In the past two years, Allegheny County Children Youth and Families has seen the number of calls to its ChildLine abuse and neglect hotline rise by around 20 percent, with a similar increase in the number of kids placed in the custody of someone other than their parents. The opioid epidemic is driving those numbers.

It’s no coincidence the rise in children ordered into foster care came amid the spike in the ongoing heroin and prescription opioid crisis in Pennsylvania and nationwide. The state House passed a package of legislative proposals in April looking to assist an estimated 82,000 grandparents who care for about 89,000 grandchildren.

Multigenerational effects from the opioid crisis have grabbed the attention of policymakers. In the state Legislature, the House has advanced legislation related to grandfamily and child guardianship issues and kinship caregiving, including two measures sponsored by Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski, of Wilkes-Barre.

Child advocates, including Blueprints CEO Darlene J. Bigler, Joan Benso, president and CEO of Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, and Pittsburgh neonatologist Dr. Robert Cicco, met Thursday to discuss a campaign promoting evidence-based home visiting programs and to champion an increase in the 2018-19 state budget to expand home visiting programs to additional Pennsylvania programs.

Parenthood is tough, even for the most prepared among us. Some families need more help than others. The research in this area is strong. Positive parenting approaches and nurturing a child’s development in the first several years of life is likely to have sustained benefits as a child moves through adolescence and adulthood.