The aggressive marketing and pharmaceutical sales of opioids in the past decade have left a devastating wake of addiction and death in the United States. Now, individuals who have been harmed by prescription opioids have the chance to file claims against Purdue Pharma, the maker of the painkiller OxyContin. Until July 30 of this year, people who have suffered from the effects of prescription opioid use will have the opportunity to seek compensation.

As of June 11, 2020, about 17,800 personal-injury claims have been filed by people who believe they or their loved ones were harmed by these prescription opioids.

Purdue Pharma is widely believed to be the instigator of the opioid epidemic. In 2019, the company declared bankruptcy which brought the more than 2,000 lawsuits against the company to a halt. “Purdue Pharma and its owner, the Sackler family, reportedly set aside $10 billion or more and put the company into a public trust to pay individual victims’ claims,” according to Newsomelaw.com. The company launched a $23.8 million advertising campaign to announce its opportunity for individuals to file claims.

This bankruptcy is unusual in that the implications of this company’s actions have spurred a national health crisis that has taken hundreds of thousands of lives and created a case for reparations beyond what can be quantified. It cemented a systemic crisis that will take years to undo.

It was also complicated by the sordid actions of the Sackler family, Purdue Pharma’s owners, who had transferred about $1 billion to foreign locations prior to filing bankruptcy. The case which involves Purdue Pharma filing for bankruptcy, also proposes a settlement worth more than $10 billion over time, plus $3 billion from the Sackler family over the next seven years, and an additional $1.5 billion from the sale of the family’s global pharmaceutical business, Mundipharma. It would also require that the family give up ownership of Purdue Pharma.

If you or a loved one has been harmed by the effects of opioids sold by Purdue Pharma, you can access a list of instructions on how to file a claim here.

In a time of stay-at-home orders, heightened financial stress, and a lack of in-person resources that usually exist, incidents of child maltreatment and domestic abuse are increasing while reported cases are falling. Children are not receiving access to educators, who are often the front-line defense in keeping children safe. Child welfare workers are scrambling to ensure that children continue to receive the care they need despite the desperate circumstances.

An article by USA Today reported that educators including teachers, administrators, and counselors report about one in every five claims of child mistreatment. With children sequestered to their homes and limitations placed on who can visit them, reporting a case of mistreatment is becoming a task that is more precarious than ever. While child caseworkers are limiting visits to their clients’ homes for fear of spreading the virus, they will not become absent from these children’s lives.

Welfare officials are adapting to the virtual environment and setting up video calls to do walkthroughs of children’s home environments. They are also arranging in person visits with higher risk cases, or children who may be in immediate danger. These cases may be addressed through visits in the child’s backyard.

Parents are also facing heightened stress as they learn to manage 24/7 childcare, whether they are working remotely and/or are required to go into the office as essential workers. According to USA Today, “Calls to the group’s National Parent Helpline for families in crisis have spiked 30% in the past week, Pion-Berlin said. They’re coming from mothers and fathers stressed about child care, food insecurity and other fears arising from the coronavirus crisis.”

The Columbus Police Department has also seen an “alarming increase” of domestic violence calls since the stay-at-home order has been in place.

If you are dealing with a difficult home environment, you are not alone. Here are some resources that are available and ready to help during this time of crisis:

Franklin County Children Services Child Abuse Hotline: 614-229-7000

Ohio Domestic Violence Network

CAP4KIDS

National Child Abuse Hotline: 800-422-4453

In 2019, a New York Times reporter, Dan Levin, detailed the horrific experiences of children in Ohio who were removed from their homes after years of neglect, abuse and traumatic childhood experiences. He leads the story by writing that, “Nearly 27,000 children in Ohio were removed from their homes last year, many because of the opioid crisis. More than a quarter were placed in the care of relatives.”

The stories Levin recounted were those of children sent outside without sufficient food and water while their parents use drugs, as sister and brother Hannah and James experienced each summer. These children were also exposed to traumatic violence between their parents, as seven-year-old Hannah called 911 after her mother chased her father with a knife. Hannah’s father was later killed by her mother’s boyfriend.

Stories like these paint the picture of the lives of many of these 27,000 children. Parents in rehab, sick or dead from drug addiction are circumstances that young children are exposed to far too commonly. So commonly, that a name was dedicated to children trapped in these vicious cycles of addiction – Generation O.

Certain geographic areas are more dense with these concerns.

“In Portsmouth, Ohio, at least a quarter of the school district’s nearly 650 junior high and high school students have a close relative who uses drugs.”

As written in another NYT article by Dan Levin, this will have a long-lasting impact on the communities with heavy users, as more children are being born with a dependency on opioids, and many with severe learning disabilities and other types of disabilities. This poses a new challenge for educators as schools increasingly become places of refuge in the lives of maltreated children.

“Many students frequently come to school wearing the same, unwashed clothes days in a row, so shelves are stocked with clean garments, along with fresh shampoo, bars of soap and deodorant.

Yet some of the teenagers change back into their own clothes after the final bell rings and the last class ends, ‘because parents will take new clothes and sell them for drug money,’ said Drew Applegate, an assistant principal.”

In a sobering reality of family life in Portsmouth, an art teacher cannot think of any student who paints a two-parent family during their family portrait lesson.

As long as the opioid crisis presides over these communities, there will continue to be a shift that emphasizes the role of educators in children’s lives.

People who have a history or are currently dealing with addiction are especially vulnerable to relapse when faced with isolation, and this is especially worrisome given the intensity and duration of isolation associated with the COVID-19 crisis. With restrictions on travel and unusually stressful economic and social changes, people across the world are forced to find ways to pass time and to cope with stress. Substance use can be a maladaptive coping strategy that many people may fall back on during these difficult times.

A Forbes article noted that the sales of spirits spiked about 50% the week of March 21, a week when the onset of the pandemic began to overwhelm the United States.

“Nationally, tequila saw the biggest spike, up more than 75%, underscoring its status as the fastest growing spirits segment in the U.S,” said Forbes contributor, Joseph V Micallef. “It was followed closely by gin. Wine sales were up 66% and beer sales, in a reversal of the usual recession consumption pattern, lagged even though they still rose 42%.”

A study was conducted by the Pacific Neuroscience Institute (PNI) on the effects of stress and isolation on relapse. The results indicated that the effects of people who struggle with drug or alcohol use are at increased risk of relapse in isolation. “Preclinical studies show that animals kept in isolation are more likely to press a lever to receive a dose of drug or alcohol than animals able to interaction with other animals.”

The connection between isolation and an increased need for stress-relieving rewards is proven to be a chemical reaction. The PNI recommends that those who are struggling seek out regular social interactions with sober family members, friends or other people who can offer support. There are online platforms set-up to support individuals who are struggling and cannot receive in-person help during the pandemic.

AA and SMART Recovery are two recovery platforms that have online services including specialized group forums, peer support groups, meetings, and other events designed to create remote support systems for individuals in need.

Doctors and mental health specialists are also accessible throughout this time and available to ensure that everyone has the resources they need during this global health crisis. Personal health is of the utmost priority during this time and is something we could all focus more time on.

Reach out to any people or organizations who can help you get through this difficult time, and don’t forget to make your support available to others as well. We’ll all get through this together.

Children in foster care are highly at risk