How Secure Are Your Medications?

The article I chose to talk about for my fourth blog was written by Alison Johnson from the “Daily Press” Newport News, Virginia. The piece is titled “How to keep medicine out of the reach of children”. The article was also published and linked to the Post and Courier website from Charleston, SC. Even though this was written by an author in Virginia, it is clear that this issue does pertain to a much bigger area, including us in South Carolina and much more. Children and drug abuse, I have realized through just how I felt before I started this assignment, and have definitely grown through my research and my “blogging”, it is very significant social problem in our world today.

This particular piece discussed the issue of children having the ability to get prescription drugs through family and friends. From the family and friends I myself am surrounded by, this is definitely something that shocks me. It is bad enough that the children are receiving these prescription drugs in the first place, but by people that are close to them is just beyond belief. Through the different stories I have read so far, in the first couple of articles it was children being affected by a parent/guardian’s drug abuse, and now is going to children being enabled to have substance abuse problems by receiving them through people like friends and family. Honestly can’t tell you which one is worse and I feel it is both poor parenting in many ways.

Even though the article did discuss children getting the prescription drugs from family and friends, it also discussed the risk and different steps people like parents could take to try to prevent drug abuse being an issue with their own children. The group the author got information about this issue through “National Family Partnership”. From what I have gathered, this is one of the many different organizations are centered on things such as the issue of drug abuse (along with other issues) within families. In my eyes, there definitely can’t be enough of them! According to “National Family Partnership”, “seventy percent of children who abuse prescription drugs get them from friends and family.” Looking at these numbers makes the realization even bigger on how big of an issue this really is.

According to the President of “National Family Partnership” Peggy Sapp,
“The No. 1 mistake parents make is thinking it can't happen to their child.”

During the part of the article that discusses ways of preventing substance abuse with children, there are eight different tips discussed. They are recognize the risk, explain the risk, store drugs safely, dispose of drugs safely, set a good example, have family dinners, get to know your child’s friends, and collection information from places such as LockYourMeds.org for more ways to prevent risks and substantial information on the issue. As I said earlier on, reading this articles and looking at the number of children affected by the issue of drug abuse. This social problem is definitely a scenario that needs all of the awareness and risk prevention possible, as a society it is definitely something that needs to be brought up and prevented as much as possible.

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

The article I chose to talk about for my third blog was written by Yasmin Rammohan from the “Chicago Tonight: WTTW), the piece titled “Pregnancy and Alcohol”. The main discussion was brought up from the book, “The Mystery of Risk: Drugs, Alcohol, Pregnancy and the Vulnerable Child” written by author (and the head local physicians) Dr. Ira Chasnoff. The main focus of the book and the discussion with in the article is Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and how it affects the children through the toxins from the drugs and alcohol consumed by the mother’s in these particular cases, along with neglect and trauma the children are exposed to because of it. The many different risks of fetal alcohol syndrome were discussed throughout the article. Within the article posted online, there are also two videos shown of Dr. Chasnoff himself.

The first video is of Dr. Chasnoff discussing different signs and symptoms you can look for in children. According to this video, the three main criteria he says to look for are, “poor growth, deficits in nervous system, and changes in the in the structure of the facial features” (Chasnoff). It is stated that children are very well susceptible to suffer from issues such as damage to their “developing nervous system” (Rammohan), according to the first video with Dr. Chasnoff, these are also the children that seem to be normal when looking for these three major symptoms, but at the same time they are also more at risk as far as developing behavioral problems and other things of that nature.

"This damage may lead to learning and memory deficiencies, and behavioral problems, from temper tantrums in early childhood to acts of physical and sexual violence in later adolescence” (Rammohan).

After talking about the different risks of fetal alcohol syndrome, Dr. Chassnoff also mentioned, within his book, how ““risk is not destiny” (Chassnoff) for those children. He discusses how they can come out of these situations through “alternatives” that help the children such as giving them a successful school experiences, getting them away from negative situations like gang activity and drug abuse. All of this can happen with help and investment from others in their society in some cases. Even though examples weren’t given in the article, I feel that solutions such as getting them in better families and better environmental situations would tremendously improve these children’s lives.

In the second video within the article, Dr. Chassnoff discusses more in detail about the book, “The Mystery of Risk: Drugs, Alcohol, Pregnancy and the Vulnerable Child”. In one of the statistics he states that “20-30 percent of woman use substances during their pregnancy”. This statistic is rather shocking to me and shows how horrible of a problem it is! He also discusses the “nature vs. nurture” effects to children that have been exposed to substances such as alcohol, and how the environment can help change the long term outcome of a child suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome. Throughout the rest of the second video there were comments from different readers/critics expressing how they felt, all which seemed to be fond of Dr. Chassnoff’s work.

It brings to your attention the number of families that are affected by fetal alcohol syndrome and other situations similar to it. Not only is this the problem of several families, but also discussing how we all, as ‘society’, (knowing it is a social problem) can possibly help this situation would be a great improvement in any way. Even though this wasn’t written by a local author, these cases are still happening all throughout the country, world, etc. and can definitely affect us all in one way or another.

DSS in Trouble?

The article I chose to talk about for my second blog was written by Cliff Leblanc in the “State” newspaper titled “On drugs Children at mercy of parents”. The main arguments were the fact of when DSS workers should be punished for not having children out of these homes. One of the statements made in the article was, “At least five children have died and others are in danger unless the Department of Social Services removes children more quickly from homes where parents have drug abuse problems, according to the state’s Child Fatalities Review Committee.” It was also said that the caseworkers have to make sure it is a safe facility before letting the children go back into the home. Even though it is a requirement, I definitely feel this should go without saying.

Throughout the article there are people like the DSS director Kathleen Hayes and one of the children protection supervisors at DSS headquarters, Pamela Rice. Kathleen was discussing that she was upset about the cases and was saying how she hoped none of it was caused by DSS employees. Rice had made a few comments earlier throughout different conversations about the issue like, “She has known people who smoke (marijuana) and other drugs that can still take care of their children.” Even though she did apologize for these statements and does agree about children needing to be taken out of that kind of environment, she was not able for an interview.

As far as the DSS workers not caring about the children’s safety, the statement Richland County forensic pathologist made was that "It’s not that they don’t care, the problem is there are still lapses in judgment or common sense." Others like former South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford also agree that no matter how serious this case is, children should be removed no questions asked. According to the article, in the year 2009 (when this article was written), there were 4,000 DSS employees that are also dealing with other issues like well-fare and child support, not including the caseworkers and other employees working on cases like these with their limited budget of 1.2 billion that was cut $229 million in that year. This is definitely a huge social issue affecting many families not just locally but all around, and definitely needs all the support and help it can get.