Lily's Place the Inspiration for Federal NAS Act

Congressman Evan Jenkins was in Huntington Tuesday at Lily’s Place – an infant recovery center that inspired a federal bill helping others to create facilities like it.

The Nurturing and Supporting Healthy Babies Act is part of a larger set of bills known as the Comprehensive Addiction Recovery Act, or CARA, and it addresses the national opioid crisis. . Both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate passed the bill a few weeks ago. In just the last few days – CARA was signed by President Barack Obama.

The NAS Healthy Babies Act will help to create facilities like Lily’s Place in Huntington, which helps care for babies born addicted to drugs and alcohol. Jenkins says the Act does several things – the first is have the federal government examine the number of babies being born with an addiction.

“Number two, look at the appropriate models of care,” Jenkins said. “These babies need special handling, they need special medication management and they need an environment that helps them get through this weaning process with as little trauma as possible.”

And third, Jenkins says the Nurturing and Supporting Healthy Babies Act will take the experiences those in Huntington have dealt with and bring it on the national level, so facilities like Lily’s Place can more easily be created all over the country.