Lawmakers call for end to reckless prescribing of psych meds to California foster kids

[alp227]

Source: San Jose Mercury News

Some of the state's most influential lawmakers on Monday called on California's foster care system to stop the reckless prescribing of psychiatric medications to troubled children, demanding the state quit spending tens of millions of tax dollars on such risky therapies.

The demand for action comes a day after this newspaper published "Drugging our Kids," an investigation that found nearly one in four adolescents in the nation's largest child welfare system is prescribed at least one psych med -- 3 1/2 times the rate of all teens.

Almost 60 percent of foster youth prescribed psychotropics in California are being given antipsychotics, the most dangerous and expensive class of the drugs, which can result in rapid-onset obesity, diabetes and uncontrollable tremors. Lawmakers expressed outrage over the newspaper's findings that many of the medications are prescribed for behavior management -- not the mental illnesses they are approved to treat -- and have little, if any, science supporting their safety and effectiveness in children.

"It's easier to take care of a sleeping kid, but that doesn't mean that it's right," State Sen. President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said in an interview Monday. "And it certainly doesn't mean that it's in the best interest of the child -- it's obvious that in so many instances, it's not."

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_26404894/lawmakers-call-end-reckless-prescribing-psych-meds-california

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"Drugging Our Kids" article: http://www.mercurynews.com/california/ci_26383690/california-foster-care-children-psychiatric-drugs

[grahamhgreen]

1. Kick

[raven mad]

2. K&R - let kids be kids!

[BrotherIvan]

3. California is doing some great things

This is a good move, but the entire system needs to be looked into. Some of the students at my high school told me horror stories of their group homes. For instance, if one kid gets out of line, they are put into lock down which means sitting on the floor, handcuffed to the bed frame. Sometimes the lockdown was all night. The supervisors/guards carry night sticks and use them. When our school counselor called to find out if this was legal, she was told that it was because the kids might be doing drugs or get violent. It was more like a prison than a home. And I can't imagine the kind of sexual abuse that goes on. It's awful.

[Trillo]

4. If you're black, society's solution is a cop's bullet.

If you're a foster kid, society's solution is a daily pharmaceutical lobotomy.

[Fiendish Thingy]

5. That's all well and good, however

If they're going to stop over medicating foster kids, then they sure as hell better find money in the budget to provide counseling for the traumas and other mental health issues these kids have.

[elleng]

6. How about stopping 'reckless prescribing' of ANY meds for ANYone?