4 billion each year. So not other they sacrificing a lot of their golden years, but theyre, in fact, helping all of us by taking on that substantial burden. 2. 6 million Grandparents Raising Grandchildren, thats a huge number. And, as i mentioned, senator collins and i have the legislation called supporting Grandparents Raising Grandchildren act which creates a federal task force to serve as a onestop resource for resources and information for grandparents who are, in fact, having to raise their grandchildren. I wanted to start with mr. Bell and ask whether you think having this information will help support these grandparents and relatives who are raising these children as a result of the Opioid Epidemic . Thank you, senator casey. Dr. Bell, im sorry. Thank you. Senator collins did raise this before she left and, as i indicated, we are very supportive of what you are trying to do here. Its something that we learn from the crack epidemic, that these grandparents need support centers, they need navigatetive programs, they need Financial Resources because the notion of the 4 billion saiflgs savings is because many of these grandparents have not been necessarily informed that they kwo become kinship providers. I wouldnt advocate that we take them and bring them into the foster system because many can do better from the outside. We do need to find a way to provide Financial Support for them to continue to live their lives so theyre not burdened down overly with these children. Because one thing that we saw during the crack epidemic was that their health started to deteriorate had they didnt have the support that they needed. I think youre definitely on the right pathway and would fully support working with you on that. I appreciate it because you bring particular experience and expertise to these issues. So were grateful for that, that help, and it will give us momentum for passing the bill. So i appreciate that. Dr. Patrick, i wanted to raise with you a question that i know that the chairman, chairman alexander, referred to. He and i worked together on the implementation of the plan of safe care legislation and i know that this may also be reiterating what was spoken of earlier. But we have this gao report that just came out yesterday. I had requested that the gao examine the socalled infant plan for safe care improvement act. And what the gao found was a lack of guidance from hhs on how states should be implementing the law. So were going to continue to work on full implementation and sufficient support for the states and being able to carry out the responsibility on plans of safe care. So i guess i ask you as a neonatalist whos on the frontline as these substance affected infants, many of them burdened by the socalled nas syndrome, neonatal absta nant syndrome, have you identified any best practices for assuring a coordinated multidisciplinary approach to this . I think just as the gao report suggested, theres a lot of confusion at the state level of what defines an infant safe plan of care and what that should look like. And resources to be able to carry those out. There are models, theres a couple models, one that im familiar with thats called charm in vermont where they proactively engage families that are in Substance Abuse treatment well before birth, meet with those families throughout, develop plans throughout the pregnancy and work towards a safe discharge. What i experience is far more reactive where a referral is made to dcs around the time of birth and theres no action taken until around the time of discharge. And it tend to be reactive and, in part, i think thats because our overburdened Child Welfare system is reacting to the problem instead of having the resources and training to address it head on. Ill point out one other point, which is in many states they treat substance kpoexposure as y would abuse. And so reframing that specifically on how to work with families early on to keep Families Together where appropriate its really needed. I think your work on this and the infant safe plan of care, implementing that and getting more resources is vital to improving outcomes for family. Thank you, doctor. We have our vote at 11 30 so im going to ask the witnesses and the senators to try to keep the exchange within five minutes and then supplement the answers in written form after the hearing. Senator murk kows sky. Thank you, mr. Chairman and i would hope that he i could do followup questions with members of the panel because this is important. The go around the state, the meetings that i have, the meetings i have with folks here i dont care if youre the Alaska Association of School Boards or whether youre here as a mayor talking about an infrastructure project, we always end up talking about addiction and what is happening in our small communities. And when we think about the addict, we cannot think about the addict without thinking about the families. And the children that are now part of this world of addiction, it is just something that breaks your heart. I was at a meeting down on the peninsula just this past friday and was told, this is still anecdotal but when the office of Childrens Services takes a case, takes children, and not even taking them into the system but just reviewing them, they do a hair follicle test to test for drugs. Nine out of ten of the kids in the system right now are testing positive for drugs because of drugs that are in the household that they have been exposed to. When you think about the addict, you dont necessarily think about the impact, again, to our children, the imimpact on prematernal care, women who are pregnant who are choosing not to get care because theyre afraid theyre going to be told by their doctor that they are bad people, that when they if theyre mothers who have Young Children theyre not telling their doctors about their use because theyre afraid theyre going to lose their children. It is just beyond belief the impact to the children. We had the author of dreamland before the committee some weeks ago. He suggested we need a moon shot approach to get this social movement for recovery. And i suggested that moon shot was a different thing because it gave something for us as americans to aspire to, some big lofty goal. When it comes to addiction, its much harder for the communities as large to embrace this as something that we need to do because there is still such a stigma attached to it. And when i asked him what we, as lawmakers, could do, he said you need to give a forum to the families to speak out so we view differently those that are addicts. And ms. Savage, i want to ask you as the mother of two two young men who are no longer with you and your family because of addiction, when we think about the addict of days gone by, it is a different mental image in peoples minds. And recognizing that the addict todays a different person, how how can we do more to facilitate a conversation about the fact that people who are dealing with this, theyre not losers, theyre not bottom of the barrel, they are not they are not these these people at the bottom of society. These are these are boys, these are brothers, our sisters, our parents, people that we love. How do we change this so that there is this ability as society to embrace what we have to do to solve addiction . Sure. Thank you for the question where are senator. Our boys, i just want to clarify were not addicts, they had experimented with a medication that was brought to a gradation party so it was a onetime use that did kill them. However, we are faced with the stigmatism because every time somebody says how oh, you lost your two older boys, how did they pass away, have you that split seskd oh, my gosh, here we go and they died of an overdose. Do you get the stigmatism. And ive, you know, we talk about it. We tell exactly what happened. But there is that stigmatism ought there. There are some cool systems that i know parents have contacted me about going to talk to and the School Systems maybe dont arent ready to have someone come in and talk about opioid misuse or abuse or prescription pills because of the sigmatism. Theyre afraid that theyre going to be classified as having an issue at their school. So im not sure how to combat that other than just talking about it and being more open with talking to people. We talk about it all the time, obviously. I would like to say that its getting easier, but i think just talking about it hopefully will help fight some of that stigmatism. Well, i thank you for the courage as a parent for coming forward and helping others as they deal with the losses and the challenges in their personal lives. Thank you, mr. Chairman. It up. Senator baldwin. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I knew when i saw the announcement about this hearing that it was going to feel awfully personal, and i want to thank you all for being here and for your advocacy. Ms. Savage, thank you, you are saving lives. You talked about the power of story telling when you meet with students, so i want to share just a little of mine. I think most of the people on this committee know that i was raised by my grandparents because i talk about them all the time. Often times in the context of Committee Hearings that were having. I worked with senator collins on a different caregiver measure that was signed into law just two weeks ago dealing more with supporting families who are carrying for elderly people who are becoming frail or adults with disabilities. But i dont think ive often shared why i was raised by my maternal grandparents. My mother was 19 when i was born and going through a divorce, moved back home. But throughout her life struggled with Mental Illness and physical illness and chronic pain, for which in the days well before we labeled an Opioid Epidemic she was prescribed a multitude of benzo die as peens, narcotics, and other medications. I always knew and had a lot of contact with my mother when i was growing up. She lived very close by. But my grandparents were heroes and gave me a stable upbringing and they thought they were empty nesters. They were both in their mid50s, both of their daughters had left the home, and i dont think they imagined that they were going to get an infant. I moved in when i was 2 months old. I actually had the same Grade School Principal that my mother had when she was in grade school. And i know they struggled. One of the issues they struggled with was Health Insurance coverage for me. They werent in the foster system, this was an informal arrangement. But i saw what my mother struggled with, misusing addiction. And i saw my grandparents, again, just my rocks, my folks who just were with me the whole time. I had the honor of returning to care for my grandmother when she was in her 90s and needed care giving. And so the issue of supporting our families in these roles from all perspectives, whether its getting the person with Substance Abuse issues that help they need or supporting the families and foster parents who step forward and give a kid a chance. I cared so deeply about this. I wanted to having taken so much of my questioning time, i suspect i will give you some questions for the record. But i wanted to ask a little bit about the infants dr. Patrick and dr. Bell who have Significant Health impacts of their own because of neonatal abstament syndrome. I have long championed a measure that has yet to become law that would extend access to therapeutic foster care, employing medicaid funds for children who will need lifelong care but to empower family members and foster parents to provide more than just custodial care and love, but also more intensive services. I wonder if you could talk about the importance of the role of therapeutic foster care and our ability to get medicaid funds to support those families. Dr. Patrick, why dont we start with you. Dr. Patrick, 13 seconds left so if you could summarize that and then perhaps in writing answer senator baldwins question. Tammy, thank you for your story too, that was. Thank you. Thank you for doing that. Please go ahead. I think one of the things we often miss is that substance exposure often leads to preterm birth. I sent home a baby in the last week that had been in the hospital for eight months, born at 23 weeks and the a. Support that family needs is extensive. For many of our babies they unfortunately dont have families to go to. So what youre talking about is varietially important as we support families, particularly foster families that come in and care for infants that have complex needs. So thank you for that. Thank you very much, senator baldwin. Senator scott. Thank you, mr. Chairman, and to senator baldwin, thank you. I came in halfway through your story. Thank you for sharing your personal story with all of us. I think its informative and instructive as well. Were all appreciative of family members who step to the plate when challenges arise with our caregivers. Ms. Savage, the power of your personal testimony is unmatched and i cant imagine the excruciating pain and misery that your family has endured, but the ability to arctic coupe late your articulate your story through this nation that well never hear but lives will be saved because hut power and strength toth testify. Thank you to your family, your husband, and your son for being here as well. Dr. Patrick risch know youve answered this question a couple of times already hand to go to a banking hearing and other hearings. But in south carolina, according to many reports from 2007 to 2015, the number of babies born with nas has gone from four per 1,000 to seven per 1,000. My understanding its very difficult to treat these babies. Can you once again illuminate perhaps briefly how we could do a better job first, and second, my question is when i was hear and listening to your testimony you talked about the difficulty within the first couple of weeks. Can you speak to the challenges for the next several years in some of these kids as they grow up . Thank you for the question. When i describe a baby that has drug withdrawal i describe them as a colic i can baby times five. These are infants that are fussy, difficulty feeding, sometimes difficulty breathing and less commonly they can also have seizure. So you can imagine what thats like for a familiarly go through and for the infant go through. Our approach has changed substantially at vanderbilt based on best practices around the country. No longer do infants that have drug withdrawal come to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. They stay with their mom in possible in the newborn nursery and then go to a hospital outside the icu. We find that keeping mom and babies together it decreases the severity of the drug withdrawal and keeps the bonding from early on, its so important. Your questions around longterm outcomes are really important. One of the things that we need say dishl research to understand. There really arent large prospective studies to follow infants as they go to kindergarten. We have some older studies that suggest that there may be some issues with attention, maybe with language, but there arent robust studies. Its an area that needs to be funded. As we think through this and react to what were doing now, one of the vital things that we do is support infants for those first few years of life and includes partnering with Child Welfare. So every infant thats substance exposed should be referred for Early Intervention services, speech therapy, occupational therapy, so we can maximize their outcome. I think that period of time going home is so critical, and right now the way it feels for me when i discharge an infant home is that its uncoordinated an it puts a lot of stress on a family that already has a lot of stress. Thank you very much, dr. Bell. I thank you for being here as well. One of the comments ive been thinking about as ive been listen sgt thought th listening is the thought of shame and consequences of ones action leads folks to hide the challenges and addictions. I know theres a strong push for parents going through treatment not to lose their children which sounds like a good idea but also a doubleedge sword. You can walk me through that as well . So the approach really is one that says we want to honor your relationship with your child, we also want to acknowledge that having that child connected to you is of great motivator to overcoming the challenge that youre dealing with. But in doing that, we also acknowledge the need to make sure that theres constant monitoring of the children, that there is constant support for the children, that theres respite for the child time period so the child will be away from the parent. So that Child Welfare is not doing what we typically done in the past which is having this complete distance. Yes. But that we are not leaving the child just with the parent so that something might possibly happen. And were continuously working with that mother and father and other family members to improve their capacity to care for the children. Thank you. Using my last 14 seconds here as wisely as i can which means im going to go over my 14 seconds, the senator baldwins story as it relates to the involvement of her grandparents, how often do you see the grandparents senator scott, im going to have to we have a vote right now and four senators waiting. Ill wrap it up just about seven more minutes. Ill submit that in writing to you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Im sorry to cut you off, but i totally understand. Ive been trying to be a little bit senator murphy. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman, i want to add my thanks to senator baldwin for sharing that story with us and i actually may have a question pertaining to how we make sure that families are truly involved in the care for their loved once if i have time with my strict fiveminute limit. But i wanted to come back to dr. Patrick to expand on this conversation about neonatal absta nens syndrome. A few years ago yale Childrens Hospital conducted a Quality Improvement study look at the best care for these kids and what they attempted to do was build a really comprehensive nonform logical approach to faring for these infants, low stimulation rooms, feeding on demand, trying to enhance the bond between mother and child. The results were really extraordinary. Average length of stay in the nick cue went from 28 days to 8 days. Morphine increased from 98 to 44 . My question is how important is it to prioritize nonfarm logical treatment for nas and are our hospitals ready for this . You have to have more nurses, you have to have dedicated physical space in order to do this right. How important is this treatment and are we ready do more of it . Well, my colleagues at yale have done a wonderful built a wonderful program. Its vieptal. Nonpharmacologic care is vital. We find as we do that in our hospitals were using less morphine if the what would you rather have . Who you rather have your mother on morphine putting mops and babies together creating that environment is so important. And as far as whether hospitals are ready for it, i think we do have challenges in many communities, particularly rural communities. We know in states like ours and tennessee, my birth state West Virginia theres a really high number of opioid exposed infants. And sometimes the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit is the only pediatric place in the hospital. Think when we think about how this semipla meanted, how do we begin to deescalate the care that we provide for infants and create a model where families can stay together, i think it may look slightly different in different hospitals, hospitals that may not have the resources that vanderbilt has to support lactation. We have a child life specialist whos building a kud letter program so when moms cant be there were able to support that. I think it will look different everywhere but it is vital. Dlikt to dr. Bell but ms. Savage if you have thoughts as well. I want to talk about what happens when a child reaches the age of majority. One of the things we talked about in the reform act in 2016 in this committee and Congress Passed is looking at hippa laws and how they may create barriers for the parents when they reach age 18 to stay in in line with the parents. We want to make sure if the doctor feels its in the best interest of that child had they go from 17 to 18 that the parents can still at the very least know about when the appointments are so that they can help that 18yearold stay on schedule. I just wanted to pose that question to you about how you think about making sure that families stay integrated in care when you have that transition to the age of majority. Yeah, i think that its important for young people, particularly entering adulthood, to have a strong support system around them as possible. One of the things that we have wrestled with in the Child Welfare Services Area has always been being able to help the individual understand why this is helpful to them. Its a very complicated legal matter in trying to override somes right to privacy, but i do believe the relationship is the most important factor in getting people to accept that this is helpful to me as opposed to invasive to me. But we have to respect privacy, but i do believe that theres possibilities through relationship being able to get that done. Great. I know we got other people who you want to sneak in so ill yield back the rest of my time. Thank you. Thanks, senator murphy thats good of you. We have several senators, some have been here the whole hearing so senator young. I believe the vote may have been moved to 11 45 so that may help us. Thank you, chairman. Ms. Savage, you and i talked in my office about how youve been able to reach so Many High School students not only in the state of indiana but through the country with work through the 525 foundation which you established. You indicated how so many of these kids have no idea whatsoever, or very little idea, about the risk associated with prescription pills and the risk they pose to their health and the health of loved ones. I think a lot of adults look that awareness as well. How, in your mind, do we bring more awareness so this issue to High School Students and do you think we might need a broader Public Awareness campaign to address it . Sure. Thank you for your question. Absolutely. I know not just with High School Students, but also middleaged students and also elementaryaged students and also adults, i think a big campaign with a Public Service announcement, a National Campaign would be awesome because it would touch so many different people, different age groups. Absolutely. Thanks. We had a little dialogue about that last night. Yeah. Recalling this is your brain on drugs ad a few years ago. Yeah, we still remember. Or might be an analog to that. Dr. Bell, im going to turn to you, sir, and i would like to discuss the issue of Predictive Analytics. By waive background, Marilyn Moores is a jouve night court judge in the indianapolis area and she rehe sently said our traditional systems of Early Warning related to Child Welfare cases are overwhelmed. With caseworkers stretched too thin we end up with a bunch of kids who are falling through the cracks, not just in indiana, but we see this around the country. But imagine if we could use existing data to help those caseworkers in targeting muchneeded services to those children who are most at risk. Child welfare expert and former Michigan Supreme Court justice mora cora began said if were able to mine date in Child Welfare and intervene with good casework by the mining of that data, perhaps we would reduce the 1500 to 3,000 deaths from child abuse and neglect in this country each year. Im going to ask you, dr. Bell, how might we use data to estimate risk for children and should we be using data from past cases in order to inform decisions about current ones . Thank you, senator young. You know, i would just say by Predictive Analytics we must first understand that it is a tool an not a solution unto itself. But Predictive Analytics is a very valuable tool that has been used for years in the healthcare field, in law enforcement, in meteorology, and its taking the things we know, analyzing them to help us better predict the things that we dont know. And if we can utilize this tool that has shown so much value for others, aviation, airline crashes, Predictive Analytics has been paramount to reduesing those. I think we have to explore every possible opportunity do better for our children and we believe Predictive Analytics is one of those things we can explore. Thank you. I agree with you. I think sometimes we come up with fancy names that have been around for a while. I guess this is forecasting and the we ought to apply it to this field to improve the lives of our children, so thank you. With my remaining time im going to ask you about reporting. Sometimes a boring issue, but if you dont have clarity about an issue and theres not proper reporting, you dont really have a clear picture of whats going on and often times the solution is poorly targeted. So nearly 11,000 children entered the foster care system in indiana in fiscal year 2016. With at least 58 of these children entering because of parental Substance Abuse. However, both experts and Child Welfare agencies believe this percentage to be underestimated. Nancy k. Young of children and family futures said in a 2016 finance commit tier hearing not a single state believes these accurately reflect their experience and tell us that these numbers greatly understate the vast majority of cases in which a child is placed in protective custody, are related to parental Substance Use disorders. So i guess ive got about 15 seconds left and i too want to be respectful of my colleagues. Yes or no do we know the full extent of the Substance Abuse disorders are subject with the number of children being placed in the foster care system . No, we dont, but we can. Thank you. And we can correspond on that. All right. I look forward to that. Thank you, senator young. Senator warren. Thank you, mr. Chairman. So the Massachusetts Department of health recently released astonishing data about the impact of the Opioid Crisis in our state. They wanted to better understand the relationship between pregnancy and overdose. So they linked up a lot of databases around the state to track the records of mothers who gave birth and then also died in a fouryear period between 2011 and 2015. They found something that whereas really heartbreaking. For four out of every and during the same time period, our foster care system grew by 19 across the state. About 10,000 grandparents are now primary caregivers for their grandchildren, grandchildren who have often landed in their parentss arms grandparentss arms because of this crisis. Now, this crisis isnt just about the lives that are lost, its also about the struggle of those who have to cope when lives are lost. Dr. Bell youre an expert in the 50er care system. When a parent dies from an opioid overdose, what kind of Financial Impact does it have on a child . You know, i would start by just referring to asis, and one of the leading asis as documented through child trends is separation from a parent, death, loss of a parent. And be when a parent dies, that is a traumatic experience for a child that lasts throughout a lifetime. And the result of that is loss of financial, loss of this role model who was there for them, loss of this protector, this chief advocate. And our systems have to be designed to focus on how do we replace those lost elements of that childs development. So they lose the emotional support, they lose the Financial Support. Lets fast forward to when the child is 18 years old. In about half of our states, foster care ends at age 18. So if a child stayed in foster care, theyll be aging out just about the time they finish high school. If a child ended up, say, with their grandparents after the death of a parent from an opioid overdose, those grandparents may be in their 70s by that point, maybe older reason on a fixed income. Dr. Bell, eight age 18 do youth who have lost a parent face continuing burdens in continuing their education . Not complete their Post High School education and far too many dont complete their high school education. One of the ways we try to take care of kwiids who has losa parent. When a work parent dies a child tseng elg able for Social Security benefits which are designed to help pout many these kind of tragic circumstances. Until a couple of decades ago, Social Security Survivor Benefits were available for a child until they were 22 if they were fulltime students. In 1981, congress changed the rules and cut the benefits off at 18, even for students. The bipartisan policy center, a group of both democrats and republicans, has recommended restoring eligibility up to age 22. Now, dr. Bell, the average size of thee benefits is about 820 a month. Is that enough money to make a difference for these young people . Given the cost of living, it clearly is not. But i would say to you that there are a number of possibilities that we need to work on putting together to actually deal with this issue. Because i dont believe of that theres any single avenue that will solve this challenge that were talking about. But it will help us. Things that are possible, absolutely. This is definitely a conversation i would love to be able to continue with you. I think that its pointing in a direction that we must go in. Good. I think thats important. You know, as mrs. Savage testified, the Opioid Epidemic is not fair to anyone. And too many kids are also left to deal with the emotional and Economic Cost of losing a parent. We could make a common sense change to Social Security Survivor Benefits, it wont solve every problem, but it certainly moves us in the right direction. I think the least we could do is restore benefits up to age 22 for fulltime students so that these young people who are eligible for benefits could have a little bit better lifetime chance of going forward. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chair. Thank you, senator warren. The vote has started but we should have time for senator smith and then senator haas tone ask their questions. Senator smith. Thank you very much. Id like to start out by talking about what is actually an urgent need for immediate action on a program that provides Health Coverage to minnesotans, insluding coverage for the treatment and recovery for exactly what were talking about today. In montana we ha we have a lifeline for working families, it offers lowcost comprehensive coverage for people who make too much to qualify for medicaid but cant afford Health Coverage on the private market. Yet unfortunately recent actions by the administration have jeopardized the longterm stability of this program and is putting minnesota coverage at risk for families. Taul actually in stotal my state stands to lose 800 million in federal funding for minnesota care, which say big blow. And i want to thank chair alexander and senator murray for working with me to reverse these cuts and im hoping and counting on a bipartisan effort to stabilize this market and to help us in minnesota who count on this because it relates directly to what were talking about today. The need to not only recognize a desperate Public Health crisis, but also have the resources to provide and treatment and recovery to people who need it. So i want to thank you for the opportunity to just mention that and well just turn to a question. Mrs. Savage, im so grateful for you being here today and i have had im a mother of two sons. I have also sat around tables and coffee shops in minnesota and talked to moms. I want to say with similar stories but you know every single one of these situations is a unique tragedy. And i want to recognize that. Thank you. Ive talked to a lot of parents and teachers and School Officials in minnesota about this epidemic and i hear a lot about the need to strengthen Mental Health systems in our schools, especially the Mental Health workforce. Its kind of like an Early Warning system in schools. And in minnesota we have done some unique things to try to strengthen this link between schools an Community Health providers. And its a big problem. Im actually working with senator murkowski on a way of making this work better. But id be really interested to hear from your perspective, you spent a lot of time in schools. How you think a stronger Mental Health system in our Public Schools would help with this. Well, i think anytime you can strengthen anything in the School System its a good thing. And Mental Health thing no different with that. I know that a lot of students who maybe do have some Substance Abuse issues its because of a Mental Health issue as well. I think if you can strengthen that you might be able to help on the other aspect of this addiction process as well. Thank you very much. Youre welcome. I want to ask a followup question to dr. Patrick. Around this question of familybased treatment and how that might work. Last week i had a chance to meet with some representatives from minnesota, head start providers, and they were telling me about how what pressure it has put on the head start system this opioid Public Health emergency that we have. They said we literally do not have enough arms to hold the infants that need to be held because of whats happening. And so im wondering if you could talk a little bit about how we might use existing systems like head start to help support families, you know, parents and children, who are dealing with neonatal absta unanimous. Thank you for the question. I think it actually begins before, it begins with a comprehensive approach that prevents prevention well beyond pregnancy. As far as our existing resources to engage the family, many of the things that have been said a bit ago in terms of having a more proactive Child Welfare systems that can engage families wholistically and utilize those from child we will welfare, Early Intervention throughout the continuum of care, i think thats really vital have some thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, senator smith, and thank you for your remarks about the minnesota healthcare plan. Were working on a way to lower insurance rates that would specifically solve that problem and i hope we can finish that work promptly. I appreciate that very much. Senator haasen. Thank you very much mr. Chair and Ranking Member murray. Thank you very much for your work and attention this morning. Before we start, i do want to address the bipartisan Funding Agreement that the senator reached yesterday to significantly increase federal funding to combat the Opioid Crisis which is the next step to responding to then demmic. These new dollars need to be prioritized for states like my own, new hampshire, and im going to continue to work with my colleagues to ensure that that happens. We also know that we will ultimately need far more nunding beyond this measure over the years to come to truly address this crisis. So there are a number of us as you hear this morning who will continue to fight do that. I want to thank the leadership of this committee because i think they have assembled and extraordinary panel. You all represent really the full scope of this terrible epidemic, the individual loss and the lives changed forever as a result, the long term effects for our next generation that both dr. Patrick and dr. Bell are talking about as well. Mrs. Savage, as i heard your testimony, i was reminded of the experience of jim and jean moses who lost their 20yearold son adam in a somewhat similar experience that you described with your sons. One of the steps theyve taken is called the zero Left Campaign and i take it from kbrur noryou you know a little bit about it. Would you like to address it . Its a Wonderful Campaign that i have just become familiar with. Jim has reached out to our organization about perhaps partnering with it to help spread what theyre trying to do. What it is, its zero left and its a campaign to try to a Catchy Campaign to try to get people to clean out their closets and medicine cabinets to leave zero left behind. They also have safety disposal for Prescription Medications that they can put them in a pouch and mix it with water and it disposes of the prescription medication. So its a Wonderful Campaign. And theyre working with five hospitals in our state so that when a dr. Prescribes an opioid youre given that pouch along with the warning about the impact of legally prescribed drugs can have. Im glad you guys have connected. Its a real example of the work that so many families are doing to try to prevent this from happening to anyone else. Thank you. Dr. Bell, last week i was honored to have a woman named Mckenzie Harrington join me as my best for the state of the union. She worksa the program straight for for the office of School Wellness in new hampshire. That office focuses on preventing substance misuse and addressing students all around behavioral youth and wellness. The schools are really working with federal funds to stem the tide. They have seen a great improvement in Student Wellbeing by providing counseling, meals, other support is so that they are better able to learn, engage in the classroom and cope with challenges at home. Dr. Bell, youve worked with schoolage children your entire career. You can speak to what more schools should be doing help facilitate Student Wellbeing, especially in schools where children may be exposed to substance misuse in homes or communities and how can we here in congress support those efforts . Thank you, senator, for the question. You know, i think schools have always been and should continue to be a core Frontline Institution in whatever ailments are challenging our communities. I think particularly with the Opioid Crisis, the school can become a very safe haven for young people. But as we know that theres a lot going on in our schools. Yeah. And it means that be weve got to change our approach that were taking. I think that we need to focus lesson the policing that were doing in our schools ande and that we need to have conversations with the community and that our schools should not close down at 3 00. The schools have to become that schoolbased Community Center where our children and our families can go to get protection, to be safe, and to learn how to protect their lives and to improve the conditions that theyre living in. And i think theres much more that we can do in that area. I thank you and to both you and dr. Patrick, one of the things you both have been talking about is the importance of integrated care and services and prevention that can come with that kind of integrated service. In my experience as a governor, it takes resources to actually coordinate and integrate things, you cant just kind of say its a good thing. And so there are a number of us here, myself included, who will be fighting to get you guys on the front lines those kiebds of resources. Were so grateful for your work. Thank you, mr. Chair. Thank you. Senator jones, have you voted yet . Not yet but i just have one quick question for ms. Savage and we can move phonthats okay. It wont take but a second. Ms. Savage, i appreciate your testimony and as a lawyer before i came here i had clients that had issues, similar issues. And i saw the devastation. But one of the things that i would like to talk about as opposed to the money and the legislation, you mentioned the community pill drop. I think senators can use their positions as Community Engagement and if just briefly id like to know just a little bit more about what you did, how you naut togethput that togethes in alabama we can go back and try to organize that. We dont have much time i apologize. Ill be quick. What we did is we worked with a lot of other Community Coalitions and we organized a pill drop where we picked a saturday and we got dea approval and we manned five different locations across our community and from 10 00 to 2 00 p. M. And in those four hours is where we had picked up those 500 pounds of pills. Did you advertise that . We advertised it and we had through facebook the local media picked it up and advertised that. And it was just a constant flow of traffic coming through. We went through the fire department, the stations they would pull in, they would hand out their pills and little ziploc baggies that we ask that they bring them in and they put them in a box and they would drive now. Drive through spt. I wanted to hear a little bit about that. I look forward to hearing from you on that. Thanks to all of you. We need to go vote and im going to wind up the hearing with this this has been a very helpful hearing and we respect and appreciate the effort that each you has made to come. I would ask unanimous consent that the statement by senator mcconnell be submitted into the record. Record will remain open for ten days. Members may submit Additional Information for the record within that time if theyd like. Our committee will meet again on tuesday, february 13th at 10 00 a. M. For a hearing entitled improving animal health, reauthorization of animal drug user fees. Thank you for being here today. The committee will stand adjourned. Coming up, treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin testifies where the Senate Finance committee on the president s 2019 budget proposal. Well join his testimony live start agent 10 30 a. M. Eastern here on cspan 3. Veterans Affairs Secretary dr. David shulkin testifies thursday. Secretary shulkin appears before the House Veterans Affairs Committee Live at 8 00 a. M. Eastern here on cspan3. Richard branson, founder of the virgin group, talked about his start as a Business Owner and shared thoughts on the future of space travel. This was part of the goldmansachs Small Business summit in washington, d. C. Its 40 minutes. Sir richard branson, ladies and gentlemen
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