Monday, December 05, 2016

Opioid abuse
In 2014, there were 864 Tennessee children whose parents had their rights terminated. Experts say the state’s opioid addiction epidemic is a key driver. The number of parents permanently losing their rights to a child has grown significantly in Tennessee. Between 2010 and 2014 there was a 51 percent increase in the number of parents who have had their relationship legally and permanently severed from a child. In the same time period, the number of children in Tennessee waiting to be adopted increased by 56 percent. Judges, temporary guardians and lawyers who work for the Department of Children's Services, all say the state’s opioid addiction epidemic is a key driver. Opioid overdoses claimed the lives of 1,451 Tennesseans last year. The state has the second-highest rate of opioid prescriptions in the nation. Drug abuse often affects entire families, making it impossible to place children with other relatives such as a grandparent or uncle or aunt because they are often addicted, too. In addition, there are limited treatment options available, especially for poor and uninsured parents. The result has been a strain on local courts, DCS and the Tennessee Court of Appeals, which has seen its caseload of appeals of parental terminations nearly double in recent years. It also is a burden on taxpayers because parents who cannot afford legal counsel are appointed attorneys, and those attorneys last year cost taxpayers more than $500,000. At the same time some legal advocates for parents say DCS and the courts are shifting into an overreactive mode, penalizing parents who have had addictions but are working toward overcoming them and taking more punitive measures than in the past for parents who are addicted.


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