Children of ice parents addicted to methamphetamine suffer severe neglect

TWO-thirds of children with ice-addicted parents are suffering neglect and being left to fend for themselves, new figures show. But that’s far from the worst fate to befall the state’s most vulnerable citizens.

Children of ice addicts are being left to fend for themselves and turn up at school hungry and dirty. Picture: Thinkstock

ICE-addled parents are leaving children at home to fend for themselves, and they are arriving at school hungry and dirty.

Details released by Child Safety Minister Shannon Fentiman show neglect is the most commonly substantiated harm to children by parents addicted to methamphetamine. About 60 per cent of their children suffer severe neglect.

Almost one-third have experienced “emotional harm”, nearly 10 per cent are physically abused and 1.5 per cent are sexually abused.

Any parent found using ice automatically will have their children taken from them and put in care. Picture: iStock

Ms Fentiman said a typical case requiring department intervention included parents sending their children to school in dirty clothes, unbathed and without food, or reports that parents left young children unsupervised for extended periods of time.

“We are seeing increased levels of harmful neglect where Queensland parents are using crystal meth or ice regularly,” she said.

The information comes from a departmental study of 400 cases in which a child was in need of protection in the 12 months to September last year and is part of a research series the department is undertaking into the escalating problem of drug use by parents.

The news follows shocking figures that show a failure rate of about 60 per cent among parents suspected of using drugs under new mandatory testing brought in last November in the wake of Mason Lee’s death.

Any parent using ice automatically has their children taken from them and placed in care.

Almost half the children in the state’s foster care system have been taken from a parent who has used methamphetamine, surpassing alcohol abuse.

The Queensland Government will convene its first ice summit at Rockhampton on April 27, to discuss the Government’s draft ice strategy before it is finalised later this year.