by Dr. Erin Winstanley
What is the best thing we can do to address the opioid epidemic? I’ve been asked this question countless times. The best answer that I have is that it’s never only one thing, but the many things that stand to make a difference. One often overlooked strategy is to provide resources and support for at-risk low-income families.
In 2019, there were 70,000 West Virginian children living in poverty. Growing up in poverty is stressful and families that struggle economically often cannot meet their children’s basic needs for safe shelter and access to healthy foods. Children living in poverty may encounter more stressful life events and have an increased risk of experiencing adversities or trauma that can have lasting impacts on their health. At times these adversities can be character building, but in the context of poverty, children may become less resilient. The more adverse events that children endure, the higher the likelihood that drug use and mental illness occur. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the challenges faced by low-income families in West Virginia; nearly a quarter of West Virginia parents report feeling down, helpless or blue.
Too many West Virginia families have already lost a loved one to overdose, and our child welfare system simply cannot adequately care for the thousands of children impacted by parental addiction. As our state has increased access to evidence-based treatment for parents with substance use disorders, expanded resources for low-income families and reduced childhood poverty will be critical to the prevention of multigenerational drug addiction.
The Build Back Better budget proposal currently making its way through Congress contains many components that will help low-income families. One of the most significant pieces of this legislation is seeing that the recent enhancements to the Child Tax Credit are made permanent and fully refundable. Columbia University researchers estimated that after the first CTC payment went out to families in July, there was an immediate 25% increase in the number of families reporting that they had enough food to eat. Recent data from the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy has demonstrated that West Virginia families are spending their CTC on household essentials including food, utilities and clothing. WVCBP estimates that if all eligible families access the CTC, then nearly 50,000 West Virginia children would no longer live in poverty.
Sen. Joe Manchin has recently expressed his hesitation to support this proposal, referencing a number of concerns relating both to its potential to discourage self-reliance and the bill’s inability to weed out the undeserving.
It is my sincere hope that what will inspire Sen. Manchin to act now, as it has so many times in the past, is that no one is more deserving than a child in poverty.
Addressing the opioid epidemic has been a chief priority for Sen. Manchin during his time in public office. One of the greatest contributions he can make to it now is to give his full and energetic support of the Build Back Better agenda and its robust anti-poverty policies.
The strength of our communities is inseparable from the wellbeing and resiliency of our children. We have the means now through policy to truly reduce childhood poverty in our state and across the nation. In doing so, we will give families the resources they need to raise healthy children and allow them to lift themselves above the despair caused by poverty.
Dr. Erin Winstanley is an associate professor of behavioral medicine and psychiatry at the WVU School of Medicine.
