It appears certain that County Executive Chris Collins has terminated a state funded child services program that had just been implemented by the NYS Office of Child and Family Services and the NYS Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services.
The Collocation Project links county substance abuse counselors with Child Protective Service (CPS) ministers. Together they would work with families reported to the CPS and the substance abuse counselors would provide assessment and abuse treatment services.
Over half the 9,000 cases reported to the CPS are related to substance abuse – alcohol, street and prescription drugs. The high number of CPS cases reported in Erie County led to their being chosen as one of only two counties in New York State selected to be an “Evaluation County” for this beneficial project.
The State of New York approved the Collocation Program and provided the Erie County Department of Social Services with a $4.2 million grant that will fund the program over a three-year period.
The project was approved by former county executive Joel Giambra, but seems to not have found favor with Collins. The project did find favor with the Erie County Fiscal Stability Board, was scheduled to be in place in April 2008 and was already in operation.
Erie County Medical Center Corporations Division of Chemical Dependency, which has been recognized for the past several decades as a leader in providing substance abuse services to the community of Erie County, was informed last Friday that the worthwhile program was being cancelled.
Considering the project is being funded by New York State, has potential enormous benefits to a community suffering socio-economic issues and has no virtual cost to the taxpayers, its termination is questionable.
Similar programs established in other states have benefited their communities by early identification of parental substance abuse that may place children at risk and result in placement in foster care, and the reduction of time spent in foster care.
"Its for the kids", NOT!
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