Virginia
Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 6:54 am
http://www.wsls.com/sls/news/state_regi ... inia/6502/
Foster-care cases on rise in deep Southwest Virginia
By REX BOWMAN RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH
Published: February 28, 2008
ABINGDON—Widespread abuse of painkillers and methamphetamine across far Southwest Virginia has led to a dramatic surge in the number of children in foster care, according to social workers struggling to cope with the boom.
With mothers and fathers being led off to serve jail or prison terms for drug use, children increasingly are being sent to foster parents. That taxes social-services departments unable to afford new caseworkers, forcing them to spend time recruiting more foster families and leading them to send some children to homes out of the county.
“I think it’s a catastrophe,” said Debra White, supervisor of children’s services for the Tazewell County Department of Social Services.
“If you read anything or do any research, you know that kids growing up in the foster-care system do not normally grow up to become fully productive adults. And if you overload the system with more kids, they’re getting less attention.”
The increase in foster cases in Southwest Virginia comes as the state social-services system copes with growing populations in Virginia’s suburbs. Chesterfield County, for instance, has seen its foster-care caseload jump 48 percent since the beginning of the decade as 40,000 more people made the area home. The growing counties of Henrico and Hanover also have seen substantial jumps, 25 percent and 21 percent, respectively.
While population growth appears to explain the increases in foster-care cases in some counties, social workers point to the widespread abuse of drugs as the driving force in Southwest Virginia.
The state Medical Examiner’s Office reports that Virginia suffered 8.3 fatal drug overdoses per 100,000 residents in 2006, while counties in the western corner saw overdose rates many times that: Buchanan’s overdose rate was 32.8 per 100,000, Dickenson 49.4, Lee 21, Russell 41.7, Tazewell 44.8 and Wise, 50.1, the highest in the state.
. . .
Statewide, the number of children in foster care has grown 4.6 percent since the beginning of the decade, from 7,661 on Oct. 31, 2000, to 8,019 on Nov. 1, 2007.
By contrast, some of the counties in Virginia’s Appalachian corner have seen increases in their foster-care caseloads skyrocket. The number of children in foster care in Washington County jumped 11 percent, Tazewell shot up 28 percent, Dickenson and Russell 61 percent, Wise 62 percent, and Scott 126 percent.
Tony Fritz, director of the state Department of Social Services’ Abingdon office, which oversees the six counties, said a standard caseload for a foster-care worker is about 15 cases. The dramatic increase in workload, he said, is attributable directly to the abuse of painkillers and methamphetamine. “Foster-care cases locally are going out of sight.”
Though the six rural counties make up 2.7 percent of the state’s population, they accounted for 5 percent of all children in foster care as of Nov. 1, 2007.
Joyce Spriggs, a Washington County woman who has been a foster mother for nearly two decades, said she’s seeing more children who come from homes broken by drugs, especially methamphetamine.
“Usually one parent’s in jail, sometimes both,” she said.
Spriggs, 51, said she has five foster children.
. . .
Social workers in Southwest Virginia said alcohol and drug abuse accounts for 50 percent to 70 percent of foster-care cases in some counties in the area.
That makes the mountainous region unique in Virginia: statewide, including the Richmond area, 70 percent of children in foster care are there because of abuse and neglect, said Marianne McGhee, spokeswoman for the state Department of Social Services.
The huge increases have meant serious strain to the system in the six counties, according to social-services directors across the area.
“I’ve had to turn kids down,” said foster parent Loretta Sherfey, 37, of Washington County. “It’s just hectic. There ain’t enough foster parents anymore to send them to. It’s pitiful.”
Sherfey cares for four former foster children that she adopted, one foster child in long-term care, and two she said she’s keeping for just two weeks.
Ten years ago when she became a foster parent, she said, “we only had one child, and we didn’t get another for three or four years. It ain’t like it is now where there’s so many kids.”
“I’ve lost three foster-care caseworkers this year,” said Tom Stanley, director of social services in Wise. “I think the caseload has gotten to everybody.”
The loss of caseworkers in Stanley’s office has meant more work for those remaining. Trevor Boggs said when he began as a caseworker in Wise eight years ago, he handled 15 cases; today he handles 35.
“When I got here, it just kept growing and growing and growing,” he said.
Social workers said they have received no additional state money in more than a decade, while local governments, poorer than their urban and suburban counterparts, have been too cash-strapped to help them hire more caseworkers.
. . .
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine is seeking an extra $36.2 million for foster care and adoption subsidies in Virginia, some of which would increase the amounts paid to foster families.
Families currently receive monthly payments ranging from $368 to $546 per child, the exact amount depending on the child’s age.
Del. Clarence E. Phillips, D-Dickenson, said more money is needed immediately because the increase in the foster-care caseload has made it difficult to find enough families to take in children. Phillips said he worries the area is reaching the point where caseworkers could begin losing track of children.
“It’s a major issue down here,” he said. “We need the funds, or we can’t cope with these children. We have to have more personnel to work with these children, and we need to find more families to take them.”
Phillips said he is asking his fellow legislators to send more money to the social-services departments in Southwest Virginia.
Social-services directors in the area said they welcome Kaine’s request for more money; but, after years of disappointment, they are wary of entertaining hope that the General Assembly will go along with it.
“The proof will be in the end result,” echoed Sarah Snead, director of social services for Chesterfield County and Colonial Heights and president of the Virginia League of Social Services Executives.
“We have asked for a number of years for additional dollars in the foster-care system. I would hope they put the money where it’s needed most.”
Contact Rex Bowman at (540) 344-3612 or [email protected].
.
Foster-care cases on rise in deep Southwest Virginia
By REX BOWMAN RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH
Published: February 28, 2008
ABINGDON—Widespread abuse of painkillers and methamphetamine across far Southwest Virginia has led to a dramatic surge in the number of children in foster care, according to social workers struggling to cope with the boom.
With mothers and fathers being led off to serve jail or prison terms for drug use, children increasingly are being sent to foster parents. That taxes social-services departments unable to afford new caseworkers, forcing them to spend time recruiting more foster families and leading them to send some children to homes out of the county.
“I think it’s a catastrophe,” said Debra White, supervisor of children’s services for the Tazewell County Department of Social Services.
“If you read anything or do any research, you know that kids growing up in the foster-care system do not normally grow up to become fully productive adults. And if you overload the system with more kids, they’re getting less attention.”
The increase in foster cases in Southwest Virginia comes as the state social-services system copes with growing populations in Virginia’s suburbs. Chesterfield County, for instance, has seen its foster-care caseload jump 48 percent since the beginning of the decade as 40,000 more people made the area home. The growing counties of Henrico and Hanover also have seen substantial jumps, 25 percent and 21 percent, respectively.
While population growth appears to explain the increases in foster-care cases in some counties, social workers point to the widespread abuse of drugs as the driving force in Southwest Virginia.
The state Medical Examiner’s Office reports that Virginia suffered 8.3 fatal drug overdoses per 100,000 residents in 2006, while counties in the western corner saw overdose rates many times that: Buchanan’s overdose rate was 32.8 per 100,000, Dickenson 49.4, Lee 21, Russell 41.7, Tazewell 44.8 and Wise, 50.1, the highest in the state.
. . .
Statewide, the number of children in foster care has grown 4.6 percent since the beginning of the decade, from 7,661 on Oct. 31, 2000, to 8,019 on Nov. 1, 2007.
By contrast, some of the counties in Virginia’s Appalachian corner have seen increases in their foster-care caseloads skyrocket. The number of children in foster care in Washington County jumped 11 percent, Tazewell shot up 28 percent, Dickenson and Russell 61 percent, Wise 62 percent, and Scott 126 percent.
Tony Fritz, director of the state Department of Social Services’ Abingdon office, which oversees the six counties, said a standard caseload for a foster-care worker is about 15 cases. The dramatic increase in workload, he said, is attributable directly to the abuse of painkillers and methamphetamine. “Foster-care cases locally are going out of sight.”
Though the six rural counties make up 2.7 percent of the state’s population, they accounted for 5 percent of all children in foster care as of Nov. 1, 2007.
Joyce Spriggs, a Washington County woman who has been a foster mother for nearly two decades, said she’s seeing more children who come from homes broken by drugs, especially methamphetamine.
“Usually one parent’s in jail, sometimes both,” she said.
Spriggs, 51, said she has five foster children.
. . .
Social workers in Southwest Virginia said alcohol and drug abuse accounts for 50 percent to 70 percent of foster-care cases in some counties in the area.
That makes the mountainous region unique in Virginia: statewide, including the Richmond area, 70 percent of children in foster care are there because of abuse and neglect, said Marianne McGhee, spokeswoman for the state Department of Social Services.
The huge increases have meant serious strain to the system in the six counties, according to social-services directors across the area.
“I’ve had to turn kids down,” said foster parent Loretta Sherfey, 37, of Washington County. “It’s just hectic. There ain’t enough foster parents anymore to send them to. It’s pitiful.”
Sherfey cares for four former foster children that she adopted, one foster child in long-term care, and two she said she’s keeping for just two weeks.
Ten years ago when she became a foster parent, she said, “we only had one child, and we didn’t get another for three or four years. It ain’t like it is now where there’s so many kids.”
“I’ve lost three foster-care caseworkers this year,” said Tom Stanley, director of social services in Wise. “I think the caseload has gotten to everybody.”
The loss of caseworkers in Stanley’s office has meant more work for those remaining. Trevor Boggs said when he began as a caseworker in Wise eight years ago, he handled 15 cases; today he handles 35.
“When I got here, it just kept growing and growing and growing,” he said.
Social workers said they have received no additional state money in more than a decade, while local governments, poorer than their urban and suburban counterparts, have been too cash-strapped to help them hire more caseworkers.
. . .
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine is seeking an extra $36.2 million for foster care and adoption subsidies in Virginia, some of which would increase the amounts paid to foster families.
Families currently receive monthly payments ranging from $368 to $546 per child, the exact amount depending on the child’s age.
Del. Clarence E. Phillips, D-Dickenson, said more money is needed immediately because the increase in the foster-care caseload has made it difficult to find enough families to take in children. Phillips said he worries the area is reaching the point where caseworkers could begin losing track of children.
“It’s a major issue down here,” he said. “We need the funds, or we can’t cope with these children. We have to have more personnel to work with these children, and we need to find more families to take them.”
Phillips said he is asking his fellow legislators to send more money to the social-services departments in Southwest Virginia.
Social-services directors in the area said they welcome Kaine’s request for more money; but, after years of disappointment, they are wary of entertaining hope that the General Assembly will go along with it.
“The proof will be in the end result,” echoed Sarah Snead, director of social services for Chesterfield County and Colonial Heights and president of the Virginia League of Social Services Executives.
“We have asked for a number of years for additional dollars in the foster-care system. I would hope they put the money where it’s needed most.”
Contact Rex Bowman at (540) 344-3612 or [email protected].
.