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Judge urges emergency opioid-abatement funding to keep trauma therapist for Stewart County children
Summary
The judge told a Stewart County committee that grant cuts left a trauma-focused therapist at risk of losing her job, leaving 17–20 local children waiting for services; the committee voted to forward a $40,000 emergency funding request to the County Commission and will place it on the commission agenda.
The judge told the Stewart County opioid abatement committee that recent grant cuts threaten the trauma-focused therapist who works with child victims through the Child Advocacy Center and that 17 to 20 Stewart County children are currently on a waiting list for therapy. "When I first became judge in 2003... we developed a good relationship with our Child Advocacy Center," the judge said, adding that the CAC had provided a therapist for the last five or six years but that the grant supporting that position was cut.
The judge described ongoing cases that cannot be abruptly closed, including a 6-year-old girl who is "about halfway through her therapeutic regimen" after repeated sexual abuse and who would lose a trusted therapist if funding lapses. The judge argued that children who lose access to therapeutic support are at higher risk of self-medicating with alcohol or illegal substances and said other counties used opioid abatement money for similar short-term therapy support.
Committee members discussed possible emergency amounts and noted a private donation of $15,000 from an organization in Dickson County that temporarily funded services for three children. Committee members then moved, seconded and approved by voice vote a motion to forward an emergency funding request totaling $40,000 for the CAC therapist to the Stewart County Commission, with the item to be placed on the commission's agenda for final action. The committee recorded the approval as a voice "Aye" without a roll-call tally.
Committee members asked administrative questions about routing the check to the 23rd Judicial District Child Advocacy Center and confirmed the CAC is the intended payee. The group noted the county also has other allocated amounts (for example, $55,600 previously appropriated for a school counselor program) and that state opioid abatement settlements will continue to arrive intermittently over the next several years.
The committee voted to forward the emergency item to the County Commission and to place it on the commission agenda; the commission will make the final funding decision.
