To the Moon and Back Support group offers helping hand to adoptive parents and caregivers

PLYMOUTH - The biggest victims of the opioid crisis are sometimes the smallest.

Every year, as more and more people fall victim to the drug crisis, thousands of innocent newborns are suffering right along with them.

Sixteen in every 1,000 babies born in Massachusetts in 2013 were born with exposure. And that was before most people even recognized a problem.

Theresa Harmon saw the problem in her work as a clinical social worker.

While helping to raise money for the new Plymouth Recovery Center earlier this year, she addressed the problem with directors of the fledgling not-for-profit group, proposing a new support group for caregivers of the many children born with exposure to substances.

The result, "To the Moon and Back," is a support, education and advocacy group for adoptive, pre-adoptive and foster parents as well as relatives and non-relative caregivers. It meets from 6 to 7 p.m. on the first and third Tuesday of every month at the Plymouth Recovery Center at 71 Obery St.

The meetings are free and on a rolling basis, so parents and caregivers can attend at their own schedule. Free childcare is provided onsite by Crayon College, courtesy of Rep. Matt Muratore, an original member of the recovery center board.

The group formed as a place to share resources, ideas and support around caring for children born with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) or as Substance Exposed Newborns (SEN).

NAS affects newborns who are exposed to alcohol or other drugs ingested by the mother during pregnancy.

The group also looks to bring attention to the prevalence of the syndrome and the needs of these children, while at the same time helping parents make connections, while maintaining their child's privacy.

Parenting a child with the syndrome can be complicated. Children with the syndrome can have tremors, irritability, sleep problems, high-pitched crying, seizures, tight muscle tone and poor feeding. The long-term effects of substance exposure are only starting to be studied, but one study out of Seattle Children's Hospital identified vision and hearing issues, impulsivity, hyperactivity, poor attention, memory problems and delayed motor and speech development as issues.

To the Moon and Back looks to help by hosting speakers like Jamie Maccaferri, a behavior analyst in the Plymouth Early Childhood Center, who met with the group last week.

While their children played in the room next door, the parents got a primer in applied behavior analysis, learning why their children do the things they do and how to make it better, not worse.

Maccaferri spoke of the differences between reinforcement and punishment and the need to measure whether strategies for dealing with crying, kicking and the like are making any progress. She seemed to strike a common chord in addressing the importance of positive reinforcement and thinking ahead to set children up for success.

"Try to get them to rise to the occasion," Maccaferri told the parents. "Anything they enjoy, let them earn it."

The hour seemed to fly, as parents talked of their own experiences with difficult behavior and shared strategies for better results.

The sharing may have been as important as the lesson, as getting together and realizing they are not the only ones going through difficult times can be incredibly helpful to a parent of a child with substance exposure.

An adoptive mother who attends the group said the program offers parents and caregivers support they cannot get elsewhere.

"We have our own little village of family and friends that love us and our children and would do anything for us, but we've found that even though they want to do anything for us, they just don't understand the unique challenges of our children," she said. "So it's really wonderful to have a bunch of people together who understand the challenges, to commiserate with, but also to bounce ideas off, and build networks. "

Another woman who just joined the group is raising her granddaughter and looks forward to being able to talk about developmental delays and intervention with people who understand. "In my social circles, we don't talk about raising children anymore, so it is a respite," she said.

Harmon said that while she recognized the need, it has been difficult to identify the scope of the problem. There are no nationwide statistics on the number of substance-exposed newborns. In Massachusetts, there were 2,200 reports of infants born addicted or substance exposed in 2016.

New data released this week indicate the numbers rose in the first quarter of 2017.

Harmon said Cape Cod Hospital is actively promoting her group as a resource for adoptive parents and caregivers. Learn to Cope, a support group for the families of substance users, is spreading the word as well, she said.

In addition to offering guest speakers like Maccaferri, To the Moon and Back plays an advocacy role, Harmon said.

While early intervention services are available for children up to age 3, the responsibility falls to local schools for older children, and navigating access to services can be difficult.

"The younger you are able to get services, the better the outcomes," Harmon said.