS SUFFERING CHILDREN

Training Will Help Spot Kids In Need

"I just can't imagine what it must be like for some of these kids,"
UK President Lee Todd said yesterday. Foster mother Debbie Hughes
said she has walked the floor with screaming infants too agitated
to sleep after prolonged exposure to methamphetamine.

She spent weeks at the hospital where a foster child she later adopted
nearly died of pneumonia, his lungs damaged by the highly addictive
stimulant. And some children she has cared for developed skin sores
from exposure to the acids and other hazardous chemicals used to make
the illegal drug.

"I hate it," the Elkton, Ky., woman said of meth. "I just wish you
could get parents to see what it is doing to their children."

Concerned by the growing number of meth labs in Kentucky - often in or
around homes - University of Kentucky officials said yesterday they
are creating a statewide program to identify and help children who are
exposed.

This year 515 clandestine meth labs were seized in Kentucky and 66
children were found living in or around places with meth labs,
Kentucky State Police said.

METH'S RISKS TO CHILDREN Children exposed to toxic chemicals used to
make methamphetamine are more vulnerable than adults because children
have higher metabolic and respiratory rates and developing central
nervous systems. Exposure to low levels of meth chemicals can cause
headaches, nausea, dizziness and fatigue. Exposure to higher levels
can cause respiratory problems, chest pain, eye and skin irritation,
chemical burns and even death.

Chronic exposure can cause cancer and damage the brain, liver,
kidneys, spleen and immunological system.

The potential health problems are in addition to the risk of injury
from a meth lab fire or explosion, and potential abuse or neglect by
drug-addicted parents.

Source: U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration

"We have a major problem with methamphetamine production," UK
President Lee Todd said in announcing the program, which will be
coordinated through the university's Agriculture Cooperative Extension
Service. "I just can't imagine what it must be like for some of these
kids."

Toys contaminated

Peggy Arvin, nurse administrator for the state's child protective
services, said one goal of the program is to teach people how to
recognize the signs of possible meth exposure.

Children may be malnourished, dirty, poorly dressed or show signs of
injury from exposure to the chemicals used to make methamphetamine,
she said.

The drug is made with common farm or household chemicals and
over-the-counter cold medicines.

State social workers have found children scavenging for food in filthy
homes where parents were too busy making and using meth to feed them,
and some children have sores or burns from exposure to meth and its
ingredients, Arvin said.

Social workers also have found children crawling amid and ingesting
some of the hazardous chemicals used to make the illegal drug, she
said.

And they have found children in schools shunned because they smelled
like urine - but the odor was the anhydrous ammonia used to make
methamphetamine that had permeated their hair and clothes, Arvin said.

CLASSES TEACH ABOUT METH'S RISKS TO CHILDREN The Kentucky Alliance for
Drug Endangered Children announced that four free training sessions
will be conducted to teach about the risks to children from
methamphetamine. Training is for enforcement personnel, social
workers, health care providers, emergency responders, family resource
center employees, victims' advocates, community mental health-care
providers, prosecutors and community coalition members.

Registration for the training opened yesterday and will run through
Feb. 4. Forms are available at: www.ca.uky.edu/heel/materials.html.

Training dates and locations:

Feb. 28-March 1. The Forum, Hazard (101 Bulldog Lane).

March 3-4. Chrysalis House Community Center, Lexington.

March 7-8. The Executive Inn, Paducah.

March 10-11. University Plaza, Bowling Green.

A special session for physicians will be held March 5 at the
University of Kentucky. Details will be announced later.

The removal of children from a meth home is especially traumatic,
Arvin said, because the children must be decontaminated - stripped,
washed and dressed in clean clothes. They can't bring anything with
them - even a familiar toy, doll or blanket - because those items are
contaminated.

When parents are arrested, children often are placed in an unfamiliar
foster home if a suitable relative can't be found.

The children also may have health problems from exposure that must be
treated, including respiratory, kidney, liver and developmental
damage, officials said.

How it will work

The project, called Kentucky's Alliance for Drug Endangered Children,
will provide free training for police, social workers, health care
workers, teachers and others in the community to help them better
recognize and respond to possible meth exposure in children.

"It is our responsibility to be aware of what's going on in the
community and intervene," said Holly Hopper, who is with the extension
service and is chairwoman of the alliance.

Training will be conducted at four sites around the state for up to
1,200 people, Hopper said. It will be led by a team of experts from
the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children, a coalition of
state programs aimed at better education and training on how to help
children exposed to drugs.

The program and training also will involve state and local police,
sheriff's departments, and social service and public health agencies.

Officials said people who work with children are becoming familiar
with meth, but they haven't been trained to recognize the effect on
children and what to do about it.

A child with chronic respiratory problems, for example, may be exposed
to a meth lab at home. Doctors and teachers should be aware and
investigate if warranted, Hopper said.

After the training sessions in February and March, agricultural
extension service workers throughout the state will continue to
provide education and information to local communities about meth,
Todd said. That will be an expanded role for the agents, who have
traditionally have provided farm advice, he said.

"It's not necessarily all about agriculture and farming anymore," Todd
said.

'It's just sad'

Kate Finnearty, a child protective services worker in Western
Kentucky's Hopkins County, said in five years on the job she has seen
an increasing number of cases in which social workers are called to
suspected meth homes.

Often, when parents are heavily involved in meth, the children have
been left to fend for themselves, she said.

"It's hard to make meth your No. 1 priority and not put your kids at
the bottom of the list," she said.

Hughes said the state needs to do something to reduce the number of
children suffering permanent damage from meth exposure.

Her adopted son, David, now 4, suffered lung and brain damage and has
a poor immune system from exposure to meth ingredients that occurred
before he was removed from his home as an infant, she said.

"There's so many illnesses you're having to learn to deal with," she
said. "To me it's just sad, because my child is having to suffer."
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MAP posted-by: Derek