By Ellen Ayer Earley | Special to Syracuse.com
I never could have imagined the opioid epidemic would directly impact my family. Then, in June 2017, my daughter Saige had her wisdom teeth removed and was prescribed oxycodone. Soon after, she began to struggle with an opioid addiction and sought rehab and sobriety. Despite her efforts, in September of 2018, Saige fell victim to the opioid epidemic at the age of 23. On her way to a treatment center, she died of an overdose. She left behind her loving family, including her then 2-year-old son, Julian.
As Julian grows up, he won’t remember every moment of the tragic day he lost his mom, but he will carry the loss in his heart for the rest of his life.
As his grandmother, I am grateful I was able to be there to care for him during the most traumatic event of his young life and eventually was granted permanent custody. For all the ways in which Julian will grieve the loss of his mom in the years to come, I will be there to hold him, love him, and remind him that he still has an unshakable sense of family in me, his grandmother.
Yet, many children in New York state go through the irreparable trauma of family separation without the support of a single family member or close family friend. This is especially concerning given the rise in the opioid epidemic in Central New York over the past 10 years, leaving more and more children like Julian without their biological parents.
If for any reason I wasn’t able to become Julian’s caregiver, he may have ended up in the foster care system, likely to become another statistic.
For the more than 7,000 children in foster care outside of New York City, the state places just 15% of them with kin, compared to 32% of children in foster care nationwide. This makes New York state the third worst in the nation when it comes to placing children in foster care with family. Meanwhile, the state places 1 in 5 children in foster care in group home settings, which is nearly double the placement rate for group homes nationwide.
Young people placed into institutional settings are more likely to deal with mental health issues, experience worse outcomes in school and have encounters with the justice system. My grandson Julian has the benefit of a familiar family setting and loving relatives to help him cope with the loss of his mother. He will grow up knowing that he always has a bedrock of family support to lean on.
But the same isn’t true for the kids who pass through multiple group institutions, continuously dealing with the uncertainty of never having a place to call home. Group homes, also known as congregate care, provide children with temporary support from strangers in a foreign facility, when often what these kids really need is a familiar hand to hold.
New York should be a leader when it comes to taking care of our most vulnerable children. The state must reduce the number of children who get placed in group home settings and ensure children can be placed with kin whenever possible. The state also must ensure the grandparent, aunt, uncle, or family member who cares for the child has the resources they need.
Grandparents like me who take in grandchildren often have to push off retirement or even take on a second job as they face financial costs they aren’t prepared to handle, especially as they strive to nurture children who have faced severe trauma. In addition to changing the State’s focus from institutional care to kin-based care, families need financial help and resources to meet these challenges.
The state can begin to do that by ensuring the Kinship Guardianship Assistance Program (KinGAP) is funded adequately to serve all the New York families who need it. KinGAP offers families caring for relatives in the foster system essential financial and social support.
Every day that I’m with Julian is a reminder of how blessed and thankful I am to have him in my care. It’s unconscionable the number of young people in our state who are not placed with family or kin during their most vulnerable moments. It’s time New York state take the necessary actions to lead the nation in providing the best outcomes for children in foster care.