McCullough Addresses 'Family Fragmentation'
Rep. Mark McCullough believes Oklahoma’s course is clear when it comes to shifting resources to address family fragmentation.
“We are overrun with data showing the effects of family fragmentation going back 30 years,” the Sapulpa Republican said. “It is the source of a myriad of problems that consume both state and federal resources and lead to problems we see everywhere – education, crime, mental health and economic dependence on government.
“Unfortunately, family fragmentation has become a ‘dog bites man’ story to many,” McCullough said. “But it affects all of us. Who hasn’t been personally affected by this problem? And because we don’t talk about it, because it has been accepted as part of the social fabric, we find ourselves paralyzed to address this widespread problem.”
A recent interim study conducted by McCullough found children from broken homes are 12 times more likely to be incarcerated, which is one reason state spending on the criminal justice system has grown 510 percent since 1982 and Oklahoma has one of the highest incarceration rates. Those same children are also three times more likely to be expelled and to receive lower grades.
“The Taxpayer Costs of Divorce and Unwed Childbearing” conservatively estimates the resulting taxpayer cost of divorce (largely through public assistance programs), at $112 billion per year nationally and $430 million annually in Oklahoma. It shows family fragmentation is at the epicenter of much of the demand for state-funded services.
The study also presented validated methods of preventing family fragmentation. The National Institute of Marriage has been working with thousands of couples in severe crisis. Their research has shown that 100 percent of the couples leaving the intensives would recommend the intensive to others. After two years, approximately 80 percent of couples, who were in severe crisis, are still together.
McCullough said Oklahoma’s foray into relationship training, the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative, will soon be able to provide information on whether or not its pre-marital counseling programs are showing success.
“One thing I do know is that the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative has done an excellent job in reaching would-be couples by promoting its programs through churches, schools and even prisons,” McCullough said.
The recent conference, a follow-up discussion of the interim study, drew prevention professionals from state agencies, the non-profit sector and Oklahoma’s faith community.
“All the participants thought that more could be done to coordinate efforts between these groups and that a better model to address family fragmentation would be to preserve families rather than wait for the problem to reach a crisis,” McCullough said. “Coordination is a key to achieving prevention of these problems that result in higher costs to taxpayers and down the road."
Claudette Selph, representing the Tulsa County Child Protection Coalition, spoke about her group’s efforts to create changes to the child protective systems in an effort to reduce trauma on children. Hosted by the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, the discussion also featured Kelly Nichols on the impact of family fragmentation on corporate America, Steve Buck from the Department of Mental Health and former District Judge Gary Miller.
Miller helped start a cutting edge locally-funded juvenile intervention effort in Canadian County. He said that Canadian County was able to create an omnibus juvenile center to better ensure the county’s young people were given the support needed to get out of the system.
“Last year we had 41 percent of our children born in this state were born to a single parent head of household,” Miller said. “So you have fragile children being born into a fragile environment. I think that’s exactly what’s concerning to Representative McCullough and what he’s trying to address with his study of family fragmentation. I think that’s what Canadian County is also trying to address fragmentation, again in partnership with the state.”
Selph said the Tulsa County Child Protection Coalition has showed success because of how many people and organizations it has brought together to work on systemic problems.
“We’ve been very excited that Howard Hendricks from DHS has given permission to all his staff to work with the community,” Selph said. “We have Tulsa Police Department, Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office, all the service providers that provide treatment and the district attorney’s office. When you bring all of these players together, you’re going to find that you’re going to get some significant changes when you have a staff structure in place to move the agenda along through committees.”
Selph said the coalition has broken ground on a new shelter to replace an older, worn-down one. The coalition has also started family group conferencing, which has as a priority to find relatives, family friends or teachers that the children can stay with rather than entering into foster care where they are being cared for by strangers. She also said many entities around the state would be interested in forming coalitions if they had a dedicated staff to run them. The Tulsa coalition’s paid staff positions would not be possible without the support of several Tulsa foundations committed to system change in the child protection system, she said.
“We have made many improvements in Tulsa County and we would be very excited for this model to be taken to the state level.”
McCullough also cited the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services’ Systems of Care program, which is designed to aid children before a mental illness becomes even more costly to the state. The program boasts a 49 percent reduction in the arrests of the children it serves, a 45 percent reduction in the number of school detentions those children receive, a 68 percent reduction in their attempts to harm themselves and a 45 percent decrease in the number of out-of-home placements. Each year, untreated mental illness and substance abuse costs Oklahoma $3.2 billion in direct expenditures and as much as $4.4 billion in indirect costs attributed to premature death and lost productivity.
McCullough said questions remain as to whether or not Oklahomans’ tax dollars are being used effectively to address social problems. While validated prevention programs are underfunded, “clean up” programs are draining government resources. He envisions that by rerouting money from “clean up” programs to prevention, possibly through incentives to state agencies, the state could save millions in the long-run and improve the lives of thousands of Oklahomans.
“I am advocating for expanded prevention efforts because I am a fiscal conservative. Programs shouldn’t be perpetuated because they make us feel good – they should work,” McCullough said. “If a first duty of government is public safety, then implementing data driven prevention policy is simply a best practice in promoting that end.”
John Stanley, director of the Marriage and Family Foundation, estimates that $1 spent to prevent family breakdown could save $1,000 down the road spent on cleaning up the aftermath of fragmentation.
McCullough said he plans to continue advocating for prevention, indentifying the best approaches to addressing the problem.
“How do we get the divorce rate down from 50 percent to 25 percent?” McCullough said. “How do we get births among unwed mothers down from 40 percent to 20 percent? The goal is better outcomes. My hope is that we can all work together to make that happen.”
“We are overrun with data showing the effects of family fragmentation going back 30 years,” the Sapulpa Republican said. “It is the source of a myriad of problems that consume both state and federal resources and lead to problems we see everywhere – education, crime, mental health and economic dependence on government.
“Unfortunately, family fragmentation has become a ‘dog bites man’ story to many,” McCullough said. “But it affects all of us. Who hasn’t been personally affected by this problem? And because we don’t talk about it, because it has been accepted as part of the social fabric, we find ourselves paralyzed to address this widespread problem.”
A recent interim study conducted by McCullough found children from broken homes are 12 times more likely to be incarcerated, which is one reason state spending on the criminal justice system has grown 510 percent since 1982 and Oklahoma has one of the highest incarceration rates. Those same children are also three times more likely to be expelled and to receive lower grades.
“The Taxpayer Costs of Divorce and Unwed Childbearing” conservatively estimates the resulting taxpayer cost of divorce (largely through public assistance programs), at $112 billion per year nationally and $430 million annually in Oklahoma. It shows family fragmentation is at the epicenter of much of the demand for state-funded services.
The study also presented validated methods of preventing family fragmentation. The National Institute of Marriage has been working with thousands of couples in severe crisis. Their research has shown that 100 percent of the couples leaving the intensives would recommend the intensive to others. After two years, approximately 80 percent of couples, who were in severe crisis, are still together.
McCullough said Oklahoma’s foray into relationship training, the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative, will soon be able to provide information on whether or not its pre-marital counseling programs are showing success.
“One thing I do know is that the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative has done an excellent job in reaching would-be couples by promoting its programs through churches, schools and even prisons,” McCullough said.
The recent conference, a follow-up discussion of the interim study, drew prevention professionals from state agencies, the non-profit sector and Oklahoma’s faith community.
“All the participants thought that more could be done to coordinate efforts between these groups and that a better model to address family fragmentation would be to preserve families rather than wait for the problem to reach a crisis,” McCullough said. “Coordination is a key to achieving prevention of these problems that result in higher costs to taxpayers and down the road."
Claudette Selph, representing the Tulsa County Child Protection Coalition, spoke about her group’s efforts to create changes to the child protective systems in an effort to reduce trauma on children. Hosted by the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, the discussion also featured Kelly Nichols on the impact of family fragmentation on corporate America, Steve Buck from the Department of Mental Health and former District Judge Gary Miller.
Miller helped start a cutting edge locally-funded juvenile intervention effort in Canadian County. He said that Canadian County was able to create an omnibus juvenile center to better ensure the county’s young people were given the support needed to get out of the system.
“Last year we had 41 percent of our children born in this state were born to a single parent head of household,” Miller said. “So you have fragile children being born into a fragile environment. I think that’s exactly what’s concerning to Representative McCullough and what he’s trying to address with his study of family fragmentation. I think that’s what Canadian County is also trying to address fragmentation, again in partnership with the state.”
Selph said the Tulsa County Child Protection Coalition has showed success because of how many people and organizations it has brought together to work on systemic problems.
“We’ve been very excited that Howard Hendricks from DHS has given permission to all his staff to work with the community,” Selph said. “We have Tulsa Police Department, Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office, all the service providers that provide treatment and the district attorney’s office. When you bring all of these players together, you’re going to find that you’re going to get some significant changes when you have a staff structure in place to move the agenda along through committees.”
Selph said the coalition has broken ground on a new shelter to replace an older, worn-down one. The coalition has also started family group conferencing, which has as a priority to find relatives, family friends or teachers that the children can stay with rather than entering into foster care where they are being cared for by strangers. She also said many entities around the state would be interested in forming coalitions if they had a dedicated staff to run them. The Tulsa coalition’s paid staff positions would not be possible without the support of several Tulsa foundations committed to system change in the child protection system, she said.
“We have made many improvements in Tulsa County and we would be very excited for this model to be taken to the state level.”
McCullough also cited the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services’ Systems of Care program, which is designed to aid children before a mental illness becomes even more costly to the state. The program boasts a 49 percent reduction in the arrests of the children it serves, a 45 percent reduction in the number of school detentions those children receive, a 68 percent reduction in their attempts to harm themselves and a 45 percent decrease in the number of out-of-home placements. Each year, untreated mental illness and substance abuse costs Oklahoma $3.2 billion in direct expenditures and as much as $4.4 billion in indirect costs attributed to premature death and lost productivity.
McCullough said questions remain as to whether or not Oklahomans’ tax dollars are being used effectively to address social problems. While validated prevention programs are underfunded, “clean up” programs are draining government resources. He envisions that by rerouting money from “clean up” programs to prevention, possibly through incentives to state agencies, the state could save millions in the long-run and improve the lives of thousands of Oklahomans.
“I am advocating for expanded prevention efforts because I am a fiscal conservative. Programs shouldn’t be perpetuated because they make us feel good – they should work,” McCullough said. “If a first duty of government is public safety, then implementing data driven prevention policy is simply a best practice in promoting that end.”
John Stanley, director of the Marriage and Family Foundation, estimates that $1 spent to prevent family breakdown could save $1,000 down the road spent on cleaning up the aftermath of fragmentation.
McCullough said he plans to continue advocating for prevention, indentifying the best approaches to addressing the problem.
“How do we get the divorce rate down from 50 percent to 25 percent?” McCullough said. “How do we get births among unwed mothers down from 40 percent to 20 percent? The goal is better outcomes. My hope is that we can all work together to make that happen.”
Labels: Broken Homes, Family Fragmentation, Mark McCullough, Out Of Wedlock Births, Single Parent Families, Social Mores
posted by Mike McCarville @ 11:12 AM
