The children of the opioid crisis

Social workers say the scale of the trouble exceeds anything they saw during the crack-cocaine or methamphetamine crises of previous decades. Heroin and other opioids are so addictive they can overwhelm even the strongest parental instinct to care for a child, doctors and social workers say…

In Ohio, opioids are the main cause of a 19% increase in the number of kids removed from parental custody and placed with relatives or foster homes since 2010, according to an association of Ohio’s county-level children’s services agencies. In Vermont, that number grew by 40% between 2013 and 2016, largely due to opioids, according to the state’s Department for Children and Families.

In West Virginia, another state hit hard by opioid addiction, the number of children in foster care grew by 24% between 2012 and 2016, according to the state’s Department of Health & Human Resources.

A Facebook support group for grandparents raising grandchildren due to addiction now has 2,000 members nationwide. One is Michelle Curran, who took custody of her grandsons three years ago, as her daughter, Mikaya, fell apart.