County Weighs Plan to Curb Child Abuse

Aiming to stem the huge number of children who grow up with drug- or alcohol-abusing parents, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is considering implementing a countywide program that would work to change potentially abusive parents before problems start.

Modeled after a highly successful program launched nearly 20 years ago in Elmira, N.Y.--but only now getting attention nationwide--the approach would target all young women who are pregnant for the first time and appear to be high risk. Under the Elmira approach, a specially trained nurse visits the expectant mother’s home an average of nine times, with two dozen more trips in the first two years after the child’s birth. Nurses work with the mother on health behaviors, child care practices, family planning, educational and job strategies and self-confidence.

A 1997 study that tracked the Elmira mothers for 15 years found that they had 80% fewer reports of child abuse or neglect than similar women not in the program. Women in the study group had fewer children, were less likely to use welfare, have substance abuse problems, engage in crime or be unemployed. The cost: $3,200 a year per woman, a taxpayer outlay that was recouped by the first child’s fourth birthday under the old welfare system.

The supervisors asked the county’s top child welfare official, Peter Digre, to work with health department staff to determine how to implement such a program and to investigate potential funding sources.

The board’s request was the first action taken stemming from its Task Force on Alcohol and Other Drug Affected Parents, which was formed in November after The Times’ “Orphans of Addiction” series. Consisting of about 20 government agencies and other groups, the task force was asked to figure out how government could more effectively identify and help children who grow up with substance-abusing parents, and how to better assist their parents.

In presenting the initial findings to the board Tuesday, Digre noted that nationwide, as many as 1 in 5 children grow up in families with substance abuse. Countywide, he said, about 80% of children in foster care have parents who are addicted to drugs or alcohol and almost 11% of newborns were exposed to drugs in utero.

The task force’s short-term recommendations, in addition to home visitations by nurses, included urging the board to push hospitals, especially private ones, to conduct drug tests of women delivering babies who are suspected of substance abuse. The group also recommended making sure that all government agencies--from welfare offices to health clinics--include questions in their intake process that might help determine if a parent is a substance abuser.

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The task force was granted an additional 90 days to assemble a more comprehensive battery of recommendations.

If Los Angeles adopts the nurse home visitation approach, it would join San Diego County, which recently moved to implement such an approach countywide, Digre said. The U.S. Department of Justice last year provided start-up money for pilot programs in six cities, with the hope that preventing abuse will curtail massive foster care, law enforcement and incarceration costs down the line.

In addition, Supervisor Mike Antonovich said, the county and its Department of Children and Family Services must be much more aggressive in helping such children and their parents.

As the county officials heard the task force preliminary report, White House drug policy chief Barry R. McCaffrey was visiting Keith Village, a residential drug treatment program that focuses on treating women and their children together. At the highly regarded program McCaffrey sat with a dozen recovering addicts, who explained why it was essential for the government to fund programs that target women and children.

“This is the best thing that ever happened to me,” said Karen Stinnette, who has been sober for 37 days. “I want to . . . be a benefit to society so my children won’t have to throw a riot to get the things that they want. They can come to their mother.”

“It’s a no-brainer because we have to do this,” the retired U.S. Army general said. “I’m 100% behind it. I want to support programs like this all over America.”

The Clinton administration recently submitted the 1999 budget to Congress that calls for $17.1 billion allocated for drug control measures, a 7% increase over the current year. McCaffrey was in town to support President Clinton’s goals of reducing the number of drug users in the country by 50% within 10 years.