Ignored, abused, and abandoned – these are some of the chronic conditions experienced by children raised in environments where there is substance abuse or illegal drug use, manufacturing, cultivation, and distribution. Drug-endangered children (DEC) are part of a very large and growing population of children whose lives have been seriously and negatively impacted by dangerous drugs. The presenters discuss how the DEC approach assists in overcoming the challenges in aligning the agencies and systems responsible for preventing, intervening in, and treating these issues to change the trajectories of the lives of drug-endangered children and break multi-generational cycles of abuse and neglect.

Upon completion of this webinar, you will be able to:

• List basic techniques to recognize and identify drug-endangered children.
• Explain the risks that drug-endangered children face.
• Describe the need to facilitate multidisciplinary, collaborative responses to better meet the needs of these children.
• Identify opportunities (including those often missed) to identify children living in dangerous drug environments and the benefits of intervention at the earliest possible point in order to reduce physical and psychological harm to children.
• Describe what a multidisciplinary collaborative response looks like and how it incorporates the unique and often limited resources within a community.

Presenters

• Eric Nation, Director of Training, National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children
• Stacee Read, Director of DEC Network Development, National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children