substance use

After Los Angeles County residents stripped many markets bare over the past week, staff at Shields for Families in South Los Angeles are expecting a big turnout for its weekly food bank on Thursday.

For children like me who grew up in Richmond, California, our lived experiences are very different than our peers who grew up just miles away in the affluent Bay Area. In Richmond, you see everything from gangs and gun violence to drugs and homelessness.

Arizona legislators passed a number of bills related to children and youth that ultimately made it to Gov. Doug Ducey’s (R) desk for a signature. The issues addressed by the legislature included child marriage, the opioid crisis and adoption costs.

The second most common cause for entry into foster care system nationwide, parental substance use disorder consistently jeopardizes child health and safety. An uptick in the use of opioids and other substances has led to a rise in the number of children being removed from their homes due to parental substance abuse.  

A new research brief from the California Child Welfare Co-investment Partnership looks at the impact of substance abuse on families entering California’s child welfare system. As The Imprint reported in its series on how a spike in opioid and meth use has impacted families in the child welfare system, parental substance use has been linked to the recent rise in the number of children entering the foster care system nationwide.