Thousands of children are neglected every year after living with parents, family members or caregivers who are meth users or meth cooks. Children who reside in or near meth labs are at great risk of being harmed by toxic ingredients and noxious fumes. Cooking meth is extremely dangerous, and labs often catch on fire and explode. Children whose parents have been using or making meth are often placed in foster homes, straining social services in states hit hard by meth. These children need special care: they may be malnourished, suffering the effects of physical or sexual abuse, and often have behavioral problems as a result of neglect.

Across the nation, law enforcement, social workers, health care professionals, and community leaders are joining together to help protect drug endangered children. Below, please find a list of resources to help the most innocent and vulnerable from the dangers of methamphetamine and other drugs.

Resources:

National Alliance for Drug-Endangered Children
Comprised of individuals and organizations concerned about children endangered by caregivers who manufacture drugs, or deal drugs or use them and by doing so physically or psychologically endanger children.

Meth and Family-Centered Child Welfare Practice
Many states are experiencing a rise in child welfare cases related to the production and/or use of methamphetamine. This issue of Children's Service Practice Notes from the North Carolina Division of Social Services and the Family and Children's Resource Program of Jordan Institute for Families and the School of Social Work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is devoted to information about meth and responding to its challenges in an effective, family-centered way.

Meth and Child Welfare: Promising Solutions for Children, Their Parents, and Grandparents
This report from Generations United examines the impact of methamphetamines on children, families, communities and the child welfare system. It identifies some promising strategies to prevent meth use, keep children safe, and help parents with addictions complete treatment, and provides a comprehensive set of recommendations.

Meth Science, Not Stigma: An Open Letter to the Media
Medical and psychological researchers, treatment providers and specialists with many years of experience studying addictions and addiction treatment have written a letter to the media to request that policies addressing prenatal exposure to methamphetamines and media coverage of this issue be based on science, not presumption or prejudice. The letter condemns the usage of such terms as "ice babies" or "meth babies" as pejorative and stigmatizing labels used in the popular media. This is a timely caution for all of us as we learn how to deal with the increasing problem of the effects of methamphetamine use on child welfare systems.

Maternal Methamphetamine Use During Pregnancy and Child Outcome: What Do We Know?
This article from the New Zealand Medical Journal examines what evidence could be found regarding the effects of maternal meth use on the developing fetus. It suggests that while there are likely to be adverse developmental effects for children exposed prenatally to methamphetamine, we as yet do not know specifically what those effects will be.

State Resources from the States

Illinois
Caregiver's Guide for Care of Children Exposed to Methamphetamine Laboratories
Instructions for caregivers; includes decontamination precautions and both physical and emotional signs to look out for.

Oregon
Reunited, A Video for Parents Affected by Meth
This video is being distributed to all child welfare agencies throughout Oregon. It captures frank talk of parents who were able to overcome their problems and work with the child welfare agency in order to be reunited with their children. Most of the parents in the 25 minute video were using methamphetamines when their children entered the child welfare system. Other agencies or individuals can purchase the video at cost through the web site above.

Curriculum
Meth Basics and Worker Safety
This training module presents essential information for Texas Child Protective Services staff who may encounter methamphetamine users, settings where meth is used or manufactured, and children at risk due to caregiver meth use or meth lab dangers. It focuses on risk assessment and worker safety in these situations. Visitors can view the module as an internet slideshow. Trainers and training managers can download a zip file of the module with permission to modify the original PowerPoint file to customize it for their own employees and setting. The module has information specific to Texas and Texas CPS, so that information may not be fully relevant in other settings, but can be adapted. The first two slides in the zipped PowerPoint give more information about permission for use and adaptation.

Webcasts and Teleconferences
A Community Partnership Approach to Addressing Meth
This webcast from the Department of Justice was broadcast August 22, 2006. It addresses how community policing and partnerships can be used to enhance enforcement activities as well as prevention efforts. Free registration on the site enables you to view the archive.

Websites
Meth Resources from the Federal Government
This site provides a wealth of resources. Sponsored by the White House Office of national Drug Control Policy, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Health & Human Services.

Methamphetamine Resources
This National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare site provides methamphetamine resources, including a good sampling of state and local protocols.

Impact of Methamphetamines on the Child Welfare System
Methamphetamine use is a growing problem for children and families across the country. The Child Welfare Information Gateway has developed a list of resources on a variety of topics to help child welfare workers understand what methamphetamine is and how it affects users. Includes state and local examples.

The Methamphetamine Epidemic
This National Public Radio site provides information about the growing crisis caused by methamphetamine, which is being faced by both law enforcement and child welfare in many states.