Heitkamp Has Been a National Leader in Drawing Attention to Childhood Trauma & Proposing Solutions to Address its Lifelong Impacts

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp announced that bipartisan, comprehensive legislation to combat opioid and other substance abuse passed out of a Senate committee, and includes her provisions to address the ripple effects of the overdose epidemic on children, families, and communities.

The Opioid Crisis Response Act includes key pieces from a bill Heitkamp introduced to address and mitigate the detrimental impact exposure to trauma, like opioid abuse, can have on children and families. Traumatic experiences — including substance abuse, neglect, abuse, witnessing crime, parental conflict, and mental illness — can lead to severe health and behavioral complications that can impact children throughout their lives. Young people who experience four or more traumatic events are three-times more at risk of heart disease or lung cancer, while those who experience six or more traumatic events are 30-times more likely to attempt suicide. 

The Opioid Crisis Response Act also includes Heitkamp’s provisions to improve Opioid State Targeted Response (STR) grant program, which she proposed in legislation she announced earlier this year to increase flexibility, enable tribes to apply directly for grants, and create a tribal set-aside. 

“As I’ve met with folks across North Dakota impacted by this opioid and meth epidemic, it’s clear that prevalent substance abuse has produced crippling ripple effects for kids and families. And those ripple effects can have lifelong mental and physical health consequences for those children,” said Heitkamp. “Congress needs to give additional attention to rural and tribal communities struggling with this emergency, and that must include expanded access to treatment, family support services, and evidence-based evaluations of children experiencing trauma—which is why it’s so important that my provisions to tackle the consequences of childhood trauma were included in this comprehensive bill. Almost everyone in North Dakota has been personally impacted by addiction in some way. And over the past several years, I’ve been facing this epidemic head on by bringing former White House Drug Czars to our state, holding meetings across North Dakota on the issue, and introducing multiple bills on it. With this new strong, bipartisan legislation, we’re laying the groundwork for a robust plan that would build a united front and give hope to those on the front lines of this crisis.”

“As someone who sees the impact of childhood trauma on a daily basis, I can attest to the devastating consequences of opioid addiction and abuse here in North Dakota. Child and family service providers in our state and across the country have been overwhelmed by the number of children needing intensive wrap-around services, and we need to take significant actions to protect their long-term welfare and behavioral health,” said Heather Simonich, Operations Director, PATH ND. “Too often, trauma treatment is viewed as a secondary priority in the fight against the effects of the opioid crisis. But Senator Heitkamp has continued to be a champion of trauma-informed practices, and her provisions in this bill recognize the problem and include resources to build communities that are ready to assist those impacted by traumatic experiences and put them on a path to long-term recovery. By addressing the impact of prolonged drug abuse on children and their families, we are lowering the risk of learning difficulties, relationship struggles, and poor health outcomes in our children. We are building a stronger and healthier next generation of North Dakotans.”

“We cannot ignore the detrimental impacts of substance abuse and addiction on the wellbeing of children and families in North Dakota. Childhood exposure to trauma can effect negative health, educational, and behavioral consequences over several generations, and that’s especially apparent in our tribal communities, where exposure to trauma has continued to disproportionately threaten the lives of Native kids,” said Dr. Tami DeCoteau, a Bismarck-based clinical psychologist specializing in trauma-informed care. “To effectively treat the pain caused by trauma, we need a scientific, all-of-the-above approach as we build a coalition of trauma-informed law enforcement officers, health care workers, and tribal education specialists that’s ready to meet the complex needs of children dealing with adverse experiences. For years, Senator Heitkamp has been a reliable champion of trauma-informed practices, and her contributions to this bill will give professionals on the ground much-needed training and resources to identify children impacted by trauma, boost treatment capacity, and empower children and families to overcome their trauma and build a healthier future in their communities.”

Heitkamp worked with U.S. Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Patty Murray (D-WA), the Chairman and Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, to get her provisions into the bill, which was the result of seven bipartisan hearings over several months, as well as feedback from the public.

“This bill has the potential to truly impact students and families in need.  It is a step in the direction of communities and schools working together in unison to help trauma-impacted children and families,” said Dr. Jason Hornbacher, Principal, Dorothy Moses Elementary School in Bismarck. “ Trauma-informed best practices and the National Child Traumatic Stress Network lay the foundation for school-based mental health. Senator Heitkamp’s provisions serve as a cornerstone for schools to partner with external agencies, hospitals, and other health care professionals to bring services to the most needy in our community.  I want to personally thank Senator Heitkamp as she continues to work at the national level and lay a foundation for states, cities, and school districts.  As for North Dakota, I believe school-based mental health services will address access issues for children and families, improve educational outcomes for all children, create safer schools and classrooms, and— most importantly— support public school education in North Dakota, where each child matters.”

Click here for a summary of the Opioid Crisis Response Act.

Heitkamp has long worked to combat the opioid crisis, and has been a leader in drawing attention and proposing solutions to childhood trauma and its lifelong impacts. She has hosted seven listening sessions across North Dakota with community leaders, treatment experts, law enforcement officers, and families who have been impacted by abuse. And last month, Heitkamp led eight other senators in urging Senate leaders to prioritize robust, direct funding to tribal communities to address the ongoing opioid epidemic in Native American communities.  According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), American Indians and Alaska Natives had the highest overdose death rates of any group in 2015 and the largest percentage change in the number of opioid-related deaths over time.

The provisions from Heitkamp’s Trauma-Informed Care for Children and Families Act she fought to include in the Opioid Crisis Response Act would combat the crisis and boost access to trauma-informed treatment by:

• Establishing an Interagency Task Force to identify best practices: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Justice, and relevant tribal agency professionals would work to identify a set of best practices that improve capacity and coordination for the identification, referral, and support of children and families that have experienced or at risk of experiencing trauma.

 

• Understanding the prevalence of trauma: Data collection and reporting by states would be expanded to include Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in behavioral health surveys.

• Increasing funding for the National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative. Funding will provide technical assistance, direct services to communities, and will support evaluations and dissemination of best practices in trauma-informed care for children and families.

• Mental health in schools integration demonstration. Grants would link educational agencies with mental health systems to increase student access to evidence-based trauma support services to help prevent and mitigate trauma that children and youth experience.

• Addressing workforce shortages. Health professionals in the National Health Service Corps would be able to provide behavioral and mental health services in schools or other community-based settings. Additionally, trauma-informed training would be included as part of graduate education and training programs.

Heitkamp has worked extensively to tackle the opioid addiction and abuse crisis in North Dakota. Since fighting North Dakota’s methamphetamine crisis as the state’s attorney general in the 1990s, Heitkamp has been working to stem the tide of addiction, abuse, and illegal drug trafficking in the state’s rural communities. On the federal level, Heitkamp has been working to address this issue by:

• Helping pass legislation to combat opioid abuse, and helping introduce a bill to provide more federal resources to address the epidemic. Heitkamp has repeatedly advocated for more federal resources to address opioid addiction and recovery. She has been fighting for community-based prevention and treatment resources to combat opioid abuse, helping pass the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) in March 2016 which uses existing funds to expand tools for first responders, law enforcement, and educators. She also helped introduce the LifeBOAT Act to fill in some of the holes by making sure the federal government is funding efforts to combat the opioid epidemic. CARA also included bipartisan legislation, which Heitkamp helped introduce, to combat drug trafficking by prosecuting foreign drug traffickers – whose products have often ended up in North Dakota – who attempt to hide behind loopholes in the country’s drug crime laws. In February 2018, Heitkamp also unveiled the Opioid Response Enhancement Act, which she helped introduce to expand a critical federal grant program to provide $12 billion over five years for local organizations to treat drug abuse and addiction while preventing further overdoses.

• Holding listening sessions to identify strategies to battle the opioid crisis at the community level. Starting in May 2016, Heitkamp has now hosted seven listening sessions across North Dakota with community leaders, treatment experts, law enforcement officers, and families who have been impacted by abuse. Those meetings have taken place in Bismarck, Grand Forks, Fargo, Jamestown, Minot, Dickinson, and Hazen to discuss the federal support these communities need to recover from and prevent opioid addiction. Heitkamp also joined Fargo’s City Commission for a meeting on a strategic response to the growing opioid addiction and abuse in the community.

• Convening statewide leaders to comprehensively battle drug crime and abuse. In 2015, Heitkamp hosted a Strong & Safe Communities Summit with 150 statewide leaders where they discussed ways to combat growing instances of drug crime, particularly in western North Dakota. Heitkamp launched her Strong & Safe Communities Initiative in 2014 to address challenges facing North Dakota, including drug crime increases, to make sure North Dakota communities are strong and families are safe in their homes.

• Fighting opioid abuse in Indian Country. Heitkamp recently led effort to urge Senate leaders to prioritize robust, direct funding to tribal communities to address the ongoing opioid epidemic in Native American communities, and also spoke at a U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs oversight hearing on combating the opioid addiction epidemic in Indian Country. 

• Bringing federal anti-drug crime leaders and resources to North Dakota. Heitkamp brought both former White House Office of National Drug Control Policy’s (ONDCP) directors to North Dakota in 2013 and 2014 – securing a national focus and strong resources to the state to help fight drug crime as a result.

###