A county hit particularly hard by the opioid epidemic is now reeling from the impact on children of parental overdoses, incarceration and neglect, officials told legislators at a hearing Wednesday afternoon.
Five years ago, Fayette County Children and Youth Services handled the cases of 759 troubled families, said Gina D'Auria, the agency's top administrator, at a hearing in Farmington of the state House Majority Policy Committee. Now it handles 1,988 cases, with a budget for just 32 caseworkers.
"Between poverty, lack of education, truancy, and then you added the opioid epidemic into that, our numbers went completely out of control," said Ms. D'Auria.
"We're raising a whole population of children that are going to have problems functioning" either because they were born in withdrawal or surrounded with dysfunction throughout their young lives, she said.
Ideally, she said, agencies like hers will get the resources needed to help. The alternative? "In 18 years, in 20 years, in 21 years, we're going to need more prisons. ... We have to do something at this level, right now."
By coincidence, the hearing started just a few miles and hours after a court appearance that reflected the opioid crisis' impact on even the most innocent people.
A Fayette County woman accused in the near-fatal fentanyl overdose of her daughter when she was around three months old was released on bond in Uniontown. Crystal Dawn Cumberland, 27, of North Union Township, wept as District Judge Richard Kasunic II set $25,000 straight bond and forbade her contact with her daughter.
"It is a very emotional situation for her," said her attorney, David Lint. He declined to discuss the specifics of the case. "The baby, to the best of my knowledge, seems to be doing well."
Ms. Cumberland and her family left without comment, other than to say the baby is doing "great."
Ms. Cumberland's preliminary hearing, which had been scheduled for today, will be rescheduled.
Fayette County District Attorney Richard Bower, who personally conducted the negotiations leading to the release, declined comment on the case, but said the opioid problem in the area underlies a huge part of his office's workload.
"Things have gone nuts over this kind of stuff," he said. "It obviously tears families apart. ... We have to start educating our children at home and taking them to church. Teach morals. Teach right and wrong. Teach responsibility."
According to an affidavit by the state police, medics responded on Nov. 14 to a call about an unresponsive infant. Police wrote that Ms. Cumberland then asked, "Are you going to give her Narcan?" referring to the opioid-reversing drug. Medics gave the infant two doses of Narcan, then transported her to UPMC Children's Hospital.
Police wrote that the infant tested positive for fentanyl, a powerful opioid, and that Ms. Cumberland admitted to snorting "a white powder to get high."
It is not clear whether, how or when the county's Children and Youth Services was involved with he family.
Fayette County's Children and Youth Services faces a turnover rate of around 90 percent, said Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, at the legislative hearing. The challenges it faces in dealing with the surge in opioid-affected families and babies born in withdrawal are mirrored throughout the state, he said.
"When [caseworkers] are going to the homes now, the environment they are walking into is dramatically more dangerous for the child," he said, citing the State of the Child report issued by his office in September. "The kids are left to fend for themselves, and there's no parent involved. That's what they're seeing more and more, and it's directly tied to opioids."
"We're not ready, and it's a horrifying situation," he said. "I think it's going to get worse before it gets better."
He said that in the spring, his office will introduce a plan to address the needs of children and families agencies, including better cooperation between hospitals and caseworkers, plus better recruiting and higher pay for workers at family agencies.
The committee's chairman, Kerry Benninghoff, R-Bellefonte, called the opioid epidemic "a long-term problem that now has a second generation of issues." The population of children affected by addiction "is a whole new chapter in this fight. We have to be ready for them."
"If you see mom and dad doing it at home, you're going to be more likely to experiment or start using," said Rep. Matt Dowling, R-Uniontown. He predicted that schools are going to be asked to help meet their needs with evidence-based drug prevention programs, but it won't be easy.
"It's hard on our educators. We have so many mandates right now," he said. When they look to add extensive drug prevention programming, he said, they may have to "figure out what they're going to cut."
First Published: January 31, 2018, 7:51 p.m.
