As noted in last week’s blog, the Task Force on Pregnancy Health and Substance Abuse released their recommendations on Dec 1.
The Task Force recommends giving health care providers the responsibility of creating family care plans.
The report states: “Every time a provider submits a notification, they should engage in a conversation with the family to create a family care plan for the newborn infant born affected by parental substance use disorder or experiencing withdrawal from drugs or alcohol which shall address substance use disorder treatment, mental health or other medical treatment, housing, education, employment, transportation, legal, and other needs of the infant, the birthing individual, and the infant’s caregivers and family members.”
Safe Passage for Children has informed the Task Force that we oppose this recommendation. Reasons include:
- Health care providers care for the medical needs of families. They do not have the time, resources or training to deal with all the needs listed above.
- The Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) is best suited to oversee and efficiently coordinate diverse forms of care and services and assess the ongoing safety of the child.
- Due to HIPAA, health care providers are not able to share information adequately with the array of people who would need to be involved with a family’s care plan.
- There does not appear to be any mechanism by which the health care provider could hold the family accountable for following the family care plan.
The DCYF website states: “The Department of Children, Youth, and Families is working to better coordinate and resource our systems serving children and youth so all families can thrive.”
We are wondering why the Task Force is trying to offload this responsibility to health care providers instead of relying on state agencies such as DCYF that should be coordinating care to keep babies and children safe.