The National Opioid Epidemic: Helping Families Through Troubled Times

This week my colleague Lindsay Musser Hough I have the honor of speaking at the National Child Support Enforcement Association’s (NCSEA) Annual Policy Forum about The National Opioid Epidemic: Helping Families Through Troubled Times. 

When you think about the opioid epidemic, you may not immediately think about the link between opioid addiction and child support services, but addiction affects employment and parent engagement which are two very important aspects of child support services. For child support enforcement and child welfare caseworkers, the impact of the opioid crisis has never been more concerning.  Custodial parents, non-custodial parents and the families they serve are being adversely impacted by the opioid epidemic every day (e.g., addiction, dependency, job loss, neglect, rehabilitation, etc.). 

We will present to the NCSEA audience on the unintended impacts of opioid abuse on various family situations that are outside of the normal divorce or single parent situations with which child support case workers handle. We will take a more in depth look into the impacts of drug addiction on situations where a grandparent is the main caregiver, a newly single parent is the sole caregiver due to the other parent being in a drug treatment center and the NCP is in arrears due to addiction-related issues. In all of these situations the caregiver is in need of support to care for a child, but cannot pursue traditional courses of getting child support from NCPs. Due to the rise of drug addiction issues these cases could become more commonplace for child support case workers in the future.

The opioid epidemic poses many unanswered questions and is rapidly changing the landscape in which many public health and human services programs operate, including child support services programs. It is a complex issue and my colleagues and I have spent time considering how to tackle this opportunity from multiple angles to help children and families. To learn more about the impact of the opioid epidemic on families and children please read a report my colleagues and I released through Deloitte’s Center for Government Insights.