The Opioid Epidemic and the Need for Foster Parents

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Being a parent is hard. Life has many twists and turns and there are times when things go off the rails.

“The priority is finding homes for the children,” said Nicole Warner of Child and Family Services.

With decades of experience in the field, she dedicates every day to providing routine and emergency care.

“Sometimes a child is removed and the same day we try to find them a home. There is an imminent need,” she said. “They can’t find their family members. So this is obviously a time where we drop everything and work to call all of our families to see if they can take them.”

Always looking for new host families, recruitment was difficult to facilitate the mission.

“Because of the changes we’ve seen in the world, we’re increasingly seeing that both members of the household need to work,” Warner noted. “That obviously leads to challenges around just finding people with global availability, as well as challenges around working with the population overall, as we’re seeing.”

Adding to these difficult battles is the current opioid epidemic. According to the Child Welfare League of America, overdose death rates alone have led to a nearly 5 percent increase in the need for foster care, while hospitalizations remain above 3 percent. These numbers may seem small, but that’s more than 200,000 children who are placed in foster care each year.

“This obviously leads to families having more needs and not being able to care for their children as they can while they are going through these difficulties,” she said. “There are so many systemic social, cultural and economic issues going on right now that it continues to be a challenge.”

But it’s not all a struggle. There are adoptive parents like Kyma Dickinson and Sheira Cordero.

“It goes back to grandmother,” Dickinson said. “All my life she’s had adopted children and I have several cousins ​​that you can’t tell me are not my blood relatives.”

They have a few children of their own, but have helped several foster children find shelter and support.

“People think that, you know, foster families, like children, they also stereotype children. X, Y and Z,” Cordero said. “These kids are absolutely amazing.”

They hope their placement over the past two years and positive relationships with CFS will help others decide to take over.

“God forbid something happens to us, I hope that, you know, if a family member can’t take our child, a good family will be there to help us,” Dickinson added.

Whether it is these foster parents or the agency, there is always a growing need for those in the system, which is beyond gratifying.

“I have seen with my own eyes a lot of injustice and abuse,” Warner said. “Knowing that I can be a part of this village and the families that I work with and that I can support them through this process is truly the most fulfilling feeling in the world.”