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COACHES PROGRAM Coaching Over Aroused Children for a Healthy Early Start In March of 2006 Children's Center received a $155,00 grant form the Legacy Health System Community Health Fun to help treat Children affected by Methamphetamine. This innovative program is described below. If you are interested in making a donation to help with this or any other Children's Center Program. Click HERE. The explosive crisis in methamphetamine addiction and production is directly impacting children; “one-third to one-half of the children found in meth labs test positive for methamphetamine in their urine.”(1) Children inhale chemical fumes or second-hand meth smoke and eat toxic chemicals or drugs (e.g., on clothing and cooking utensils). Children with meth exposure have a different clinical presentation than typically seen at a children’s mental health agency. The severity of neuropsychiatric symptoms and severe communication impairments is alarming. Common features include severe and unprovoked aggression (rage-panic episodes lasting up to several hours), serious sleep abnormalities (sleeping only a few hours a night), and even the occurrence of some psychotic symptoms that are otherwise very rare in young children. An increasing number of preschoolers have full-blown psychotic episodes requiring psychotropic medications, intensive mental health counseling and case management. The Children’s Center is experiencing a dramatic increase in referrals from primary care physicians who note higher aggression levels, early mood dysregulation, severe sleep abnormalities and psychosis in 0-6 year old children who have been meth exposed. These children clearly lack readiness for school. Many are being raised by grandparents as the parents are incarcerated or whereabouts are unknown. Many are in foster care; their behavior result in frequent moves among foster care homes as they cannot cooperate with typical parenting or rules. A rising number are expelled from daycare, preschool and kindergarten programs. The Children’s Center has developed a special neuro-behavioral intervention expertise for children who exposed to alcohol and drugs in utero (a three year grant) The Special Needs Adoption Program (SNAP) worked with families to reduce behavioral problems in adopted fetal alcohol syndrome children. The Program’s success was based in training adoptive parents in how to cope and teach their children with severe neuro-behavioral disruptions. Today, the many of the same interventions can be applied with meth exposed children, i.e., combining neuro and behavioral treatment. Recognizing that the number of meth affected young children will continue to increase, the Children’s Center proposes to establish a program: a) training therapists and others, e.g., occupational therapists, speech therapists, in neuro-behavioral techniques, b) training caregivers of meth exposed young children in coping and teaching skills and c) increasing the numbers of hours of a psychiatrist to address the high acuity neuropsychiatric needs of clients. A multi-disciplinary team is necessary to meet the needs of these children. Specialized training and coaching of guardians, early intervention and early childhood education staff, local childcare providers, foster parents, mental health professionals, and other care providers is provided to successfully intervene in the lives of children exposed to meth..
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