40 kids a year in care before birth
Published Date:
17 May 2007
FORTY babies a year are being identified for fostering in the Lothians - before they are born.
Most are being taken from drug addict mothers by social workers immediately after birth for fear they may come to harm.
The move follows a series of high-profile cases where children have died or been put at risk. Most of the babies - many of whom are themselves addicted to heroin - are taken from their mothers' arms in hospital and placed with foster parents.
Many of the children will never return to their natural parents as they will never recover enough from their addiction to cope.
Drug experts put the growing trend down to "the Trainspotting generation", who became addicts in the 1980s and 1990s, reaching an age where many are having children. They predict the problem will get worse before it gets better.
Social workers in the Capital have also become more willing to intervene following a series of high-profile cases involving the children of drug addict parents.
Eleven-week-old Caleb Ness was shaken to death in 2001 after being left in the care of his drug-addicted mother and brain-damaged father in Leith.
Two-year-old Derek Doran died in December 2005 in Elphinstone, East Lothian, after allegedly drinking the heroin substitute methadone. Earlier the same year, a toddler also spent six weeks alone in a Leith flat with the body of his heroin addict mother after she died of an overdose.
Mental illness and alcoholism among parents are also triggers for social workers ordering placements for children even before they have been born.
But by far the biggest cause of the Capital's soaring childcare bill for employing foster carers, running children's homes and even renting out space in other city's residential schools, is drugs.
Kirstie Maclean, service manager for family based care at the city council, said: "We are getting quite a lot of tiny babies where it is felt appropriate care could be not be given at home by the parents.
"Some are new-born babies where the decision has been made before they have been born that they should be taken into care."
City social workers have found themselves under pressure in recent years due to the rising numbers of cases of neglected and abused children and increasing public scrutiny following the high-profile tragedies.
Tom Wood, chairman of Action on Alcohol and Drugs Edinburgh (AADE), said: "We are now dealing with the children of the 1980s drug-using generation.
"We know there was a rise in drug use in the 1990s as well.
"There's also more scrutiny after Caleb Ness. People working in social services are acutely aware of this issue and it's a top priority resulting in more intervention.
"In my view this problem is going to be with us for a long time to come -it may even increase."
The city council is looking for people to work as foster parents to try to tackle the problem. However, people who take on babies born to heroin addicts will have their work cut out.
Children whose mothers were on heroin while pregnant will suffer withdrawal the minute they are born, are likely to be underweight and could have contracted HIV or viral hepatitis in the womb.
Last year, AADE launched a service to try to help drug abusing mothers-to-be after it emerged around 40 babies are born addicted to heroin a year.
The number of women known to be taking illegal drugs while pregnant has risen from five in 2001 to 150 last year.
The full article contains 600 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
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Last Updated:
17 May 2007 1:18 PM
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Source:
Edinburgh Evening News
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Location:
Edinburgh
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Related Topics:
Social Work
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West Lothian
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Midlothian
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East Lothian
