CHARLESTON, W.Va.– A childcare expert told lawmakers Monday that over half of adults in West Virginia had experienced some type of childhood trauma growing up.
The Joint Committee on Health convened to hear presentations given by health officials, law enforcement and school officials. All were in agreement that the opioid crisis in West Virginia is causing problems for children.
Jeremiah Samples, Department of Health and Human Resources deputy secretary, said that West Virginia’s overdose rate makes it an outlier in overdose statistics, and children are being affected at birth.
“The NAS rates in West Virginia are the highest in the country, that’s neonatal abstinence syndrome. Those statistics are really important to pay attention to, because that is the next wave of children that will hit the school system,” he said.
Samples added that schools are already struggling to cope with these issues and said the growth in the number of kids experiencing these traumas is heartbreaking.
“It is the most significant problem the state has faced in child welfare since the Great Depression, and I would wager that it may in fact be worse than that given the destruction that a lot of these parents are going through and the ramifications it has on their children,” he said.
These ramifications are known as Adverse Childhood Experiences.
Christina Mullins, Office of Maternal, Child and Family Health director, said ACE’s are traumatic events that occur in a child’s live prior to the age of 18.
“These negative experiences can harm a child’s brain and development which can result in long term health problems,” she said.
Following in the footsteps of 20 other states, West Virginia included questions about ACE’s on its Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Questionnaire in 2014 and the data from the survey was published last year.
Mullins said the results were surprising to her.
“The most common ACE in West Virginia was substance abuse in the household reported by 28.8 percent of the survey respondents,” she said.
Parental separation and divorce came in at number two, which is what Mullins thought would be the most common childhood trauma.
“West Virginians ages 18 to 54 are more like to be high-risk (for ACE’s),” Mullins said. “It is noteworthy that this high-risk group is similar in age to those who died from an overdose death in 2016.”
Samples pointed out in his presentation that overdose deaths are occurring at younger ages now.
“These kids are being exposed to drugs by their parents and their older siblings and then they become addicted to drugs,” he said.
Both Samples and Mullins said that the DHHR is working to prevent children from experiencing trauma.
“ACE’s can be prevented and safe, stable and nurturing relationships and environments can have a positive impact,” Mullins said. “West Virginia has a number of community strategies, programs and initiatives underway which build these protective factors, help children and families thrive as well as prevent ACE’s from occurring.”
While Mullins said there are programs in place to prevent childhood trauma, she added that the opioid crisis is making it extremely difficult to see change.
“There is hope in some of this, but as an overall population, I’m not seeing those indicators dramatically improve,” she said.
The opioid crisis has continuously been the subject of many childhood health presentations throughout the year so far.
Story by Jordyn Johnson