Opioid Crisis Overwhelms Foster System

More children are entering foster care, with more trauma issues and less chance of being reunited with family

Robin Ghertner (R), director of data and technical analysis in the Department of Health and Human Services's office of human services policy, and Chris Jones, director of mental health and substance use policy, SAMHSA, at the 2018 Opioid Roundtable hosted by the National Sheriffs Association and the Daniel Morgan Graduate School of National Security, in Washington on May 3, 2018. Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times

WASHINGTON—Right now, 8.7 million children in the United States have parents with a substance use disorder.

Child welfare systems are overloaded, staff burnout is extreme, and foster homes are becoming more scarce, even as the need rises.