Transcript Jefferson County DEC

JEFFERSON COUNTY DEC
BACKGROUND
 Jef ferson County
 Just south of St. Louis
 Population 220,000
 “Meth Capital”
 346 meth labs in 2012
 MEG unit
 411 children placed into care in 2012
 64% were drug related
HOW IT BEGAN
 Topic of discussion 3 years ago at a Methamphetamine Action
Coalition meeting
 Find a way to decrease recidivism rate – children once removed are now
the offenders
 Somehow these children are not receiving the services they need
THE PROCESS
 We began by learning about the system
 Coalition members from CD, Juvenile Office and MEG unit shared their
processes for removing children
 Attended the DEC track of the Substance Abuse Prevention
Conference 2011
 June 2012 - Held a free ½ day training “What is a DEC team?”
 Chuck Dougherty spoke – MO DEC steering committee
 Approximately 40 in attendance
 Evaluations of training indicated who was interested and what they felt
like our next steps needed to be
THE PROCESS
C ON T.
 MAD – Oct. 2012 – Focused on Drug Endangered Children
 Eric Nation was the keynote speaker
 Held an “invite only” session led by Eric
 Invited key individuals from law enforcement, children’s division,
prosecuting attorney’s office, juvenile office, probation and parole,
hospitals, health department, COMTREA
 About 20 people attended
 PA came on board and agreed to take the lead
 Conference call with Eric Nation and National DEC
THE PROCESS
C ON T.
 January 2013 – Began building the bylaws committee
 Made contacts with key individuals
 1 st meeting in April
 Reviewed protocols from other states, found one we could
easily modify and began, paragraph by paragraph
 Continued to meet on monthly basis and drafted a (almost)
complete protocol by 4 th meeting
NEXT STEPS
 We are in the process of pulling in hospitals
 Will begin disseminating the protocol to applicable agencies
and asking for signatures of support
 Develop trainings for law enforcement regarding the new
protocol
 Will hold regular trainings for the DEC alliance
 Ideal – case review on a quarterly basis
THE CHALLENGES
 We visited the topic several times before we were able to
achieve “buy -in”
 Difficulty explaining the issues – felt like “outsiders” criticizing
 Needed “buy-in” from those who are actually working the cases
 Now that protocol is written we must pull the other agencies
on board
 Must keep the group moving forward