METH TASK FORCE APPROVES CHECKLISTS

DSS Partners With Treatment Pros In Case Decisions

Watauga County's Drug-Endangered Children (DEC) Program Task Force met
earlier this month to continue refining procedures for protecting the
health and safety of children victimized by methamphetamine production. Two
representatives from the Division of Social Services in Ashe County
attended the meeting to learn how the local task force is addressing the
problem and to obtain copies of task-force-developed materials.

Members of the task force approved the onsite decontamination checklist
drafted by forensic toxicologist Dr. Andrew Mason. The checklist is a
field-assessment tool designed to give social services, law enforcement and
EMS personnel clear yes-no guidelines for determining if persons found at
the scene of a methamphetamine lab require decontamination before being
transported to the hospital.

DSS child protection worker Chad Slagle presented another checklist for the
group's consideration, this one a tool for taking social services workers
step by step through the now carefully defined and ordered process of
dealing with children found in meth lab situations. The checklist
references the decon checklist at the appropriate point in the procedural
sequence and includes space for social services personnel to indicate
various actions taken during the process.

Slagle said that he is preparing folders for each DSS social worker that
contain all the task force's checklists and other information.

The Watauga County task force deserves credit both for having identified
the need for such checklists and for producing them in the absence of
guidance from the state.

Another of the group's proactive steps is the development of a suggested
medical protocol for children seen in the Watauga Medical Center emergency
room after their discovery at a meth lab scene. Members of the task force
are meeting next month with emergency room physicians to present the draft
protocol for the doctors' consideration. The intent of the protocol is to
establish a uniform process for testing and treating children and also to
collect the same types of information and evidence on every case.

Slagle announced that ASU students from the Department of Sociology and
Social Work will begin a research and data collection project this spring
with multiple goals. Those goals include identifying and quantifying the
scope of the problem in the county, comparing local data with other North
Carolina counties and other states and determining if any correlations
exist between methamphetamine production/use and psychological/social
problems such as domestic violence. Slagle told the group that one of the
requirements of the recently received DEC grant is making presentations at
conferences and providing information to the State Bureau of Investigation.
The ASU research effort will help the task force meet that requirement.

Discussion then turned to case issues.

Slagle said that two area mothers had recently admitted to two different
social workers that they inject methamphetamine rather than smoking or
inhaling it. "We didn't think needle use was a problem in our community,"
Slagle said, "but our eyes are being opened very quickly."

Child Protective Services Supervisor Roslyn Thompson said that DSS is
grappling with other issues besides children discovered at meth lab sites.
The question social workers are trying to answer is whether children can
safely remain with meth-addicted parents even if the parents are not
producing the drug. Taking into account the long-lasting effects of meth
ingestion and the well-reported correlation in other areas between meth
addiction and child neglect/abuse, social workers are asking, "Do we need
to be asking for custody because of the effects of the drug?"

Thompson said that locally, DSS staff is now meeting monthly with mental
health personnel and substance abuse treatment workers to review each case
individually and make a determination on the best course of action. In
addition, case workers are now requiring substance abuse assessments on
every member of a family instead of just the parents. And Thompson said
that the local staff has started discussion with the state "to ask if we
need to look at this differently."

The family assessments, Slagle explained, put treatment resources one step
closer if a problem is discovered and also help provide evidence for making
case decisions.

"I don't think you'll find another county in the nation where DSS meets
with all the substance abuse people," Slagle said.

Environmental Health Supervisor Lawrence Caviness then provided an update
on what he had learned at a recent meeting on decontamination standards.
The workshop was conducted by a certified contractor who works in
Washington and Oregon. "After hearing his presentation," Caviness said, "we
weren't convinced that some of these mom and pop sites are as bad as we've
been led to believe." The meth problem is widely acknowledged to have
originated in the western states and spread eastward over the past several
years. Sites used to produce meth are also widely acknowledged to be
dangerously contaminated by the toxic byproducts of the production process.

Caviness said that Washington and Oregon passed clean-up laws, "mainly
because of the lead and mercury used in the production process," but that
California has not passed such laws.

While there is still no decision in Raleigh about the most appropriate
action to take, Caviness said, the Epidemiology Section of the NC
Department of Health and Human Services has developed draft guidelines for
a testing procedure that contain little more than the need to review the
clean-up contractor's qualifications, workplan and report and then make an
occupancy recommendation based on that report.

Caviness pointed out that no labs in the area are DEA-certified and no
local contractors are certified - both requirements for conducting such
testing - creating a catch-22 situation. "Until we can get certified
contractors and DEA-certified labs," Caviness said, "I don't think we'll be
able to provide much help." Task force member Mason raised an additional
concern, "The point is, you not only don't have a lab, but you don't have
standards for that lab."

The only current incentive for owners to clean up their properties,
Caviness said, is their potential liability for future tenants' health
problems, but Slagle came at the problem from another perspective: "The
dilemma we're in is not knowing when a house is safe to reenter for
children." Because social workers do not know, the task force procedures
currently prohibit children from returning to a home in which meth was
produced. For now, that prohibition will stand.

Subsequent to the meeting, several members of the task force met with and
were quoted in a February 23 New York Times article exploring the multiple
aspects of the county's meth problem.

The next DEC Program Task Force meeting is scheduled for March 5 from 1:00
to 3:00 p.m.