School Mental Health – Know Your Rights!
Due to Texas legislation passed this year, our school system is undergoing a change. With threat assessment teams and an increased focus on school mental health, parents need to be prepared for intrusive questions, attempts to get them to consent to mental health screening and mental health referrals for their children. Parents with school-aged children need to know their rights.
California Moves To Stop Misuse Of Psychiatric Meds In Foster Care
By the time DeAngelo Cortijo was 14, he had been in more than a dozen foster homes. He had run away and lived on the streets for months, and he had been diagnosed with bipolar and anxiety disorders, attachment disorder, intermittent explosive disorder or posttraumatic stress disorder. He had been in and out of mental hospitals and heavily medicated.
Office of Inspector General Podcast – Antipsychotic Drugs Prescribed for Children Enrolled in Medicaid
Antipsychotic Drugs Prescribed for Children Enrolled in Medicaid
Foster care kids put on too many psych drugs, report says – CBS News
Many children in foster care are being overmedicated with antipsychotic drugs they may not really need, or the drugs are being given incorrectly, according to a government review obtained by CBS News.
Second-Generation Antipsychotic Drug Use Among Medicaid-Enrolled Children: Quality-of-Care Concerns Report (OEI-07-12-00320) 03-25-2015
Second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) are a class of drugs used to treat psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and psychotic depression. SGAs are widely used to treat children enrolled in Medicaid who have mental health conditions. However, SGAs can have serious side effects and little clinical research has been conducted on the safety of treating children with these drugs.
U.S. GAO – Foster Care: HHS Needs to Improve Oversight of Fostering Connections Act Implementation
To implement the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 (Fostering Connections Act), many states GAO surveyed (which included the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico) reported requiring caseworkers to employ multiple practices to improve outcomes for children in foster care; however, states continue to face challenges that can undermine progress.
Reports on the Overmedication of Texas Foster Children
Initiated in 2004 by Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn in a report called “Forgotten Children” investigations started into the overmedication of foster children in Texas.
Texas System Failure for Foster Children – Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts
Children are our most precious resource and the foster children of Texas need special attention because the state has taken either temporary or permanent guardianship of them in effect making the state and all of its citizens their parent.
The Forgotten Children Of The Foster Care System: Making A Case For The Professional Judgment Standard
Each year, thousands of children are separated from their families and placed into foster care.2 While under the not-so-careful watch of the state, many suffer further abuse and neglect.3 In some cases, child welfare employees are so derelict in their duties that they are unaware children are being harmed.