The DEC Challenge
The National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children defines drug-endangered children as children who are at risk of suffering physical or emotional harm as a result of legal and/or illegal drug use, possession, manufacturing, cultivation, or distribution. They may also be children whose caretaker’s legal and/or illegal substance misuse interferes with the caretaker’s ability to parent and provide a safe and nurturing environment.
This issue affects nearly 9 million children in the United States, or more than 12% of all children, according to Childwelfare.gov.
Children in such environments often face adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), including physical, emotional, and psychological trauma.
The DEC challenge lies in identifying these children as early as possible, providing timely interventions, and delivering the necessary services to both children and their families to mitigate harm and promote resilience.
Our Solution
To address the challenges faced by drug-endangered children, NADEC has developed the DEC Approach, a multidisciplinary strategy aimed at transforming the lives of these children. This approach prioritizes a shared vision, collaboration across disciplines, and changes in practices and policies to improve outcomes for drug-endangered children.
The DEC Approach trains practitioners to build community-based partnerships that bring together expertise, resources, and responsibilities from multiple fields. These partnerships enable state, local, tribal, and regional DEC alliances to provide comprehensive support to children and families in need.
By working together, these alliances offer help, hope, and a path forward for families to break the cycle of substance misuse, fostering healthier children, families, and communities
Learn more about how to form a DEC alliance or get
involved in an existing DEC alliance in your community!
What is the DEC Approach?
The National Alliance for Drug-Endangered Children teaches, trains and provides technical assistance support regarding the best practices for coordinating the various systems and professional disciplines able to intervene and provide services to these children and families in order to break the generational cycle of substance misuse. This page outlines NADEC's research-backed and trauma-informed approach to identifying and intervening on behalf of drug-endangered children.
Our approach for addressing the needs of children living in environments where there is substance misuse and drug activity is unique. The DEC Approach is a multidisciplinary strategy to change the trajectory of a drug-endangered child's life through a common vision, ongoing collaboration, and ongoing change.
This holistic approach increases the liklihood of better outcomes for drug-endangered children by focusing on breaking cycles of substance misuse, protecting children, and building resilient families.
The Journey of a Drug-Endangered Child
1. Awareness
Training is needed to identify children impacted by substance use. People need to understand who drug-endangered children are, the prevalence and the long-term effects if there isn’t intervention. This is getting people on board with the common vision.
2. Planning
The realization there is an issue and the acknowledgement of needing to be prepared when identification comes.
3. Response
Responding to a child in need with a trauma-informed approach. This could be a teacher approaching a child in the classroom, law enforcement getting dispatched to a call, et cetera.
4. Identification and Assessment
Putting training into practice; seeing the signs and asking the correct questions that lead to early identification. This will also include working across disciplines to put the pieces of the puzzle together and identify next steps.
5. Intervention
A coordinated response with effective hand-off to appropriate services is activated, involving law enforcement, child protective services and emergency medical care. This may include removing the child from the unsafe environment and implementing safety measures or emergency foster care.