Meth crisis is a bad time to cut funding for foster care.Byline: GUEST VIEWPOINT By Robert Lehner For The Register-Guard I would like to take a moment to applaud the recent series of feature stories in The Register-Guard on methamphetamine's effects on our community, particularly the emphasis placed on the drug's effects on children and families. From our own files, I could give you many examples of stories just like the ones told in the series, but they become mind-numbing after a while - just one example after another of addiction addiction: see drug addiction and drug abuse. , crime and broken families, a cycle that inevitably is repeated across generations unless broken. Like the many dedicated social services social services Noun, pl welfare services provided by local authorities or a state agency for people with particular social needs social services npl → servicios mpl sociales workers diligently dil·i·gent adj. Marked by persevering, painstaking effort. See Synonyms at busy. [Middle English, from Old French, from Latin d working through the trenches of the meth meth n. Methamphetamine hydrochloride. epidemic, our officers encounter hundreds of these cases every year. One of the challenges they face daily is, working together with child welfare workers, what to do with children when their parents are addicted ad·dict·ed adj. 1. Physiologically or psychologically dependent on a habit-forming substance. 2. Compulsively or habitually involved in a practice or behavior, such as gambling. to meth and unable or unwilling to provide proper care? Most law enforcement officials would agree that birth and extended families are generally the best place for a child. But when at-risk kids, especially abused and neglected meth orphans, need protection and a willing family member is not available, foster care is the only option. Safe foster homes will protect innocent children from becoming victims of crime. The benefits of safe foster care are supported by research. A study recently cited by Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Oregon shows that almost four of every 10 children who are re-abused or neglected rather than placed in safe foster homes will become violent criminals in the future. Oregon's law enforcement leaders and child safety experts agree that meth is the principal cause for at least half of Oregon's foster care cases. Dozens of children in Lane County alone were placed in foster care because of their parents' meth addiction, many of them newborns. Last year, Oregon law enforcement officers found 88 children living in 450 home meth labs, exposed to the toxic mix of chemicals used to manufacture meth. Meth is leaving more children orphans to their parents' addiction at a time when Oregon's foster care services are already overburdened o·ver·bur·den tr.v. o·ver·bur·dened, o·ver·bur·den·ing, o·ver·bur·dens 1. To burden with too much weight; overload. 2. To subject to an excessive burden or strain; overtax. n. 1. . Foster care case loads continue to increase in the state. Oregon placed 532 more children in foster homes in 2004 than the year before. At a time when the need for foster care is greater than ever, strict caps have been proposed for federal funding to supplement state foster care programs. Had these proposed caps been in place in 2001, for example, Oregon would have had a shortfall Shortfall The amount by which the capital required to fulfill a financial obligation exceeds available capital. Notes: Shortfall risk is often combated with an efficient hedging strategy created by a fund, group, institution, or individual. in foster care funding for each of the last three years, a shortfall that would have resulted in fewer available foster homes for at-risk kids. We have many gaps in the social services and criminal justice systems and many dedicated people are working very hard to find solutions. A loss of federal foster care matching funding in the form of quotas or caps would make these gaps worse in Oregon, Lane County and our community. Worse, the most direct effect of a cut in these services would be on kids who had no choice when they became involved in the meth problem because of their parents. Without foster care programs to help those without good family alternatives, these children are abandoned and face short lives of crime and victimization victimization Social medicine The abuse of the disenfranchised–eg, those underage, elderly, ♀, mentally retarded, illegal aliens, or other, by coercing them into illegal activities–eg, drug trade, pornography, prostitution. . Our foster care systems, their workers and foster care families are critically important and deserve our gratitude Gratitude agrimony traditional symbol for gratitude. [Flower Symbolism: Flora Symbolica, 172] Androcles because he had once extracted a thorn from its paw, the lion refrained from attacking Androcles in the arena. [Rom. Lit. and support. Robert Lehner is the police chief of Eugene and a member of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Oregon. Fight Crime: Invest in Kids is a national nonprofit A corporation or an association that conducts business for the benefit of the general public without shareholders and without a profit motive. Nonprofits are also called not-for-profit corporations. Nonprofit corporations are created according to state law. , bipartisan, anti-crime organization comprising more than 2,500 police chiefs, sheriffs, district attorneys and victims of violence. To learn more about the organization visit www .fightcrime.org/or. |
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