Tennessee DCS chief: Meth problem ‘developing epidemic’
CHATTANOOGA (AP) — Methamphetamine has Tennessee ‘on the brink of a real disaster,’ the chairman of a legislative panel told the state children’s services commissioner Thursday.
Sen. Larry Trail, D-Murfreesboro, told DCS Commissioner Michael Miller the state must ‘get on the front end’ of the threat to children whose parents expose them to hazardous chemicals while cooking the highly addictive stimulant.
A report released earlier this year showed DCS in 2002 removed almost 500 children from parents who were making the drug.
Harper said DCS is sponsoring a Dec. 1-3 methamphetamine conference in Nashville.
He told Rep. Mae Beavers, R-Mount Juliet, that the meth problem has ‘different intensities’ among communities. He said that while only a fraction of child abuse and neglect cases in urban areas are linked to parents involved with the drug, it is the cause in 50 percent of such cases in rural communities like Grundy County.
Miller said 200 of the children forced to leave their homes after meth investigations were in the ‘upper Cumberland’ area of the state.
‘It is a developing epidemic,’ Miller told Trail and other members of the Legislature’s Select Committee on Children and Youth.
Dozens of DCS employees attended the meeting in Hamilton County, where five children have died from suspected abuse since 2000. The victims include 5-year-old Nathaniel Upshaw Jr., who authorities say was tortured and beaten to death Jan. 8 by his mother’s boyfriend.
In Shelby County, state officials are investigating the deaths of four children who died after the state had investigated allegations of abuse. Another died while in state custody.
Miller said in an interview outside the meeting that there has ‘not been any evidence … any aspect of a cover up in the department’ related to that investigation.
Miller told the panel that ‘about 17,000 children a year are being abused in our state.’ He said about 30,000 child abuse and neglect cases were reported to DCS in 2002.
He said most of the cases involved sexual abuse and exploitation of children, followed by serious neglect, risk of injury or physical injury and actual injury.
He said child abuse numbers grew in the 1990s partly due to increased reporting.
‘The abuse we are finding is more severe,’ Miller said.
He said DCS can’t succeed in its efforts to protect children ‘unless we have community trust. If the public smells smoke there may very well be fire.’
DCS needs a ‘community that is willing to point its finger at a child abuse and neglect problem,’ he said.
Miller also said there is a shortage of foster parents for Tennessee children who are abused and taken into state custody.
Sen. Thelma Harper, D-Nashville, asked Miller about the caseloads of the state’s 300 child protective services workers, with a total of about 10,000 abuse and neglect cases in 2002, up from about 7,100 in 2001.
Miller said caseloads vary. He said employees in Hamilton County generally have about 58 cases and get about nine new referrals each month.
‘Reserve your shock,’ he said before explaining that employees in southeastern Tennessee’s rural counties have about 72 cases and get about 15 referrals each month.
Miller said employees have told him they would like to see those referrals reduced to about six a month.
He told Rep. Joe Fowlkes, D-Cornersville, there is ‘tremendous turnover’ among case workers, a job with entry-level salaries of about $22,000 a year.
Fowlkes said the problem of turnover from salary, heavy caseloads and stress was not new.
‘We heard the same answer seven, eight, nine years ago,’ Fowlkes said.
Jean Mitchell, the department’s children protective services team coordinator for Hamilton County, said outside the meeting that she did not expect increased state funding for DCS anytime soon. But she was optimistic Miller would make changes that would give caseworkers more discretion in which cases get the most attention.
Mitchell said she told Miller that ‘we need more staff, need better training and need caseloads that are reasonable.’
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On the Net:
Tennessee Department of Children’s Services: http://www.state.tn.us/youth/