Pubdate: Sun, 25 Sep 2005
Source: Daily Sentinel, The (Grand Junction, CO)
Copyright: 2005 Cox Newspapers, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.gjsentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2084
Author: Kristen Senz
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

NUMBER OF CHILDREN TAKEN FROM METH-USING PARENTS ON THE RISE IN MESA COUNTY

Mice and cat feces cover the floor. Flies coat the ceiling. On the 
counter and stove are separated chemical solutions, tubes and Pyrex 
dishes filled with volatile substances. But the worst part about 
walking into a kitchen-turned-methamphetamine-lab, police say, is 
seeing a 3-year-old and 6-year-old crawling around in the muck.

In Mesa County, it's becoming a more common occurrence for police and 
social workers to find children who have been exposed to 
methamphetamine and its harmful chemical components.

About 75 percent of child custody cases handled by the Mesa County 
Department of Human Services involve methamphetamine, according to a 
recent study. So far this year, 175 children have been removed from 
their homes, and methamphetamine has been a primary reason for 38 
percent of the removals. In the other cases, children are taken from 
their parents because they're abused or neglected, but often 
investigation by social workers reveals methamphetamine use is a 
contributing factor.

The impact on these children begins the moment their parents start 
ingesting the drug, says Joseph Jueschke, a lead social worker at 
DHS. The obsessive mental states, propensity for violence and 
increased sex drive that come with methamphetamine addiction can lead 
to physical or even sexual abuse of children, he said. Often, the 
children of meth addicts are simply forgotten.

"There's a high correlation between neglect and methamphetamine," 
said Jueschke.

Meth addicts sleep for long periods of time when they come off the 
drug, leaving their children basically unattended.

Jueschke remembers a case about five years ago when a 3-year-old was 
found wandering the streets alone at about 8 a.m. When police asked 
her what happened, she said, "Mommy's dead."

The toddler's mother, a meth user, had been involved in a violent 
domestic disturbance the night before. She wasn't dead, but she was 
totally unresponsive, to the point where a screaming 10-month-old 
baby in a crib right next to her hadn't awakened her.

In addition to not meeting their children's physical needs, parents 
who use meth tend to be emotionally unavailable, which stunts 
children's emotional development and hinders their ability to communicate.

"I've carried 2- and 3-year-old children away from the home that are 
as attached to me when we get to the office as they were to their 
mother when we left," Jueschke said.

Children living among meth users also become highly independent, with 
older siblings acting as caretakers for infants and toddlers.

"I've talked to 5-year-olds that can tell you how to make a bottle," 
he said. "... Sometimes what we're seeing is the older children are 
being kept home to take care of the younger children, so they're not 
going to school."

When the children do go to school, the methamphetamine at home can 
cause problems there, too.

"I've talked to children who have unknowingly taken methamphetamine, 
packaged for distribution, to school in their backpacks," Jueschke said.

A middle school student a couple of years ago alarmed police when 
drug-sniffing dogs stopped at her locker.

"Her locker was the only locker in the school that the drug dogs 
identified. There were no drugs in it, but later the drug task force 
raided her house, and there was a meth lab," Jueschke said.

In 2002, the Mesa County Department of Human Services cited parental 
drug use as a reason for 17 percent of its out-of-home child 
placements. By last year, at 37 percent, that figure had more than doubled.

There's little medical research into what effects methamphetamine and 
its chemical ingredients have on children, according to Grand 
Junction Police Lt. Tim Grimsby, who gave a presentation earlier this 
month to the Mesa County Methamphetamine Task Force.

"Will they get sick? Who knows? We don't know," he said.

Some jurisdictions on the Front Range and in other states administer 
medical tests on children removed from homes where methamphetamine is 
made or used. The test results, and the results of future periodic 
testing, are used to study the effects the drug and its toxic 
chemical ingredients have on children. The practice is not yet in use 
in Mesa County.

Jueschke said children exposed to methamphetamine, either through 
ingestion or airborne chemicals, experience upper respiratory 
problems and are at a higher risk for those problems.

At any given time, Mesa County DHS oversees an average of 300 
children who have been taken out of their homes because of abuse, 
neglect or an otherwise unsafe home environment. In August, the 
department had open cases involving 335 children, a record high in 
the last 12 months.

Child custody cases that involve methamphetamine are more complex 
than those DHS has handled in the past, said Jill Calvert, DHS child 
intake supervisor. The "chaos" often found in the home environments 
strains resources and staff, she said.

Meth addicts get paranoid, leading many of them to carry weapons. For 
safety, social workers often travel in pairs or with a law 
enforcement officer, Jueschke said.

"I don't have a badge. I don't have a gun. I don't have protective 
armor," he said. "I'm knocking on your door to talk about your kids, 
which is a very touchy subject."

Because children whose parents use meth have a much higher tendency 
to try the drug themselves, the children and adolescents DHS deals 
with often show signs of withdrawal or have their own addictions, Calvert said.

The displaced children usually end up in the custody of relatives or 
in foster homes, and often siblings can't stay together, according to 
Emily Witte, resource team manager at DHS.

Mesa County consistently lacks enough foster and adoptive families to 
care for children who have nowhere to go, Witte said. Even infants, 
which the department has seen more of recently, are difficult to 
place, she said.

"We never have enough foster homes," Witte said. "We're managing, but 
we always need more homes."

Once children are taken out of their homes, their parents get one 
year to turn their lives around and regain custody. Many parents 
never change, and their children grow up in foster care or with 
adoptive families, Witte said.

There are some cases, however, of parents kicking their addictions 
and being reunited with their children, Jueschke said. One man, the 
father of six, went into the Salvation Army's rehabilitation program 
at the same time as his wife. She couldn't stop using, but he went on 
to change his life and get his children back.

"Over the years you have successes and you have failures," Jueschke 
said, pausing for a moment as if to remind himself of something. "You 
have successes; the failures aren't yours."

Nationwide, the most common treatment for methamphetamine addiction 
is known as the Matrix Model, which involves a holistic approach to 
changing the addict's lifestyle, Calvert said. The Matrix, she said, 
is successful only 40 percent of the time.

In the Grand Valley, most methamphetamine treatment programs last 21 
days, Jueschke said, but the most success comes from programs that 
last six months or more.

"Getting sober in this community, as small as it is, is difficult. 
It's a battle, and that's what my clients tell me," he said.

Because funding and other resources are stretched thin, Jueschke 
said, children who inadvertently get wrapped up in the 
methamphetamine culture locally aren't getting the attention and 
services they need.

"Our children are our most under-defended group. Our children are 
going to be running our country, and right now, I don't think we're 
meeting their needs," he said. "I don't think we're doing enough, and 
unfortunately, those kids aren't going to be successful."
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MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman