By Sandra G. Boodman
Adriane Fugh-Berman was stunned by the question: Two graduate students who had no symptoms of mental illness wondered if she thought they should take a powerful schizophrenia drug each had been prescribed to treat insomnia.
"It's a total outrage," said Fugh-Berman, a physician who is an associate professor of pharmacology at Georgetown University. "These kids needed some basic sleep [advice], like reducing their intake of caffeine and alcohol, not a highly sedating drug."
Those Georgetown students exemplify a trend that alarms medical experts, policymakers and patient advocates: the skyrocketing increase in the off-label use of an expensive class of drugs called atypical antipsychotics. Until the past decade these 11 drugs, most approved in the 1990s, had been reserved for the approximately 3 percent of Americans with the most disabling mental illnesses, chiefly schizophrenia and bipolar disorder; more recently a few have been approved to treat severe depression.
But these days atypical antipsychotics -- the most popular are Seroquel, Zyprexa and Abilify -- are being prescribed by psychiatrists and primary-care doctors to treat a panoply of conditions for which they have not been approved, including anxiety, attention-deficit disorder, sleep difficulties, behavioral problems in toddlers and dementia. These new drugs account for more than 90 percent of the market and have eclipsed an older generation of antipsychotics. Two recent reports found that children and adolescents in foster care, some less than a year old, are taking more psychotropic drugs than other children, including those with the severest forms of mental illness.
In 2010 antipsychotic drugs racked up more than $16 billion in sales, according to IMS Health, a firm that tracks drug trends for the health-care industry. For the past three years they have ranked near or at the top of the best-selling classes of drugs, outstripping antidepressants and sometimes cholesterol medicines. A study published last year found that off-label antipsychotic prescriptions doubled between 1995 and 2008, from 4.4 million to 9 million. And a recent report by pharmacy benefits manager Medco estimated that the prevalence of the drugs' use among adults ballooned more than 169 percent between 2001 and 2010.
Critics say the popularity of atypical antipsychotics reflects a combination of hype that the expensive medicines, which can cost $500 per month, are safer than the earlier generation of drugs; hope that they will work for a variety of ailments when other treatments have not; and aggressive marketing by drug companies to doctors and patients.
"Antipsychotics are overused, overpriced and oversold," said Allen Frances, former chair of psychiatry at Duke University School of Medicine, who headed the task force that wrote the DSM-IV, psychiatry's diagnostic bible. While judicious off-label use may be appropriate for those who have not responded to other treatments for, say, severe obsessive-compulsive disorder, Frances said the drugs, which are designed to calm patients and to moderate the hallucinations and delusions of psychosis, are being used "promiscuously, recklessly," often to control behavior and with little regard for their serious side effects. These include major, rapid weight gain -- 40 pounds is not uncommon -- Type 2 diabetes, breast development in boys, irreversible facial tics and, among the elderly, an increased risk of death.
The Latest Fad?
Doctors are allowed to prescribe drugs for unapproved uses, but companies are forbidden to promote them for such purposes. In the past few years major drugmakers have paid more than $2 billion to settle lawsuits brought by states and the federal government alleging illegal marketing; some cases are still being litigated, as are thousands of claims by patients. In 2009 Eli Lilly and Co. paid the federal government a record $1.4 billion to settle charges that it illegally marketed Zyprexa through, among other things, a "5 at 5 campaign" that urged nursing homes to administer 5 milligrams of the drug at 5 p.m. to induce sleep.
Wayne Blackmon, a psychiatrist and lawyer who teaches at George Washington University Law School, said he commonly sees patients taking more than one antipsychotic, which raises the risk of side effects. Blackmon regards them as the "drugs du jour," too often prescribed for "problems of living. Somehow doctors have gotten it into their heads that this is an acceptable use." Physicians, he said, have a financial incentive to prescribe drugs, widely regarded as a much quicker fix than a time-intensive
evaluation and nondrug treatments such as behavior therapy, which might not be covered by insurance.
In a series in the New York Review of Books last year, Marcia Angell, former editor in chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, argued that the apparent "raging epidemic of mental illness" partly reflects diagnosis creep: the expansion of the elastic boundaries that define mental illnesses to include more people, which enlarges the market for psychiatric drugs.
"You can't push a drug if people don't think they have a disease," said Fugh-Berman, who directs PharmedOut, a Georgetown program that educates doctors about drug marketing and promotion. "How do you normalize the use of antipsychotics? By using key opinion leaders to emphasize their use and through CMEs (continuing medical education) and ghost-written articles in medical journals," which, she said "affect the whole information stream."
James H. Scully Jr., medical director of the American Psychiatric Association, sees the situation differently. He agrees that misuse of the drugs is a problem and says that off-label prescribing should be based on some evidence of effectiveness. But Scully suggests that a key factor driving use of the drugs, in addition to "intense marketing and some effectiveness," is the growing number of non-psychiatrists prescribing them. Many lack the expertise and experience necessary to properly diagnose and treat mental health problems, he said.
Among psychiatrists, use of antipsychotics is rooted in a desire to heal, according to Scully. "All of the meds we use have their limits. If you're trying to help somebody, you think, 'What else might I be able to do for them?' "
Since 2005, antipsychotics have carried a black-box warning, the strongest possible, cautioning against their use in elderly patients with dementia, because the drugs increase the risk of death. In 2008 the Food and Drug Administration reiterated its earlier warning, noting that "antipsychotics are not indicated for the treatment of dementia-related psychosis." But experts say such use remains widespread.
In one Northern California nursing home in 2006 and 2007, 22 residents, many suffering from dementia, were given antipsychotics for the convenience of the staff or because the residents refused to go to the dining room. In some cases the drugs were forcibly injected, state officials said. Three residents died.
A 2011 report by the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services found that in a six-month period in 2007, 14 percent of nursing home residents were given antipsychotics. In one case a patient with an undetected urinary-tract infection was given the drugs to control agitation.
"The primary reason is that there's not enough staff," said Toby S. Edelman, senior policy attorney for the Center for Medicare Advocacy, a Washington-based nonprofit group, who recently testified about the problem before the Senate Special Committee on Aging. "If you can't tie people up, you give 'em a drug" she said, referring to restrictions on the use of physical restraints in nursing homes.
Drugs At 18 Months
Nursing home residents aren't the only ones gobbling antipsychotics.
Mark E. Helm, a Little Rock pediatrician who was a medical director of Arkansas's Medicaid evidence-based prescription drug program from 2004 to 2010, said he had seen 18-month-olds being given potent antipsychotic drugs for bipolar disorder, an illness he said rarely develops before adolescence. Antipsychotics, which he characterized as the fastest-growing and most expensive class of drugs covered by the state's Medicaid program, were typically prescribed to children to control disruptive
behavior, which often stemmed from their impoverished, chaotic or dysfunctional families, Helm said. "Sedation is the key reason these meds get used," he observed.
More than any other factor, experts agree, the explosive growth in the diagnosis of pediatric bipolar disorder has fueled antipsychotic use among children. Between 1994 and 2003, reported diagnoses increased 40-fold, from about 20,000 to approximately 800,000, according to Columbia University researchers.
That diagnosis, popularized by several prominent child psychiatrists in Boston who claimed that extreme irritability, inattention and mood swings were actually pediatric bipolar disorder that can occur before age 2, has undergone a reevaluation in recent years. The reasons include the highly publicized death of a 4-year-old girl in Massachusetts, who along with her two young siblings had been taking a cocktail of powerful drugs for several years to treat bipolar disorder; the revelation of more than $1 million in unreported drug company payments to the leading proponent of the diagnosis; and growing doubts about its validity.
Helm said that antipsychotics, which he believes have become more socially acceptable, serve another purpose: as a gateway to mental health services. "To get a child qualified for SSI disability, it is helpful to have a child on a medicine," he said, referring to the federal program that assists families of children who are disabled by illness.
Ask Your Doctor
Psychiatrist David J. Muzina, a national practice leader at pharmacy benefits manager Medco, said he believes direct-to-consumer advertising has helped fuel rising use of the drugs. As former director of the mood disorders center at the Cleveland Clinic, he encountered patients who asked for antipsychotics by name, citing a TV commercial or print ad.
Some states are attempting to rein in their use and cut escalating costs. Texas has announced it will not allow a child younger than 3 to receive antipsychotics without authorization from the state. Arkansas now requires parents to give informed consent before a child receives an anti-psychotic drug. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced it is summoning state officials to a meeting this summer to address the use of antipsychotics in foster care. And Sens. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) and Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) introduced legislation that would require doctors who prescribe antipsychotics off-label to nursing home patients to complete forms certifying that they are appropriate.
Medco is asking doctors to document that they have performed diabetes tests in patients taking the drugs. "Our intention here is to get doctors to reexamine prescriptions," Muzina said.
"In the short term, I don't see a change in this trend unless external forces intervene."
Source http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2012/March/13/off-label-use-of-risky-antipsychotic-drugs.aspx
CPS corruption hurts and destroys families worldwide. Please use caution posting about CPS here or anyplace on the internet. For your protection, using your full, real name and precise location is not advised. CPS has eyes everywhere and CPS is notorious for taking what people say, twisting it, embellishing on it and then using it against them in CPS "investigations" and at court proceedings.
Showing posts with label psychotropic drugs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label psychotropic drugs. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
ABC News Investigation: Diane Sawyer and Sharyn Alfonsi to Report on the Overmedication of Children in the U.S. Foster Care System
Reports to Air Beginning Wednesday, November 30 on “World News with Diane Sawyer” and Concluding with In Depth Reporting on “20/20″ Friday, December 2
“ABC World News” anchor Diane Sawyer continues her reporting on the United States foster care system with a new series of reports – “Generation Meds.” Following a year-long investigation, Sawyer and Sharyn Alfonsi uncover a startling reality: many foster children, even as young as one-year olds, are being prescribed powerful mind-altering drugs at alarming rates — up to 13 times higher than that of other children. As part of its investigation ABC News was given a first look at a groundbreaking two-year study by the General Accounting Office (GAO) which finds that the federal government has not done enough to protect America’s foster children from being over medicated with these powerful drugs. Reports will air on “World News with Diane Sawyer” beginning on Wednesday, November 30 and will conclude with a special report on “20/20″ Friday, December 2 at 10:00 PM on the ABC Television Network.
Viewers will hear from a number of foster children across the country – like 11-year-old Ke’onte from Texas, who after suffering a childhood filled with neglect was bounced between six foster homes and hospitals over just four years. Ke’onte was put on at least 12 psychiatric medications while in foster care, up to four at the same time. While experts acknowledge children in foster care may have more emotional and behavioral issues, they do not believe this alone justifies the magnitude of the overuse of psychiatric medications. “I was on a whole lot of medicines that I should have not been on,” Ke’onte told Sawyer. Diane Sawyer goes looking for answers – starting in the nation’s capitol asking federal agencies in charge: What is being done to protect these children?
Plus, Sharyn Alfonsi confronts the doctors and asks are they too quick to pick up the prescription pad when dealing with damaged kids in the foster system, including a Florida doctor who prescribed a cocktail of psychiatric medication to a troubled little boy who then took his own life.
And, Sawyer revisits Maryhurst, a unique residential treatment program for kids with the toughest childhoods and deepest traumas; 75 percent enter the facility on these powerful drugs – when they leave, nearly three quarters are on a reduced number of medications or none at all.
This is the third series of reports from Sawyer on the foster care system. Sawyer’s first report, “For the Sake of the Children,” aired on “Primetime” in 2002. “Calling All Angels,” a special “Primetime” report which aired in 2006, cast a light on many of the young, fractured lives in foster care across the country and the ways those children can be saved. The report was recognized with the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award.
Viewers who want to share their thoughts on the reports should use the twitter hash tag #FosterChange to join in the conversation.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2011/11/abc-news-investigation-diane-sawyer-and-sharyn-alfonsi-to-report-on-the-overmedication-of-children-in-the-u-s-foster-care-system/
“ABC World News” anchor Diane Sawyer continues her reporting on the United States foster care system with a new series of reports – “Generation Meds.” Following a year-long investigation, Sawyer and Sharyn Alfonsi uncover a startling reality: many foster children, even as young as one-year olds, are being prescribed powerful mind-altering drugs at alarming rates — up to 13 times higher than that of other children. As part of its investigation ABC News was given a first look at a groundbreaking two-year study by the General Accounting Office (GAO) which finds that the federal government has not done enough to protect America’s foster children from being over medicated with these powerful drugs. Reports will air on “World News with Diane Sawyer” beginning on Wednesday, November 30 and will conclude with a special report on “20/20″ Friday, December 2 at 10:00 PM on the ABC Television Network.
Viewers will hear from a number of foster children across the country – like 11-year-old Ke’onte from Texas, who after suffering a childhood filled with neglect was bounced between six foster homes and hospitals over just four years. Ke’onte was put on at least 12 psychiatric medications while in foster care, up to four at the same time. While experts acknowledge children in foster care may have more emotional and behavioral issues, they do not believe this alone justifies the magnitude of the overuse of psychiatric medications. “I was on a whole lot of medicines that I should have not been on,” Ke’onte told Sawyer. Diane Sawyer goes looking for answers – starting in the nation’s capitol asking federal agencies in charge: What is being done to protect these children?
Plus, Sharyn Alfonsi confronts the doctors and asks are they too quick to pick up the prescription pad when dealing with damaged kids in the foster system, including a Florida doctor who prescribed a cocktail of psychiatric medication to a troubled little boy who then took his own life.
And, Sawyer revisits Maryhurst, a unique residential treatment program for kids with the toughest childhoods and deepest traumas; 75 percent enter the facility on these powerful drugs – when they leave, nearly three quarters are on a reduced number of medications or none at all.
This is the third series of reports from Sawyer on the foster care system. Sawyer’s first report, “For the Sake of the Children,” aired on “Primetime” in 2002. “Calling All Angels,” a special “Primetime” report which aired in 2006, cast a light on many of the young, fractured lives in foster care across the country and the ways those children can be saved. The report was recognized with the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award.
Viewers who want to share their thoughts on the reports should use the twitter hash tag #FosterChange to join in the conversation.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2011/11/abc-news-investigation-diane-sawyer-and-sharyn-alfonsi-to-report-on-the-overmedication-of-children-in-the-u-s-foster-care-system/
Administration Concerned About Psych Meds and Foster Youths
by John Kelly
No regulation from feds yet; just information sharing
Starting this summer, states will have to provide the federal government with details about how they control the use of psychotropic medications on youth in foster care.
The Obama administration said in a letter to state officials last week that it was concerned about the “safe, appropriate and effective use” of the drugs, which are most often prescribed to adolescents in connection with a diagnosis for mood or conduct disorders, though many child advocates believe they are frequently used as chemical restraints because of their numbing effect on kids.
“As we strengthen child welfare systems’ ability to safely and appropriately manage psychotropic medication use, it is necessary to recognize the corresponding need to…implement effective, non-pharmaceutical interventions,” says the letter, sent jointly by three different divisions of HHS.
States must present the Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families (ACF) with an Annual Progress and Services Report in June 2012. That report must now include “comprehensive descriptions of procedures and protocols planned or in place to ensure the safe and appropriate use of psychotropic medications,” the letter says.
The letter is signed by George Sheldon, acting assistant secretary for ACF; Donald Berwick, director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS); and Pamela Hyde, administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA).
Sheldon presided over Florida’s Department of Children and Families when it became the lightning rod for this issue in 2009, the year that 7-year-old foster youth Gabriel Myers hung himself. Myers had been prescribed psychotropic drugs without informed parental consent or a judge's order while in the foster care system.
A DCF review of Myers death found that doctors, judges, lawyers and social workers are often poorly-informed and need education and training when it comes to giving psychotropic drugs to children. But state legislation aimed at better regulating use of the drugs on foster children was killed the following summer.
The HHS letter suggests particular alarm at the fact that nearly half of foster youth in group or residential homes “are taking at least one psychotropic,” and that the “majority of children in foster care receiving psychotropic medications have multiple prescriptions.”
There is a dearth of information about how effective psychotropics are for kids, the letter says, and there is “scant evidence of the effectiveness of treatment with multiple medications,” a practice that “increases the likelihood of drug interactions and other adverse effects.”
The three HHS divisions also outlined ways in which the federal government intends to help states address the issue. In advance of the annual report’s June deadline, ACF will publish a Program Instruction that specifies what information that will be requested. And at some point during the summer, the divisions plan to convene child welfare and health authorities for “peer learning and technical assistance.”
CMS is currently in the process of disseminating findings from a 16-state working group on best practices for use of psychotropics among children on Medicaid.
Source http://www.youthtoday.org/view_article.cfm?article_id=5131
No regulation from feds yet; just information sharing
Starting this summer, states will have to provide the federal government with details about how they control the use of psychotropic medications on youth in foster care.
The Obama administration said in a letter to state officials last week that it was concerned about the “safe, appropriate and effective use” of the drugs, which are most often prescribed to adolescents in connection with a diagnosis for mood or conduct disorders, though many child advocates believe they are frequently used as chemical restraints because of their numbing effect on kids.
“As we strengthen child welfare systems’ ability to safely and appropriately manage psychotropic medication use, it is necessary to recognize the corresponding need to…implement effective, non-pharmaceutical interventions,” says the letter, sent jointly by three different divisions of HHS.
States must present the Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families (ACF) with an Annual Progress and Services Report in June 2012. That report must now include “comprehensive descriptions of procedures and protocols planned or in place to ensure the safe and appropriate use of psychotropic medications,” the letter says.
The letter is signed by George Sheldon, acting assistant secretary for ACF; Donald Berwick, director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS); and Pamela Hyde, administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA).
Sheldon presided over Florida’s Department of Children and Families when it became the lightning rod for this issue in 2009, the year that 7-year-old foster youth Gabriel Myers hung himself. Myers had been prescribed psychotropic drugs without informed parental consent or a judge's order while in the foster care system.
A DCF review of Myers death found that doctors, judges, lawyers and social workers are often poorly-informed and need education and training when it comes to giving psychotropic drugs to children. But state legislation aimed at better regulating use of the drugs on foster children was killed the following summer.
The HHS letter suggests particular alarm at the fact that nearly half of foster youth in group or residential homes “are taking at least one psychotropic,” and that the “majority of children in foster care receiving psychotropic medications have multiple prescriptions.”
There is a dearth of information about how effective psychotropics are for kids, the letter says, and there is “scant evidence of the effectiveness of treatment with multiple medications,” a practice that “increases the likelihood of drug interactions and other adverse effects.”
The three HHS divisions also outlined ways in which the federal government intends to help states address the issue. In advance of the annual report’s June deadline, ACF will publish a Program Instruction that specifies what information that will be requested. And at some point during the summer, the divisions plan to convene child welfare and health authorities for “peer learning and technical assistance.”
CMS is currently in the process of disseminating findings from a 16-state working group on best practices for use of psychotropics among children on Medicaid.
Source http://www.youthtoday.org/view_article.cfm?article_id=5131
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Drugs Used for Psychotics Go to Youths in Foster Care
Blogger note:
This article states that psych doctors get very little money for drugging children in foster care but what it fails to report is that the states make money by drugging the children in state care. They get this extra money by giving the children the title of "special needs." States collect more money for special needs children from the federal government than they do for children that are not special needs. That is why states usually use their own psyc doctors and will not seek a second opinion in coming up with diagnoses that require these drugs. Independent doctors are less likely to agree with the use of psychotropic and antipsychotics for children.
-----
Foster children are being prescribed cocktails of powerful antipsychosis drugs just as frequently as some of the most mentally disabled youngsters on Medicaid, a new study suggests.
The report, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, is the first to investigate how often youngsters in foster care are given two antipsychotic drugs at once, the authors said. The drugs include Risperdal, Seroquel and Zyprexa — among other so-called major tranquilizers — which were developed for schizophrenia but are now used as all-purpose drugs for almost any psychiatric symptoms.
“The kids in foster care may come from bad homes, but they do not have the sort of complex medical issues that those in the disabled population do,” said Susan dosReis, an associate professor in the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy and the lead author.
The implication, Dr. dosReis and other experts said: Doctors are treating foster children’s behavioral problems with the same powerful drugs given to people with schizophrenia and severe bipolar disorder. “We simply don’t have evidence to support this kind of use, especially in young children,” Dr. dosReis said.
In recent years, doctors and policy makers have grown concerned about high rates of overall psychiatric drug use in the foster care system, the government-financed program that provides temporary living arrangements for 400,000 to 500,000 children and adolescents. Previous studies have found that children in foster care receive psychiatric medications at about twice the rate among children outside the system.
The new study focused on one of the most powerful classes of drugs, antipsychotics. It found that about 2 percent of foster children took at least one such drug, even though schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, for which the drugs are approved, are extremely rare in young children.
“It’s a significant and important finding, and it should prompt states to improve the quality of care in this area,” said Dr. Mark Olfson, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University who did not contribute to the research.
In the study, mental health researchers analyzed 2003 Medicaid records of 637,924 minors from an unidentified mid-Atlantic state who were either in foster care, getting disability benefits for a diagnosis like severe autism or bipolar disorder, or in a program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. All of these programs draw on Medicaid financing. The investigators found that 16,969, or about 3 percent of the total, had received at least one prescription for an antipsychotic drug.
Yet among these, it was the foster children who most often got more than one such prescription at the same time: 9.2 percent, versus 6.8 percent among the children on disability, and just 2.5 percent of those in the needy families program.
Antipsychotic drugs, the authors said, also cause rapid weight gain and increase the risk for metabolic problems in many people, an effect that may be amplified by the use of two at once.
Doctors who treat such children are aware of the trade-offs and often prescribe lower doses of the medications as a result. And when they add a second such drug, it is often to counteract side effects of the first medication.
Still, the relatively high rates of these drug combinations in such a young and vulnerable group have prompted policy makers across the country to take notice. A consortium of 16 states, in collaboration with Rutgers University, has drawn up guidelines to improve care for foster children and others dependent on state aid.
“The psychiatrists who are treating these kids on the front lines are not doing it for money; there are very low reimbursement rates from Medicaid,” said Dr. Ramesh Raghavan, a mental health services researcher at Washington University in St. Louis. “There’s enormous anguish because everyone knows that this is not what we should be doing for these kids. We as a society simply haven’t made the investment in psychosocial treatments, and so we are forced to rely on psychotropic drugs to carry the burden.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/health/research/study-finds-foster-children-often-given-antipsychosis-drugs.html?_r=1
This article states that psych doctors get very little money for drugging children in foster care but what it fails to report is that the states make money by drugging the children in state care. They get this extra money by giving the children the title of "special needs." States collect more money for special needs children from the federal government than they do for children that are not special needs. That is why states usually use their own psyc doctors and will not seek a second opinion in coming up with diagnoses that require these drugs. Independent doctors are less likely to agree with the use of psychotropic and antipsychotics for children.
-----
Foster children are being prescribed cocktails of powerful antipsychosis drugs just as frequently as some of the most mentally disabled youngsters on Medicaid, a new study suggests.
The report, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, is the first to investigate how often youngsters in foster care are given two antipsychotic drugs at once, the authors said. The drugs include Risperdal, Seroquel and Zyprexa — among other so-called major tranquilizers — which were developed for schizophrenia but are now used as all-purpose drugs for almost any psychiatric symptoms.
“The kids in foster care may come from bad homes, but they do not have the sort of complex medical issues that those in the disabled population do,” said Susan dosReis, an associate professor in the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy and the lead author.
The implication, Dr. dosReis and other experts said: Doctors are treating foster children’s behavioral problems with the same powerful drugs given to people with schizophrenia and severe bipolar disorder. “We simply don’t have evidence to support this kind of use, especially in young children,” Dr. dosReis said.
In recent years, doctors and policy makers have grown concerned about high rates of overall psychiatric drug use in the foster care system, the government-financed program that provides temporary living arrangements for 400,000 to 500,000 children and adolescents. Previous studies have found that children in foster care receive psychiatric medications at about twice the rate among children outside the system.
The new study focused on one of the most powerful classes of drugs, antipsychotics. It found that about 2 percent of foster children took at least one such drug, even though schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, for which the drugs are approved, are extremely rare in young children.
“It’s a significant and important finding, and it should prompt states to improve the quality of care in this area,” said Dr. Mark Olfson, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University who did not contribute to the research.
In the study, mental health researchers analyzed 2003 Medicaid records of 637,924 minors from an unidentified mid-Atlantic state who were either in foster care, getting disability benefits for a diagnosis like severe autism or bipolar disorder, or in a program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. All of these programs draw on Medicaid financing. The investigators found that 16,969, or about 3 percent of the total, had received at least one prescription for an antipsychotic drug.
Yet among these, it was the foster children who most often got more than one such prescription at the same time: 9.2 percent, versus 6.8 percent among the children on disability, and just 2.5 percent of those in the needy families program.
Antipsychotic drugs, the authors said, also cause rapid weight gain and increase the risk for metabolic problems in many people, an effect that may be amplified by the use of two at once.
Doctors who treat such children are aware of the trade-offs and often prescribe lower doses of the medications as a result. And when they add a second such drug, it is often to counteract side effects of the first medication.
Still, the relatively high rates of these drug combinations in such a young and vulnerable group have prompted policy makers across the country to take notice. A consortium of 16 states, in collaboration with Rutgers University, has drawn up guidelines to improve care for foster children and others dependent on state aid.
“The psychiatrists who are treating these kids on the front lines are not doing it for money; there are very low reimbursement rates from Medicaid,” said Dr. Ramesh Raghavan, a mental health services researcher at Washington University in St. Louis. “There’s enormous anguish because everyone knows that this is not what we should be doing for these kids. We as a society simply haven’t made the investment in psychosocial treatments, and so we are forced to rely on psychotropic drugs to carry the burden.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/health/research/study-finds-foster-children-often-given-antipsychosis-drugs.html?_r=1
Friday, November 11, 2011
ABA Practice & Policy Brief on Psychotropic Medication and Children in Foster Care
Click this link to read an informative pdf file:
http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/child_law/PsychMed.authcheckdam.pdf
http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/child_law/PsychMed.authcheckdam.pdf
Friday, November 4, 2011
The Federal Government Should Not Decide If Kids Need Mental Health Screening
by Dr. Susan Berry
On the heels of new recommendations by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), that children as young as four years of age be evaluated for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), a new study (funded by two agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services) has concluded that the drugs used to treat ADHD do not pose risk of serious heart problems to children and young adults. Currently, ADHD is the most commonly diagnosed neurobehavioral disorder in children, with about 10% of children having been labeled with the diagnosis, as of 2007. The highest number of parent reports of ADHD has been among those covered by Medicaid.
But, why are increasing numbers of children and adults being diagnosed with ADHD? Is it just coincidence that DHHS-funded research has recently concluded that it’s safe to give stimulant medications to very young children immediately after the AAP, a major supporter of Obamacare, has announced its recommendations for earlier screening? To be sure, many physicians and mental health practitioners believe ADHD is being overdiagnosed. MedPage Today, a service for physicians that provides a clinical perspective on breaking medical news, found that 80% of its readers believed the disorder is overdiagnosed. Similarly, psychiatrist Dr. Allen Frances states that ADHD has become an “epidemic” for several reasons: (1) Changes in the wording of the diagnosis in the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual), (2) heavy drug company marketing to doctors and advertising to the public, (3) extensive media coverage, (4) pressure from parents and schools to control disruptive behavior in children and (5) the use of stimulant medication (such as Ritalin) for performance enhancement.
In light of what appears to be a drive to diagnose more behaviors as “abnormal” earlier in life, Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul has reintroduced H.R. 2769. The Parental Consent Act 2011 prohibits mandatory mental health screening of students without the express written, voluntary, informed consent of their parents or legal guardians. The bill seeks to protect the fundamental right of parents to direct and control the upbringing and education of their children. With the passage of this bill, federal education funds cannot be used to pay any local school or government agency that charges parents, who refuse consent to permit mental health screening for their child, with child abuse or child, medical, or educational neglect.
A major concern is that daycare providers and teachers are the main referral sources for ADHD screening. The types of behaviors many of these individuals may view as “problematic,” in a classroom setting, such as fidgeting, distractibility, inattention, interrupting, and lack of organization are very much consistent with a normal four-year old’s stage of development. While some adults may view the children’s behavior as a “problem,” the real issue may be that adults are expecting young children to function, without disruption, in an institutional setting.
As more young children have been placed in daycare settings, larger groups of them must be managed by just a few adults. Dr. Paul’s bill prevents children who attend public schools, or daycare programs that receive federal funding, from being forced to submit to mental health screening without parental consent.
According to Congressman Paul, a physician:
“Many children have suffered harmful side effects from using psychotropic drugs. Some of the possible side effects include mania, violence, dependence and weight gain. Yet, parents are already being threatened with child abuse charges if they resist efforts to drug their children. Imagine how much easier it will be to drug children against their parents’ wishes if a federally-funded mental-health screener makes the recommendation.”
The bill is in response to a recommendation by the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, established in 2002 by President George W. Bush, whose stated purpose was to bring greater awareness and service guidelines regarding mental health issues to Americans. According to Congressman Paul:
“The commission recommends that universal or mandatory mental-health screening first be implemented in public schools as a prelude to expanding it to the general public. However, neither the commission’s report nor any related mental-health screening proposal requires parental consent before a child is subjected to mental-health screening. Federally-funded universal or mandatory mental-health screening in schools without parental consent could lead to labeling more children as “ADD” or “hyperactive” and thus force more children to take psychotropic drugs, such as Ritalin, against their parents’ wishes.”
While AAP recommends that behavioral interventions be utilized first, prior to medications, for young children diagnosed with ADHD, Dr. Frances states:
“…experience suggests that these cautions will be widely ignored in busy everyday practice, especially because behavioral approaches are usually unavailable and medication is so highly promoted and readily available.”
As a practicing psychologist, this last statement is the crux of the matter. While there is a small minority of children who have neurological disorders that require medications, some parents and teachers would prefer a quick fix of medication for a child in order to make teaching and parenting easier, rather than work on an approach that requires thinking outside the box and consistent implementation by both parents and teachers. The number of young children who come to my office already tagged with ADHD, Bipolar Disorder, Asperger’s Syndrome, Pervasive Developmental Disorder, etc. is staggering. The larger educational issue is that many of the children diagnosed with ADHD are actually very bright and need to be taught in a different manner, one that our “one size fits all,” institutional public education system does not adequately address.
Source http://biggovernment.com/sberry/2011/11/04/the-federal-government-should-not-decide-if-kids-need-mental-health-screening/
On the heels of new recommendations by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), that children as young as four years of age be evaluated for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), a new study (funded by two agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services) has concluded that the drugs used to treat ADHD do not pose risk of serious heart problems to children and young adults. Currently, ADHD is the most commonly diagnosed neurobehavioral disorder in children, with about 10% of children having been labeled with the diagnosis, as of 2007. The highest number of parent reports of ADHD has been among those covered by Medicaid.
But, why are increasing numbers of children and adults being diagnosed with ADHD? Is it just coincidence that DHHS-funded research has recently concluded that it’s safe to give stimulant medications to very young children immediately after the AAP, a major supporter of Obamacare, has announced its recommendations for earlier screening? To be sure, many physicians and mental health practitioners believe ADHD is being overdiagnosed. MedPage Today, a service for physicians that provides a clinical perspective on breaking medical news, found that 80% of its readers believed the disorder is overdiagnosed. Similarly, psychiatrist Dr. Allen Frances states that ADHD has become an “epidemic” for several reasons: (1) Changes in the wording of the diagnosis in the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual), (2) heavy drug company marketing to doctors and advertising to the public, (3) extensive media coverage, (4) pressure from parents and schools to control disruptive behavior in children and (5) the use of stimulant medication (such as Ritalin) for performance enhancement.
In light of what appears to be a drive to diagnose more behaviors as “abnormal” earlier in life, Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul has reintroduced H.R. 2769. The Parental Consent Act 2011 prohibits mandatory mental health screening of students without the express written, voluntary, informed consent of their parents or legal guardians. The bill seeks to protect the fundamental right of parents to direct and control the upbringing and education of their children. With the passage of this bill, federal education funds cannot be used to pay any local school or government agency that charges parents, who refuse consent to permit mental health screening for their child, with child abuse or child, medical, or educational neglect.
A major concern is that daycare providers and teachers are the main referral sources for ADHD screening. The types of behaviors many of these individuals may view as “problematic,” in a classroom setting, such as fidgeting, distractibility, inattention, interrupting, and lack of organization are very much consistent with a normal four-year old’s stage of development. While some adults may view the children’s behavior as a “problem,” the real issue may be that adults are expecting young children to function, without disruption, in an institutional setting.
As more young children have been placed in daycare settings, larger groups of them must be managed by just a few adults. Dr. Paul’s bill prevents children who attend public schools, or daycare programs that receive federal funding, from being forced to submit to mental health screening without parental consent.
According to Congressman Paul, a physician:
“Many children have suffered harmful side effects from using psychotropic drugs. Some of the possible side effects include mania, violence, dependence and weight gain. Yet, parents are already being threatened with child abuse charges if they resist efforts to drug their children. Imagine how much easier it will be to drug children against their parents’ wishes if a federally-funded mental-health screener makes the recommendation.”
The bill is in response to a recommendation by the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, established in 2002 by President George W. Bush, whose stated purpose was to bring greater awareness and service guidelines regarding mental health issues to Americans. According to Congressman Paul:
“The commission recommends that universal or mandatory mental-health screening first be implemented in public schools as a prelude to expanding it to the general public. However, neither the commission’s report nor any related mental-health screening proposal requires parental consent before a child is subjected to mental-health screening. Federally-funded universal or mandatory mental-health screening in schools without parental consent could lead to labeling more children as “ADD” or “hyperactive” and thus force more children to take psychotropic drugs, such as Ritalin, against their parents’ wishes.”
While AAP recommends that behavioral interventions be utilized first, prior to medications, for young children diagnosed with ADHD, Dr. Frances states:
“…experience suggests that these cautions will be widely ignored in busy everyday practice, especially because behavioral approaches are usually unavailable and medication is so highly promoted and readily available.”
As a practicing psychologist, this last statement is the crux of the matter. While there is a small minority of children who have neurological disorders that require medications, some parents and teachers would prefer a quick fix of medication for a child in order to make teaching and parenting easier, rather than work on an approach that requires thinking outside the box and consistent implementation by both parents and teachers. The number of young children who come to my office already tagged with ADHD, Bipolar Disorder, Asperger’s Syndrome, Pervasive Developmental Disorder, etc. is staggering. The larger educational issue is that many of the children diagnosed with ADHD are actually very bright and need to be taught in a different manner, one that our “one size fits all,” institutional public education system does not adequately address.
Source http://biggovernment.com/sberry/2011/11/04/the-federal-government-should-not-decide-if-kids-need-mental-health-screening/
Friday, October 28, 2011
Georgia Advocate Speaks Out Against Psychiatric Medication Use in Nation’s Foster Care System
Written by: James Swift
Alongside photographs of rocker Jon Bon Jovi and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, Giovan Bazan looks downright blithe. Although they tower over him, the tuxedo-clad Bazan wearing a slight smirk, his gelled hair and pierced ears sharply contrasting his suit-and-tie apparel.
With his cheery disposition, you wouldn’t suspect Bazan had a troubled childhood. In reality, the 21-year-old has spent a majority of his life in foster homes, and for most of his childhood, he was prescribed anti-depressants and behavioral disorder drugs.
“I went into foster care at 11 months old,” the Los Angeles native said. “When I was six, they put me on medication.”
By many accounts Bazan has come a long way since his days in foster care. In September he spoke at Atlanta-based CHRIS KIDS‘ 11th annual fundraiser alongside towering protraits of celebrities. He has adressed state legislature multiple times about issues pressing foster youth in the state. He has managed to turn his troubled childhood into a stepping stone, not a crux.
Kathy Colbenson, CEO of CHRIS KIDS and co-organizer of the fundraiser, said Bazan’s combination of determination, will and outlook has set a tremendous example for children around the nation facing similar circumstances.
“I think what he’s doing is awesome,” she said.
Today Bazan holds a number of titles. He is the JUSTGeorgia project coordinator for EmpowerMEnt, an initiative of Multi-Agency Alliance for Children, Inc. that is designed to help at-risk youth within the state. He also serves as a Youth Support Specialist Georgia Department of Family and Children Services, a liaison for the White House Council for Community Solutions, and as owner and CEO of the National Executive Protection Agency.
“It’s a travesty how frequently kids in the foster care system are medicated, and I feel like my foster mom wanted to keep me medicated,” Bazan said. “When they put me on medication, when they started to sedate me, it abused my emotions and controlled my mind to the point where I went from being a child to being nothing short of a vegetable.”
Bazan started receiving psychotropic medication following the death of one of his foster mothers, he said.
“Mommy Karen was very caring, she was very supportive, very loving,” he said, recalling her life. “If I scratched a knee, she would be there to hold me.”
Bazan remembered taking cross-country road trips from California to South Carolina. But he didn’t know the “vacations” were actually for his foster mother to receive chemotherapy treatments. She died of cancer when he was just four-years-old, he said.
After her death, Bazan was taken in by a foster mother that he claimed was vindictive and hostile toward him.
“She was always angry about something that I did,” Bazan said. “I always felt that, for some reason, she always resented me.”
Bazan began receiving behavioral treatment drugs shortly after, he said.
“It started with Ritalin,” Bazan said. Soon after he was prescribed, what he called, a “cocktail of medication” by psychiatrists – primarily anti-depressant drugs.
“That little childhood personality that kids have was void,” Bazan said about his experiences in elementary school. “I would come to class and just put my head down and not talk to my classmates. I couldn’t explain it, I didn’t know what was going on.”
Originally he was medicated for displaying symptoms of Attention Deficit Disorder, he said.
“When I was medicated, it was to eradicate a specific problem, which was [being] overactive and hyper,” Bazan said. “In other words, being a child. They medicated me to prevent me from being a child.”
Bazan said it was too much, considering himself overmedicated as a child.
“As time progressed, the dosage of the medication would have to increase because my body would adjust to the medication,” he said. “This medication that they would give me had so many side effects that they would have to counter those side effects with more medication.”
As a child, Bazan said, he was given experimental dosages of psychotropic medication. In elementary school, he said, he received treatment doses that were equivalent to those given to teenagers and young adults.
“Ultimately, that’s what they were doing … they were testing on me,” he said. “I was having seizures, I would have horrendous nosebleeds. It was more detrimental than it was helpful.”
In 2010, the Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute released a report showing that overmedication within the foster care system was indeed a problem. About 52 percent of kids in the system had been prescribed psychotropic medication. Bazan found the findings both alarming and horrifying.
“One of the biggest changes that we’re looking to in the future deals with regulating psychotropic medication being administered to foster care children,” he said. “They’re being medicated because they’re coming from abusive homes, when what really happens is the system tends to look at a case and say ‘oh, well they’re having trouble paying attention.’ Well, yeah, they’re having trouble paying attention in school because they’re getting beat up at home and they’re being abused at home. Whatever stress a normal kid has, theirs is exponentially multiplied.”
In 2011, Georgia legislators introduced House Bill 23 (HB 23), a bill aimed at regulating and monitoring psychotropic drug prescriptions within the foster care system. But the bill, also known as the ”Foster Children’s Psychotropic Medication Monitoring Act,” never made it into law.
Bazan said anyone that doesn’t see the dangers of overprescribing psychiatric drugs, to kids or to anyone, should try taking them for themselves.
“Take it for a couple of years,” he said. “That’s what happens to the foster kids. They’re not given medication for a couple of months, and bam, the problem’s solved. Psychotropic medication isn’t designed to be taken like antibiotics, where you can take them for a certain amount of time and the problem is eliminated. You have to take a higher dosage, and you have to take a higher dosage and when it no longer affects you, you have to switch to a more powerful medication.”
According to Bazan, behavioral drugs and other forms of psychiatric medicine pose an imminent threat to kids in Georgia foster care and throughout the nation.
“If you can find valid proof that [discredits] what evidence has shown over and over again that it is harmful to youth, then by all means, let me know,” he said. “But you won’t find that evidence outside of pharmaceutical companies, who push that kind of information out there.”
Source http://jjie.org/georgia-advocate-speaks-out-against-psychiatric-medication-use-nations-foster-care-system/52283
Alongside photographs of rocker Jon Bon Jovi and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, Giovan Bazan looks downright blithe. Although they tower over him, the tuxedo-clad Bazan wearing a slight smirk, his gelled hair and pierced ears sharply contrasting his suit-and-tie apparel.
With his cheery disposition, you wouldn’t suspect Bazan had a troubled childhood. In reality, the 21-year-old has spent a majority of his life in foster homes, and for most of his childhood, he was prescribed anti-depressants and behavioral disorder drugs.
“I went into foster care at 11 months old,” the Los Angeles native said. “When I was six, they put me on medication.”
By many accounts Bazan has come a long way since his days in foster care. In September he spoke at Atlanta-based CHRIS KIDS‘ 11th annual fundraiser alongside towering protraits of celebrities. He has adressed state legislature multiple times about issues pressing foster youth in the state. He has managed to turn his troubled childhood into a stepping stone, not a crux.
Kathy Colbenson, CEO of CHRIS KIDS and co-organizer of the fundraiser, said Bazan’s combination of determination, will and outlook has set a tremendous example for children around the nation facing similar circumstances.
“I think what he’s doing is awesome,” she said.
Today Bazan holds a number of titles. He is the JUSTGeorgia project coordinator for EmpowerMEnt, an initiative of Multi-Agency Alliance for Children, Inc. that is designed to help at-risk youth within the state. He also serves as a Youth Support Specialist Georgia Department of Family and Children Services, a liaison for the White House Council for Community Solutions, and as owner and CEO of the National Executive Protection Agency.
“It’s a travesty how frequently kids in the foster care system are medicated, and I feel like my foster mom wanted to keep me medicated,” Bazan said. “When they put me on medication, when they started to sedate me, it abused my emotions and controlled my mind to the point where I went from being a child to being nothing short of a vegetable.”
Bazan started receiving psychotropic medication following the death of one of his foster mothers, he said.
“Mommy Karen was very caring, she was very supportive, very loving,” he said, recalling her life. “If I scratched a knee, she would be there to hold me.”
Bazan remembered taking cross-country road trips from California to South Carolina. But he didn’t know the “vacations” were actually for his foster mother to receive chemotherapy treatments. She died of cancer when he was just four-years-old, he said.
After her death, Bazan was taken in by a foster mother that he claimed was vindictive and hostile toward him.
“She was always angry about something that I did,” Bazan said. “I always felt that, for some reason, she always resented me.”
Bazan began receiving behavioral treatment drugs shortly after, he said.
“It started with Ritalin,” Bazan said. Soon after he was prescribed, what he called, a “cocktail of medication” by psychiatrists – primarily anti-depressant drugs.
“That little childhood personality that kids have was void,” Bazan said about his experiences in elementary school. “I would come to class and just put my head down and not talk to my classmates. I couldn’t explain it, I didn’t know what was going on.”
Originally he was medicated for displaying symptoms of Attention Deficit Disorder, he said.
“When I was medicated, it was to eradicate a specific problem, which was [being] overactive and hyper,” Bazan said. “In other words, being a child. They medicated me to prevent me from being a child.”
Bazan said it was too much, considering himself overmedicated as a child.
“As time progressed, the dosage of the medication would have to increase because my body would adjust to the medication,” he said. “This medication that they would give me had so many side effects that they would have to counter those side effects with more medication.”
As a child, Bazan said, he was given experimental dosages of psychotropic medication. In elementary school, he said, he received treatment doses that were equivalent to those given to teenagers and young adults.
“Ultimately, that’s what they were doing … they were testing on me,” he said. “I was having seizures, I would have horrendous nosebleeds. It was more detrimental than it was helpful.”
In 2010, the Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute released a report showing that overmedication within the foster care system was indeed a problem. About 52 percent of kids in the system had been prescribed psychotropic medication. Bazan found the findings both alarming and horrifying.
“One of the biggest changes that we’re looking to in the future deals with regulating psychotropic medication being administered to foster care children,” he said. “They’re being medicated because they’re coming from abusive homes, when what really happens is the system tends to look at a case and say ‘oh, well they’re having trouble paying attention.’ Well, yeah, they’re having trouble paying attention in school because they’re getting beat up at home and they’re being abused at home. Whatever stress a normal kid has, theirs is exponentially multiplied.”
In 2011, Georgia legislators introduced House Bill 23 (HB 23), a bill aimed at regulating and monitoring psychotropic drug prescriptions within the foster care system. But the bill, also known as the ”Foster Children’s Psychotropic Medication Monitoring Act,” never made it into law.
Bazan said anyone that doesn’t see the dangers of overprescribing psychiatric drugs, to kids or to anyone, should try taking them for themselves.
“Take it for a couple of years,” he said. “That’s what happens to the foster kids. They’re not given medication for a couple of months, and bam, the problem’s solved. Psychotropic medication isn’t designed to be taken like antibiotics, where you can take them for a certain amount of time and the problem is eliminated. You have to take a higher dosage, and you have to take a higher dosage and when it no longer affects you, you have to switch to a more powerful medication.”
According to Bazan, behavioral drugs and other forms of psychiatric medicine pose an imminent threat to kids in Georgia foster care and throughout the nation.
“If you can find valid proof that [discredits] what evidence has shown over and over again that it is harmful to youth, then by all means, let me know,” he said. “But you won’t find that evidence outside of pharmaceutical companies, who push that kind of information out there.”
Source http://jjie.org/georgia-advocate-speaks-out-against-psychiatric-medication-use-nations-foster-care-system/52283
Monday, October 24, 2011
Grandma: Boy in four foster homes in 14 months
By Rita Price
The Columbus Dispatch Monday October 24, 2011 6:01 AM
The weekly phone conversations are eagerly awaited but rarely make her feel better.
“I hear a defeated little boy,” Mary Ann O’Garro said.
Her grandson often says he wishes he were there, in Washington state, instead of at another new place, O’Garro said. The 8-year-old’s calls have come from many phone numbers.
Franklin County Children Services brought the troubled boy back to Franklin County last year after denying Lenford and Mary Ann O’Garro’s request for in-patient treatment near their home in the Seattle area, where they could visit and work with the child’s doctors.
Their grandson had been placed with them in 2008, a little less than a year after police discovered him beaten, burned and tortured while living with his mother — Mr. O’Garro’s daughter — in a suspected house of prostitution on Columbus’ North Side.
Months of love and therapy hadn’t managed to curb his bizarre and dangerous behavior, the O'Garros and Washington therapists said, so they wanted to try hospitalization.
Children Services disagreed. The agency’s former chief said he thought the boy could be better served, and stabilized, in a foster home here with people trained to support his therapy. But after 14 months back in Franklin County, the boy has lived in four foster homes in three school districts, his grandparents say.
Add in those who provide periodic respite for the foster parents, and the child probably has been in at least 10 homes, Mrs. O’Garro said. “In our minds, there’s no way this could not have damaged him further. He was already traumatized, then he was ripped from our house, and now he’s just bouncing around.”
Because the boy might have been sexually abused, The Dispatch is not naming him.
Chip Spinning, who recently took over as Children Services executive director after Eric Fenner’s retirement, said in an email that no one wants the boy to experience more trauma. But officials still think he should be cared for in a specially trained foster home instead of at an institution. He said the child is making progress and will receive “all recommended services to enable continued progress.”
The moves are unfortunate but happen for a variety of reasons in the child-welfare system, Spinning said. He said he couldn’t share the specifics.
Mrs. O’Garro said it’s hard to be hopeful. She said she has heard various reasons for the boy’s change of placement, including foster parents’ moving, an allegation of abuse against a foster provider, and the child’s intensive needs.
“I have not, to date, ever seen a single document that says he’s been stabilized,” she said. "His level of care has continued to increase. He’s been up to six psychotropic drugs.”
Children Services has acknowledged numerous mistakes in the case, starting with a failure to inform the O’Garros of the extent of the child’s abuse — and his likely need for psychological help — after he was placed with them.
The grandparents say they needed an attorney to get the agency to pay for the child’s initial treatment in Washington. The O’Garros have health insurance, but it isn’t sufficient to cover the expensive mental-health services.
After a review in late 2009, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services cited the agency for its handling of the case and ordered a plan for preventing future violations. Two employees were disciplined as a result of the agency’s internal investigation.
Mrs. O’Garro said she doesn’t know whether Children Services wants the child to return to his mother, to them or to be adopted.
Agency attorneys, a therapist and the child’s court-appointed guardian agreed last week that the boy’s mother, who has been released from prison, could have at least one supervised visit.
“He hasn’t seen her in nearly four years, since she was put in the police car and he was taken in an ambulance,” Mrs. O’Garro said. “That’s his last memory of her.”
The grandparents still struggle with their decision to surrender custody, a move that ultimately allowed Children Services to bring their grandson to Columbus last year. Their attorney, Susan Eisenman, has said the O’Garros made that difficult choice because they couldn’t pay for the treatment he needed and because they hoped the agency would approve a nearby Washington facility.
Instead, they had to put him on a plane.
Mrs. O’Garro cries when she thinks about all the boy has been through. Had he gone to a treatment center, “We think he’d be home with us,” she said. “All we can do now is just hope something positive happens.”
Source http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2011/10/24/grandma-boy-in-four-fosterhomes-in14months.html
The Columbus Dispatch Monday October 24, 2011 6:01 AM
The weekly phone conversations are eagerly awaited but rarely make her feel better.
“I hear a defeated little boy,” Mary Ann O’Garro said.
Her grandson often says he wishes he were there, in Washington state, instead of at another new place, O’Garro said. The 8-year-old’s calls have come from many phone numbers.
Franklin County Children Services brought the troubled boy back to Franklin County last year after denying Lenford and Mary Ann O’Garro’s request for in-patient treatment near their home in the Seattle area, where they could visit and work with the child’s doctors.
Their grandson had been placed with them in 2008, a little less than a year after police discovered him beaten, burned and tortured while living with his mother — Mr. O’Garro’s daughter — in a suspected house of prostitution on Columbus’ North Side.
Months of love and therapy hadn’t managed to curb his bizarre and dangerous behavior, the O'Garros and Washington therapists said, so they wanted to try hospitalization.
Children Services disagreed. The agency’s former chief said he thought the boy could be better served, and stabilized, in a foster home here with people trained to support his therapy. But after 14 months back in Franklin County, the boy has lived in four foster homes in three school districts, his grandparents say.
Add in those who provide periodic respite for the foster parents, and the child probably has been in at least 10 homes, Mrs. O’Garro said. “In our minds, there’s no way this could not have damaged him further. He was already traumatized, then he was ripped from our house, and now he’s just bouncing around.”
Because the boy might have been sexually abused, The Dispatch is not naming him.
Chip Spinning, who recently took over as Children Services executive director after Eric Fenner’s retirement, said in an email that no one wants the boy to experience more trauma. But officials still think he should be cared for in a specially trained foster home instead of at an institution. He said the child is making progress and will receive “all recommended services to enable continued progress.”
The moves are unfortunate but happen for a variety of reasons in the child-welfare system, Spinning said. He said he couldn’t share the specifics.
Mrs. O’Garro said it’s hard to be hopeful. She said she has heard various reasons for the boy’s change of placement, including foster parents’ moving, an allegation of abuse against a foster provider, and the child’s intensive needs.
“I have not, to date, ever seen a single document that says he’s been stabilized,” she said. "His level of care has continued to increase. He’s been up to six psychotropic drugs.”
Children Services has acknowledged numerous mistakes in the case, starting with a failure to inform the O’Garros of the extent of the child’s abuse — and his likely need for psychological help — after he was placed with them.
The grandparents say they needed an attorney to get the agency to pay for the child’s initial treatment in Washington. The O’Garros have health insurance, but it isn’t sufficient to cover the expensive mental-health services.
After a review in late 2009, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services cited the agency for its handling of the case and ordered a plan for preventing future violations. Two employees were disciplined as a result of the agency’s internal investigation.
Mrs. O’Garro said she doesn’t know whether Children Services wants the child to return to his mother, to them or to be adopted.
Agency attorneys, a therapist and the child’s court-appointed guardian agreed last week that the boy’s mother, who has been released from prison, could have at least one supervised visit.
“He hasn’t seen her in nearly four years, since she was put in the police car and he was taken in an ambulance,” Mrs. O’Garro said. “That’s his last memory of her.”
The grandparents still struggle with their decision to surrender custody, a move that ultimately allowed Children Services to bring their grandson to Columbus last year. Their attorney, Susan Eisenman, has said the O’Garros made that difficult choice because they couldn’t pay for the treatment he needed and because they hoped the agency would approve a nearby Washington facility.
Instead, they had to put him on a plane.
Mrs. O’Garro cries when she thinks about all the boy has been through. Had he gone to a treatment center, “We think he’d be home with us,” she said. “All we can do now is just hope something positive happens.”
Source http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2011/10/24/grandma-boy-in-four-fosterhomes-in14months.html
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
County to examine whether foster children are overmedicated
By Joe Schoenmann
The process of feeding psychotropic drugs to foster children in Clark County will get an overhaul after a vote today by the County Commission to partner with the Nevada School of Medicine and a non-profit mental health agency.
The medical school and Mojave Adult, Child and Family Services will work as consultants to develop policies to monitor "use of psychotropic medication by children in the custody of Clark County Department of Family Services."
Among other things, the agencies are being asked to create policies to create an assessment protocol for:
• children under 4 who are prescribed mental health medications.
• children prescribed three or more mental health drugs.
"In addition," reads a county report, "this program will address emerging concerns nationally that children in foster care are medicated with psychotropic medications three to four times more frequently than children" living with their families. The fear, adds the report, is that these medications "are being used inappropriately for chemical restraint and in lieu of more appropriate non-pharmacologic interventions."
The county's Department of Family Services budgeted $300,455 for the program, which will also include screening medication regimens to make sure they conform with a child's diagnosis and attempt to identify children who will benefit from additional treatment that does not involve drugs.
Source http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/oct/18/county-examine-whether-foster-children-are-overmed/
The process of feeding psychotropic drugs to foster children in Clark County will get an overhaul after a vote today by the County Commission to partner with the Nevada School of Medicine and a non-profit mental health agency.
The medical school and Mojave Adult, Child and Family Services will work as consultants to develop policies to monitor "use of psychotropic medication by children in the custody of Clark County Department of Family Services."
Among other things, the agencies are being asked to create policies to create an assessment protocol for:
• children under 4 who are prescribed mental health medications.
• children prescribed three or more mental health drugs.
"In addition," reads a county report, "this program will address emerging concerns nationally that children in foster care are medicated with psychotropic medications three to four times more frequently than children" living with their families. The fear, adds the report, is that these medications "are being used inappropriately for chemical restraint and in lieu of more appropriate non-pharmacologic interventions."
The county's Department of Family Services budgeted $300,455 for the program, which will also include screening medication regimens to make sure they conform with a child's diagnosis and attempt to identify children who will benefit from additional treatment that does not involve drugs.
Source http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/oct/18/county-examine-whether-foster-children-are-overmed/
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Detroit mom cleared of charges that stemmed from standoff at home
11:14 PM, Aug. 29, 2011
In a case that sparked debate about parental rights versus state involvement in the medical care of children, a Detroit woman won a major victory Monday when all the charges against her were dropped.
Maryanne Godboldo, 57, was accused of firing a gun at Detroit police officers who were assisting a state Child Protective Services worker when they came to her Blaine Street home on March 24 to get her daughter.
The charges against Godboldo were dismissed at her preliminary examination in 36th District Court in Detroit. Judge Ronald Giles agreed with her lawyers that the court order to remove Godboldo's 13-year-old daughter was not valid.
"I am very, very happy and blessed that Judge Giles did the right thing," Godboldo said at a news conference at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit.
Giles also agreed that there was no evidence supporting the charge that Godboldo fired a gun at police during the standoff.
When asked about Giles' ruling, Detroit Police Sgt. Eren Stephens said: "Ms. Godboldo was afforded her due process under the law. We abide by and respect the decision."
Maria Miller, spokeswoman for the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, said the prosecutor will appeal the dismissal of charges.
Godboldo legal team confident that case will survive an appeal
Maryanne Godboldo's legal team is confident that a Wayne County District Court judge's dismissal of all charges against her on Monday will survive an appeal.
"The standard is abuse of discretion," said Byron Pitts, one of Godboldo's lawyers. "The court today did not abuse his discretion."
Godboldo, 57, of Detroit was charged with discharge of a weapon, three counts of felonious assault, resisting and obstructing an officer and felony firearm.
She was accused of firing a gun at police who had accompanied a state Child Protective Services employee to Godboldo's home on Blaine on March 24.
The employee had a Juvenile Court order to take Godboldo's 13-year-old daughter after Godboldo had been accused of neglecting her by discontinuing a psychotropic drug. Godboldo has maintained she has the right to decide her daughter's medical treatment.
Police said Godboldo barricaded herself in her home with her daughter and shot at them.
After hearing testimony at Godboldo's preliminary examination in 36th District Court on Monday in Detroit, Judge Ronald Giles ruled that the court order was not valid and that there was insufficient evidence that Godboldo fired at police officers.
Maria Miller, spokeswoman for the Prosecutor's Office, said the dismissed charges will be appealed. Miller said that Wayne County Circuit Judge Lynne Pierce earlier determined at a Juvenile Court hearing that the order to remove the child was valid.
The appeal will be heard in Wayne County Circuit Court.
At a news conference Monday at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church, Pitts and Godboldo's other attorney, Allison Folmar, explained why they prevailed.
Folmar said Godboldo "never shot at an officer -- period. It never happened."
They said the court order was not valid because a court clerk stamped the judge's name to the order without consulting the judge.
"A judge never looked at this, never saw it," Pitts said. "It has to be an elected authority. This lady took the judge's stamp, stamped the judge's name and off she goes."
He called it "a huge constitutional error."
As a result of this case, Pitts said, there has been a policy change. Court employees are no longer allowed to stamp judges' names on court orders.
Godboldo's supporters say Giles' ruling was justice.
Sandra Hines, a member of the Godboldo Action Committee, said: "This case is rooted on the grounds of parental rights. It's the right of every parent to be the custodial caregiver over their child."
Ron Scott of the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, said, "It's a victory for parental rights."
He also said that "Citizens have the right not to adhere to questionable reasons for entering their home. A person does not have to allow an unreasonable search and seizure to their home."
Neema Yacen of Detroit and a member of the Godboldo Action Committee, said it was a case of state overreach. "This is a mother who said her child had a problem, took her to the people who she thought could help her, and they crucified her."
Godboldo, whose daughter is now in the custody of her sister Penny Godboldo, is working to get her child back.
Judge Pierce has said she needs to evaluate the girl's current treatment and is seeking a report from her doctor.
Source http://www.freep.com/article/20110830/NEWS02/108300383/Detroit-mom-cleared-charges-stemmed-from-standoff-home
In a case that sparked debate about parental rights versus state involvement in the medical care of children, a Detroit woman won a major victory Monday when all the charges against her were dropped.
Maryanne Godboldo, 57, was accused of firing a gun at Detroit police officers who were assisting a state Child Protective Services worker when they came to her Blaine Street home on March 24 to get her daughter.
The charges against Godboldo were dismissed at her preliminary examination in 36th District Court in Detroit. Judge Ronald Giles agreed with her lawyers that the court order to remove Godboldo's 13-year-old daughter was not valid.
"I am very, very happy and blessed that Judge Giles did the right thing," Godboldo said at a news conference at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit.
Giles also agreed that there was no evidence supporting the charge that Godboldo fired a gun at police during the standoff.
When asked about Giles' ruling, Detroit Police Sgt. Eren Stephens said: "Ms. Godboldo was afforded her due process under the law. We abide by and respect the decision."
Maria Miller, spokeswoman for the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, said the prosecutor will appeal the dismissal of charges.
Godboldo legal team confident that case will survive an appeal
Maryanne Godboldo's legal team is confident that a Wayne County District Court judge's dismissal of all charges against her on Monday will survive an appeal.
"The standard is abuse of discretion," said Byron Pitts, one of Godboldo's lawyers. "The court today did not abuse his discretion."
Godboldo, 57, of Detroit was charged with discharge of a weapon, three counts of felonious assault, resisting and obstructing an officer and felony firearm.
She was accused of firing a gun at police who had accompanied a state Child Protective Services employee to Godboldo's home on Blaine on March 24.
The employee had a Juvenile Court order to take Godboldo's 13-year-old daughter after Godboldo had been accused of neglecting her by discontinuing a psychotropic drug. Godboldo has maintained she has the right to decide her daughter's medical treatment.
Police said Godboldo barricaded herself in her home with her daughter and shot at them.
After hearing testimony at Godboldo's preliminary examination in 36th District Court on Monday in Detroit, Judge Ronald Giles ruled that the court order was not valid and that there was insufficient evidence that Godboldo fired at police officers.
Maria Miller, spokeswoman for the Prosecutor's Office, said the dismissed charges will be appealed. Miller said that Wayne County Circuit Judge Lynne Pierce earlier determined at a Juvenile Court hearing that the order to remove the child was valid.
The appeal will be heard in Wayne County Circuit Court.
At a news conference Monday at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church, Pitts and Godboldo's other attorney, Allison Folmar, explained why they prevailed.
Folmar said Godboldo "never shot at an officer -- period. It never happened."
They said the court order was not valid because a court clerk stamped the judge's name to the order without consulting the judge.
"A judge never looked at this, never saw it," Pitts said. "It has to be an elected authority. This lady took the judge's stamp, stamped the judge's name and off she goes."
He called it "a huge constitutional error."
As a result of this case, Pitts said, there has been a policy change. Court employees are no longer allowed to stamp judges' names on court orders.
Godboldo's supporters say Giles' ruling was justice.
Sandra Hines, a member of the Godboldo Action Committee, said: "This case is rooted on the grounds of parental rights. It's the right of every parent to be the custodial caregiver over their child."
Ron Scott of the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, said, "It's a victory for parental rights."
He also said that "Citizens have the right not to adhere to questionable reasons for entering their home. A person does not have to allow an unreasonable search and seizure to their home."
Neema Yacen of Detroit and a member of the Godboldo Action Committee, said it was a case of state overreach. "This is a mother who said her child had a problem, took her to the people who she thought could help her, and they crucified her."
Godboldo, whose daughter is now in the custody of her sister Penny Godboldo, is working to get her child back.
Judge Pierce has said she needs to evaluate the girl's current treatment and is seeking a report from her doctor.
Source http://www.freep.com/article/20110830/NEWS02/108300383/Detroit-mom-cleared-charges-stemmed-from-standoff-home
Friday, August 12, 2011
I-Team: Troubled Foster Kids Exposed to Powerful Drugs
Posted: Aug 10, 2011 3:16 PM CDT
Updated: Aug 11, 2011 9:24 AM CDT
By Colleen McCarty, Investigative Reporter
By Kyle Zuelke, Photojournalist
By Alex Brauer, Photojournalist
Click here to watch a video that goes with this article.
LAS VEGAS -- The use of powerful mood-altering drugs for mental health treatment is on the rise among kids in the care of Nevada's child welfare system. It's a trend the I-Team first examined back in 2009.
Despite assurances from both state and local officials progress has been painfully and perhaps dangerously slow. The data the I-Team received from both the state and the county is such a mess it's hard to say exactly how much the use of psychotropic medications among kids in care has increased.
Numbers from the state and the county -- regarding the same children -- doesn't match. In addition, figures provided to the I-Team in 2009 are somehow different today.
What is clear is that nearly 30 percent of kids in the system are taking at least one of these medications and the state confirms an increase last year. At the same time both agencies were supposed to be fixing the problem.
"These are the very first kids that were place were placed with us," said Jill Fox, a former foster mom who has taken in some 50 children. While most returned to their birth parents, five did not. Eleven-year-old Brooklyn, 9-year-old Sondra, 6–year-old Jenna, 3-year-old Jackson, and 2-year-old Cooper stayed with Fox.
"With children who've been through the trauma, whether it's neglect or abuse or the trauma of instability in their lives, or the drug and alcohol exposure in utero, things go well for a while and then it goes downhill for a while but we always seem to make it back up the hill," said Fox.
It's a climb that -- for some children in foster care -- involves the use of psychotropic medications. These are powerful mood-altering drugs that can come with severe side effects. The drugs are prescribed to kids as young as three-years old.
"Legitimately there are children whose behaviors are such that we need to medicate to get control of the behaviors, to get some stability, so that they can digest the counseling, they can digest the love and the support, but at what point is somebody going to start taking them off?" Fox said.
According to state Medicaid statistics, nearly 30 percent of kids in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems are on at least one psychotropic medication. That's up from two years ago. Despite both Clark County policy and state law drafted at the same time to reduce the numbers.
"Am I disappointed by the slow roll out on this policy? Yes," said Mike Willden who is the head of the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services which oversees the state's child welfare system.
"What is the real issue is that children are being overmedicated. Their health is at risk, those kinds of issues. That's the real issue, not whether or not we have the right form or we don't have the right form or something like that. You want to ensure that prescribers are accurately addressing a child's welfare needs," said Willden.
Willden tells the I-Team, despite the two-year delay, both Reno and the rurals have implemented state policy requiring a child's parent or legal guardian, or in their absence, a court consent, to the use of psychotropic medications.
Clark County however -- to Willden's frustration -- has yet to comply.
"I could make excuses for them, I'm not going to. It should've been straightened out a long time ago, even at the state level, we should've moved quicker," he said.
The county declined the I-Team's request for an interview yet earlier this year Tom Morton, the former Director of Clark County Family Services offered this explanation to lawmakers.
"We have been unable to implement our version of the policy because we don't have funds for a psychiatric consultant who can review the medication prescribed by the prescribing psychiatrist or physician."
In a written statement, the county insists it is now working to meet the requirements mandated by both the 2009 and 2011 legislatures to improve the management of psychotropic medications.
Read Clark County's Statement
Until then, moms like Fox, will worry about the little kids on big drugs who depend on the system to keep them safe.
"It needs to be a front burner issue," said Fox.
Clark County has submitted an implementation plan. Director Willden tells the I-Team he's given the county 90 days to come into compliance.
If there is a silver lining, psychotropic drug use among kids age 5 and under is on the decline due in part to additional oversight from Medicaid. Willden says that same oversight will apply to all age groups in the near future.
Source Article http://www.8newsnow.com/story/15245079/i-team
Updated: Aug 11, 2011 9:24 AM CDT
By Colleen McCarty, Investigative Reporter
By Kyle Zuelke, Photojournalist
By Alex Brauer, Photojournalist
Click here to watch a video that goes with this article.
LAS VEGAS -- The use of powerful mood-altering drugs for mental health treatment is on the rise among kids in the care of Nevada's child welfare system. It's a trend the I-Team first examined back in 2009.
Despite assurances from both state and local officials progress has been painfully and perhaps dangerously slow. The data the I-Team received from both the state and the county is such a mess it's hard to say exactly how much the use of psychotropic medications among kids in care has increased.
Numbers from the state and the county -- regarding the same children -- doesn't match. In addition, figures provided to the I-Team in 2009 are somehow different today.
What is clear is that nearly 30 percent of kids in the system are taking at least one of these medications and the state confirms an increase last year. At the same time both agencies were supposed to be fixing the problem.
"These are the very first kids that were place were placed with us," said Jill Fox, a former foster mom who has taken in some 50 children. While most returned to their birth parents, five did not. Eleven-year-old Brooklyn, 9-year-old Sondra, 6–year-old Jenna, 3-year-old Jackson, and 2-year-old Cooper stayed with Fox.
"With children who've been through the trauma, whether it's neglect or abuse or the trauma of instability in their lives, or the drug and alcohol exposure in utero, things go well for a while and then it goes downhill for a while but we always seem to make it back up the hill," said Fox.
It's a climb that -- for some children in foster care -- involves the use of psychotropic medications. These are powerful mood-altering drugs that can come with severe side effects. The drugs are prescribed to kids as young as three-years old.
"Legitimately there are children whose behaviors are such that we need to medicate to get control of the behaviors, to get some stability, so that they can digest the counseling, they can digest the love and the support, but at what point is somebody going to start taking them off?" Fox said.
According to state Medicaid statistics, nearly 30 percent of kids in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems are on at least one psychotropic medication. That's up from two years ago. Despite both Clark County policy and state law drafted at the same time to reduce the numbers.
"Am I disappointed by the slow roll out on this policy? Yes," said Mike Willden who is the head of the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services which oversees the state's child welfare system.
"What is the real issue is that children are being overmedicated. Their health is at risk, those kinds of issues. That's the real issue, not whether or not we have the right form or we don't have the right form or something like that. You want to ensure that prescribers are accurately addressing a child's welfare needs," said Willden.
Willden tells the I-Team, despite the two-year delay, both Reno and the rurals have implemented state policy requiring a child's parent or legal guardian, or in their absence, a court consent, to the use of psychotropic medications.
Clark County however -- to Willden's frustration -- has yet to comply.
"I could make excuses for them, I'm not going to. It should've been straightened out a long time ago, even at the state level, we should've moved quicker," he said.
The county declined the I-Team's request for an interview yet earlier this year Tom Morton, the former Director of Clark County Family Services offered this explanation to lawmakers.
"We have been unable to implement our version of the policy because we don't have funds for a psychiatric consultant who can review the medication prescribed by the prescribing psychiatrist or physician."
In a written statement, the county insists it is now working to meet the requirements mandated by both the 2009 and 2011 legislatures to improve the management of psychotropic medications.
Until then, moms like Fox, will worry about the little kids on big drugs who depend on the system to keep them safe.
"It needs to be a front burner issue," said Fox.
Clark County has submitted an implementation plan. Director Willden tells the I-Team he's given the county 90 days to come into compliance.
If there is a silver lining, psychotropic drug use among kids age 5 and under is on the decline due in part to additional oversight from Medicaid. Willden says that same oversight will apply to all age groups in the near future.
Source Article http://www.8newsnow.com/story/15245079/i-team
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Facts About Foster Care Children Abused With Psychotropic Drugs
FACTS ABOUT FOSTER CARE CHILDREN ABUSED WITH PSYCHOTROPIC DRUGS
Whether under the care of Child Protective Services, Departments of Family and Child Services, or Youth Welfare Offices, foster children—often removed from family homes because of abuse—are furthered abused when they are prescribed psychotropic (mind-altering) drugs. Some US states report that more than 60% of foster children are prescribed mood-altering drugs (at a rate 300% above the national average).
Already troubled over their circumstances, these children are drugged for emotional and behavioral issues, sometimes with tragic outcome.
Take, for example, 7-year-old Gabriel Meyers, who didn’t want soup for lunch one Thursday in April 2009. He was sent to his room after he threw away his soup, kicking his toys around and threatening to kill himself. Around 1 p.m., police responded to a frantic call and found Gabriel had hanged himself.
He’d been prescribed a cocktail of psychiatric drugs, including an antidepressant that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned could lead to children committing suicide.1
Psychiatrists prescribed 93% of the psychotropic medication dispensed to foster youths, according to a 2008 study.2
• In Australia, one in four foster children was taking psychotropic drugs, and in residential homes, where children live in small groups supervised by social workers, the rate of drug use is 50%. Foster children are being medicated with psychotropic drugs at 10 times the rate of other children. 3
• In Ontario, Canada, psychotropic drugs are prescribed to nearly half of the state wards accounting for drug prescriptions at a rate three times that of children in the general population.4
• In 2007, in Texas $37.9 million was spent on psychiatric drugs for foster children.5 Pharmaceutical companies have played a major role in encouraging their increased use on foster care clients. They participate in aggressive marketing, and conduct misleading research about efficacy and safety.6
• The United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances 1971 requires governments to protect children, including those in foster care from excessive and unwarranted exposure to psychotropic drugs.
Psychotropic drugs can be prescribed only for medical purposes, yet foster care youth are routinely prescribed drugs for behavioral control.
1“Psychotropic Drug Abuse in Foster Care Costs Government Billions,” Politics Daily, 17 June 2010.
2 Julie Zito, “Psychotropic Medication Patterns Among Youth in Foster Care,” Pediatrics, Vol. 121, No. 1, Jan. 2008, pp. e157-e163.
3 Caroline Overington, “Foster kids medicated for ‘mental health,’” The Australian, 4 Nov. 2008.
4 “Nearly half of children in [Canadian] Crown care are medicated,” Globe and Mail, 9 June 2007.
5 Evelyn Pringle, “Psychiatric Drugging of Children Intolerable-Betrayal of Innocence,” Lawyers and Settlements.com, 8 Mar. 2009.
6 Op. cit. Politics Daily.
Speaking Out
• ”This is child abuse on a grand scale.” — Richard Wexler, head of the Virginia-based National Coalition for Child Protection Reform.
• “We call it the chemical straitjacket.” — Denise Crisp, President of the New South Wales, Australia, Foster Care Association.
• “Children in state foster care systems and juvenile prisons are
particularly at risk of overmedication with psychotropic drugs…and under conditions that constitute egregious [extremely bad] departures from sound medical practice.” — Angela Olivia Burton from CUNY School of Law.
• “All kids in foster care have some story of trauma, like abuse or neglect, so we need to ask the question, ‘How are we dealing with trauma?’” Further, “The fact is that medication does not treat a disorder, it treats the symptoms of the manifestation….” — Charles Manos, School psychologist.
• “We’re taking away their future…By blunting their emotion, we take away children’s ability to relate to people, to trust, love, to care for others or to put themselves in another person’s shoes to see how it feels.” — Neuropsychologist who examined Texas records of children under state care.
• “Child advocates should illuminate that no alternatives were first tried and/or that the treating physician has given the prescription(s) without knowing if less invasive interventions were attempted.”
Guardians must “ensure that psychotropic drugs are not administered improperly to children in foster care as a means of chemical restraint.” — Bob Jacobs from the Advocacy Center for Persons with Disabilities, Inc.
• In 2010, Florida’s Department of Children and Families prohibited foster care children being enrolled in clinical trials for psychotropic drugs. Foster care parents and guardians in any state or country should object to any child under their care being part of a clinical drug experiment.
Angela Olivia Burton, “They Use it Like Candy’ - How the Prescription of Psychotropic Drugs to State-Involved Children Violates International Law,” Social Science Research Network, 3 Apr. 2010,
Carol Marbin Miller, “Mind-altering drugs given to some babies in DCF’s care,” Miami Herald, 17 Sept. 2002.
Caroline Overington, “ONE in four children who have been removed from the care of their parents and placed in foster homes are being heavily medicated to control their emotions and
behaviour,” The Australian, 3 Nov. 2008.
Angela Olivia Burton, “They Use it Like Candy’ - How the Prescription of Psychotropic Drugs to State-Involved Children Violates International Law,” Social Science Research Network, 3
Apr. 2010,
Eileen FitzGerald, “”Growing numbers of children on medication,” NewsTimes, 7 June, 2010.
Vera Sherav, “America’s Over-Medicated Children,” AARP, June, 2005
Bob Jacobs, psychologist, Advocacy Center for Persons with Disabilities, Inc, “Legal Strategies to Challenge Chemical Restraint of Children in Foster Care A Resource for Child Advocates in
Florida.”
“Florida to FDA: No Foster Care Kids in Psychotropic Trials,” Pharmalot, 19 July 2010.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)