Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Opioid Epidemic Takes Toll On Grandparents Of Children Suddenly Left Without Parents
The number of grandparents who are raising their grandchildren is going up and increasingly it鈥檚 because their own kids are addicted to heroin or prescription drugs, or have died from an overdose. For some, it鈥檚 a challenge with little help available. In 2005, 2.5 million children were living with grandparents who were responsible for their care. By 2015, that number had risen to 2.9 million. Child welfare officials say drug addiction, especially to opioids, is behind much of the rise in the number of grandparents raising their grandchildren, just as it was during the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s and 鈥90s. An estimated 2.4 million people were addicted to opioids at last count. (Wiltz, 11/2)
In other news on the opioid epidemic聽鈥
A Washington聽state couple is聽facing numerous charges after police said the聽parents kept their three young children in a home littered with rat droppings and drug needles and聽injected them with heroin, which they called 鈥渇eel good medicine.鈥 Ashlee聽Hutt, 24, and聽Mac Leroy聽McIver, 25, have been charged with聽unlawful delivery of a controlled substance to a person under 18, criminal mistreatment in the second degree and assault of a child in the second degree, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in September in聽Pierce County Superior Court. (Bever, 11/1)
Virginia state government has a new website designed to help battle opioid and heroin addiction. Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced Tuesday the creation of VaAware.com, which he said was an informational tool for the public, health care practitioners and law enforcement officials. Opioid deaths in Virginia have risen dramatically in recent years. In 2015, there were 801 deaths, a nearly 50 percent increase since 2012. (11/2)
For years, in the face of troubling statistics over poverty and hunger, gun violence, child abuse and exposure to lead and other toxic chemicals in the environment, the U.S. has grappled with the problem of children鈥檚 health. Public health officials and physicians have just added two more serious childhood dangers to the mix: the nationwide epidemic of opioid abuse and the surge in the availability and use of marijuana. (Pianin, 11/1)
