Pa. counties’ aid for addicted children inconsistent jumble

Task force made aware of plight affected are facing

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s 67 counties have little consistency in the way they link families struggling with problems like neonatal abstinence syndrome — in which an infant is born suffering from withdrawal symptoms tied to the mother’s addiction — to resources that could help them.

That was one of the messages Marisa McClellan, an administrator at Dauphin County Children and Youth, delivered to the Joint State Government Commission’s Opioid Abuse Child Impact Task Force on Monday.

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, there are 11.9 cases of neonatal abstinence syndrome for every 1,000 live births in the state.

The task force, which was approved by Gov. Tom Wolf on Jan. 26, is charged with analyzing the practices surrounding substance-exposed children and infants. Its third meeting, held Monday, was to hear from McClellan and others.

McClellan explained the details of the “Safe Plans of Care” used in her county during her presentation to the task force. After a child is born with some sort of opioid-related health issue, the hospital will file a report, she said.

Dauphin County Children and Youth has their initial meeting with that family within the first 24 hours after that report is filed to set up the plan of support, McClellan said.

From there, a case worker is assigned to the family to provide more individual assistance in the following months.

McClellan said one issue her organization continually runs into is the lack of consistency across counties in the process of getting families the help they need from organizations.

She said there are probably “66 other methods” the task force could find to do a similar job. She said she hopes the task force would create some consistency in that process across the state.

Although the task force planned on reviewing data points on Monday, members chose to push the conversation to their next meeting, due to time restraints. The group has yet to draft any recommendations for the state Legislature, but it must submit a formal report to the governor’s office, the Senate and the House no later than Nov. 26.

Following that report, the task force will be disbanded.

There will be a total of six meetings, and the next is scheduled for June 27 from 1 to 3 p.m.

The Joint State Government Commission, which the task force operates under, is the nonpartisan and bicameral research agency for the General Assembly.

Glenn Pasewicz serves as the commission’s executive director. Prior to the task force meeting he said he hopes the group will find new ways to reduce the stigma surrounding opioid addiction.