Pubdate: Thu, 26 Feb 2004
Source: Mountain Times, The (NC)
Copyright: 2004 The Mountain Times.
Contact: P.O. Box 1815, Boone, NC 28607
Website: http://www.mountaintimes.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1699
Note: Does not accept  LTEs via email or feedback form.  All LTEs must be 
mailed.
Author: Kathleen McFadden
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

METH TASK FORCE APPROVES CHECKLISTS

DSS Partners With Treatment Pros In Case Decisions

Watauga County's Drug-Endangered Children (DEC) Program Task Force met 
earlier this month to continue refining procedures for protecting the 
health and safety of children victimized by methamphetamine production. Two 
representatives from the Division of Social Services in Ashe County 
attended the meeting to learn how the local task force is addressing the 
problem and to obtain copies of task-force-developed materials.

Members of the task force approved the onsite decontamination checklist 
drafted by forensic toxicologist Dr. Andrew Mason. The checklist is a 
field-assessment tool designed to give social services, law enforcement and 
EMS personnel clear yes-no guidelines for determining if persons found at 
the scene of a methamphetamine lab require decontamination before being 
transported to the hospital.

DSS child protection worker Chad Slagle presented another checklist for the 
group's consideration, this one a tool for taking social services workers 
step by step through the now carefully defined and ordered process of 
dealing with children found in meth lab situations. The checklist 
references the decon checklist at the appropriate point in the procedural 
sequence and includes space for social services personnel to indicate 
various actions taken during the process.

Slagle said that he is preparing folders for each DSS social worker that 
contain all the task force's checklists and other information.

The Watauga County task force deserves credit both for having identified 
the need for such checklists and for producing them in the absence of 
guidance from the state.

Another of the group's proactive steps is the development of a suggested 
medical protocol for children seen in the Watauga Medical Center emergency 
room after their discovery at a meth lab scene. Members of the task force 
are meeting next month with emergency room physicians to present the draft 
protocol for the doctors' consideration. The intent of the protocol is to 
establish a uniform process for testing and treating children and also to 
collect the same types of information and evidence on every case.

Slagle announced that ASU students from the Department of Sociology and 
Social Work will begin a research and data collection project this spring 
with multiple goals. Those goals include identifying and quantifying the 
scope of the problem in the county, comparing local data with other North 
Carolina counties and other states and determining if any correlations 
exist between methamphetamine production/use and psychological/social 
problems such as domestic violence. Slagle told the group that one of the 
requirements of the recently received DEC grant is making presentations at 
conferences and providing information to the State Bureau of Investigation. 
The ASU research effort will help the task force meet that requirement.

Discussion then turned to case issues.

Slagle said that two area mothers had recently admitted to two different 
social workers that they inject methamphetamine rather than smoking or 
inhaling it. "We didn't think needle use was a problem in our community," 
Slagle said, "but our eyes are being opened very quickly."

Child Protective Services Supervisor Roslyn Thompson said that DSS is 
grappling with other issues besides children discovered at meth lab sites. 
The question social workers are trying to answer is whether children can 
safely remain with meth-addicted parents even if the parents are not 
producing the drug. Taking into account the long-lasting effects of meth 
ingestion and the well-reported correlation in other areas between meth 
addiction and child neglect/abuse, social workers are asking, "Do we need 
to be asking for custody because of the effects of the drug?"

Thompson said that locally, DSS staff is now meeting monthly with mental 
health personnel and substance abuse treatment workers to review each case 
individually and make a determination on the best course of action. In 
addition, case workers are now requiring substance abuse assessments on 
every member of a family instead of just the parents. And Thompson said 
that the local staff has started discussion with the state "to ask if we 
need to look at this differently."

The family assessments, Slagle explained, put treatment resources one step 
closer if a problem is discovered and also help provide evidence for making 
case decisions.

"I don't think you'll find another county in the nation where DSS meets 
with all the substance abuse people," Slagle said.

Environmental Health Supervisor Lawrence Caviness then provided an update 
on what he had learned at a recent meeting on decontamination standards. 
The workshop was conducted by a certified contractor who works in 
Washington and Oregon. "After hearing his presentation," Caviness said, "we 
weren't convinced that some of these mom and pop sites are as bad as we've 
been led to believe." The meth problem is widely acknowledged to have 
originated in the western states and spread eastward over the past several 
years. Sites used to produce meth are also widely acknowledged to be 
dangerously contaminated by the toxic byproducts of the production process.

Caviness said that Washington and Oregon passed clean-up laws, "mainly 
because of the lead and mercury used in the production process," but that 
California has not passed such laws.

While there is still no decision in Raleigh about the most appropriate 
action to take, Caviness said, the Epidemiology Section of the NC 
Department of Health and Human Services has developed draft guidelines for 
a testing procedure that contain little more than the need to review the 
clean-up contractor's qualifications, workplan and report and then make an 
occupancy recommendation based on that report.

Caviness pointed out that no labs in the area are DEA-certified and no 
local contractors are certified - both requirements for conducting such 
testing - creating a catch-22 situation. "Until we can get certified 
contractors and DEA-certified labs," Caviness said, "I don't think we'll be 
able to provide much help." Task force member Mason raised an additional 
concern, "The point is, you not only don't have a lab, but you don't have 
standards for that lab."

The only current incentive for owners to clean up their properties, 
Caviness said, is their potential liability for future tenants' health 
problems, but Slagle came at the problem from another perspective: "The 
dilemma we're in is not knowing when a house is safe to reenter for 
children." Because social workers do not know, the task force procedures 
currently prohibit children from returning to a home in which meth was 
produced. For now, that prohibition will stand.

Subsequent to the meeting, several members of the task force met with and 
were quoted in a February 23 New York Times article exploring the multiple 
aspects of the county's meth problem.

The next DEC Program Task Force meeting is scheduled for March 5 from 1:00 
to 3:00 p.m.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom