New Hampshire’s opioid crisis is putting a heavy burden on the state’s child protection agency, which has seen the number of babies born exposed to drugs skyrocket over the last four years, officials said Friday.
Pregnant women who abuse opioids can give birth to babies with their own symptoms of withdrawal. The Division for Children, Youth and Families received 504 reports in 2015 of infants born experiencing such symptoms, up from 367 cases the year before, agency head Lorraine Bartlett said.
While the figures for 2016 aren’t yet finalized, the upward trend is expected to continue. In the first three months of 2016, one child was born exposed to drugs every 18 hours on average.
The rise comes at a time when the division faces intense pressure to reform, after two toddlers under its supervision were killed by their mothers within a year. An independent review released last month revealed the agency is understaffed, offers families few services and does too little to protect children at risk of future abuse or neglect.
In its first meeting since the report’s release Friday, members of the Commission to Review Child Abuse Fatalities called some of its findings “disturbing.”
Republican Sen. Sharon Carson said the report’s most troubling discovery was that the agency routinely ruled reports of abuse or neglect as unfounded, even when evidence existed or parents agreed to correct harmful behavior.
“It seems the department has taken the safest path, the path of least resistance,” said Carson, of Londonderry.
Republican Rep. Donald LeBrun said the problems stem from a lack of staff, not issues with division leadership. The report recommended the state hire 30 more child protection workers.
“If you have a baseball team and you are hired as the manager and you are only given seven players, you are not going to win very many games,” said LeBrun, of Nashua.
Health and Human Services Commissioner Jeff Meyers pledged to work with lawmakers to implement the report’s 20 recommendations, including strengthening the state’s neglect statute and improving training. But he didn’t offer many details or a timetable, saying it would be an ongoing effort with legislators.
Republican Gov. Chris Sununu recently took over the corner office and pledged to support reform. House leaders created a new committee to review the report and file bills based on its findings. It’s not entirely clear how the new group will differ from the current commission.
Lawmakers have passed DCYF reform measures over the last year, including one policy that lets the agency more easily remove children from parents who are using drugs. That law took effect last summer.
Bartlett told commission members the change has been used at least twice to remove children in unsafe conditions, but didn’t have more specifics. Heroin and fentanyl addiction remains a major problem in New Hampshire. The drugs led to at least 287 overdose deaths last year.
(Allie Morris can be reached at 369-3307 or amorris@cmonitor.com.)