Emily Bader

The Sun Journal analyzed data from Maine Department of Health and Human Services reports on child welfare, including 18 years of annual child protective services reports and annual reports on Office of Child and Family Services staffing.

Recovery advocates want to see a move toward trauma-informed recovery and state officials and lawmakers are looking at how the child welfare system is uniquely positioned to help.

In half of all cases in Maine in which a child is removed from the home, an Office of Child and Family Services investigation identified the parent or caregiver's substance use a risk factor.

Maine lawmakers and health officials realized easy access to prescription opioids was creating dependency issues and clamped down, but did not anticipate how well the illegal drug market would fill the void.

Nikole Powell’s father developed an opioid use disorder after a work injury, a dependence that traumatized his family and eventually led to his incarceration and death. His daughter is trying to break the cycle.

Twenty years after Purdue Pharma introduced its pain medication, OxyContin, Maine lawmakers passed a bill that significantly stemmed the flow of pain pills into the state.

Like many patients prescribed opioids for chronic pain, Todd Papianou, a high school teacher from Rumford, knows the thin line between life-saving and life-destroying medication.