Parental Drug Use Ups Foster Care Use - Duh Study?

A Duh Study is one that tells us something that is common sense - that we likely don't need to spend money and resources on to officially prove. This study, "Child Abuse and Foster Care Admissions Increase When Parents Use Methamphetamines," may be a candidate.

According to the study that was undertaken by researchers at Baylor University, "Methamphetamine abuse leads to an increase in child abuse and neglect, which causes an increase in foster-care admission." Of course it does. Addicts don't and can't think about their children and their needs. Addicts think and try to meet their own needs; this is what is most important for them, physically and psychologically.

Even today, in 2012, there is debate as to whether people believe addiction is a disease. To many, addiction isn't a disease. They may use the examples of Type 1 diabetes or cancer - where sheer will power could never cure them, making it so they no longer need to take insulin or chemotherapy. To others, this is nonsense and addiction is no less a disease than is asthma or multiple sclerosis. It needs to be diagnosed, treated, and managed - and that it takes much more than just will power to do this.

Regardless of how you feel about addiction, it can't be denied that it affects not just the addict, but the people around him or her, particularly their children. A child of an addict lives in a world unlike any other and must be cared for. But do we have the resources to do that? We need to.

A child of an addict who isn't cared for will not receive the medical, nutritional, social, and educational nurturing that he needs. Without these, his ability to learn how to function in our society is severely compromised, perhaps leading him directly to the lifestyle he knows and grew up with, perpetuating the cycle.