Missouri's Foster Kids Will No Longer Be Doped Up Thanks To A New Legal Settlement

Thousands of kids in Missouri's foster care system are likely to benefit from a first-of-its-kind legal settlement under which state officials have agreed to strict limits on how and when kids can be given psychotropic drugs.

The settlement resolves a class action lawsuit charging that Missouri foster care officials failed to safeguard the conditions under which the powerful medications are dispensed. U.S. District Judge Nanette Laughrey gave preliminary approval to the agreement on Monday.

More >> Missouri's Foster Kids Will No Longer Be Doped Up Thanks To A New Legal Settlement

Progress report: Keeping tabs on meds for foster-care kids

In February, Trent John sat down at his desk in the Children, Youth & Families Department and opened up a password-protected Excel spreadsheet. A list of psychotropic medications prescribed to most of the foster-care children in New Mexico popped up on the screen.

There were 31 pages chock full of detail about antipsychotics, antidepressants, anticonvulsants, and other drugs that treat serious medical conditions — and that also require careful monitoring and review. Of the nearly 2,500 kids in foster care, about 500, or one-fifth of the population, received one or more of these drugs.

More >> Progress report: Keeping tabs on meds for foster-care kids

North Dakota leads the nation in giving mental health drugs to foster kids. Advocates want better treatment

As a troubled foster kid bouncing from doctor to doctor, Deborah Zaun worried about the long-term effects of being on so many mental health drugs.

“Every doctor I went to diagnosed me with something different. It was a confusing time for me in foster care because I thought I was just a big problem. I didn't know what was wrong with me and thought everyone was against me,” she said. “I thought I was never going to be normal because they put me on all these pills.”

More >> North Dakota leads the nation in giving mental health drugs to foster kids. Advocates want better treatment

Oregon foster care scandal draws attention to use of ‘chemical restraint’ in Montana

When Annette Smith found out a 9-year-old Oregon girl she represents was being injected with Benadryl and other antihistamines to chemically restrain her for misbehavior and was also frequently being placed in locked seclusion while being treated at Acadia Montana in Butte, she was “horrified and scared for my client’s safety,” Smith told members of the Oregon Senate Human Services Committee on April 11.

More >> Oregon foster care scandal draws attention to use of ‘chemical restraint’ in Montana

Advocates say Oregon foster child abandoned, drugged at Montana facility

A 9-year-old Oregon girl in foster care has been largely abandoned by state regulators charged with her care and sometimes drugged in an out-of-state facility, advocates say.

It's a case that illustrates the ongoing challenge lawmakers and state officials face as they work to find appropriate places of care for Oregon's most vulnerable children — and recover from years of scandal and allegations that kids are not being protected.

More >> Advocates say Oregon foster child abandoned, drugged at Montana facility

Watchdog Finds that 1 in 3 Foster Kids Lack Med Management

Thousands of children in foster care who are taking psychotropic medications are not receiving adequate treatment safeguards, according to a report released by a federal watchdog in September.

The report, conducted by the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), found that in five states studied, 34 percent of foster children who were currently prescribed one or more psychotropic medications were not receiving treatment planning or medication monitoring—both of which are required by each of the five states and recommended by professional groups. Though the results cannot necessarily be extrapolated to other states, the authors said, the five states chosen had the highest percentages of foster children taking psychotropic drugs.

More >> Watchdog Finds that 1 in 3 Foster Kids Lack Med Management

Drugging Detained Children Is Like Using a Chemical Straitjacket

There are almost 13,000 detained migrant children in the United States, according to several recent news reports. This number has increased six-fold since 2017, despite the successful reunification of some families.

You might remember the horrifying images of children inside chain-link fences with flimsy aluminum foil blankets from earlier this summer. Digital media and cable news broadcast close-ups of these children’s faces, tears streaming down their cheeks; these same images were then shared millions of times on social media.


More >> Drugging Detained Children Is Like Using a Chemical Straitjacket

• Trump’s family separation policy was flawed from the start, watchdog review says
• HHS: More than 1,600 unaccompanied minors still being held at Tornillo facility

Iowa has one of the highest rates of foster kids on psychotropic drugs in US, study says

Iowa has one of the highest percentages in the U.S. of foster children on psychotropic medication and does a poor job of monitoring the use or effectiveness of those drugs, a study released this month shows.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General found Iowa, Maine, New Hampshire, North Dakota and Virginia led the nation with the greatest percentages of foster children on psychotropic medications.

More >> Iowa has one of the highest rates of foster kids on psychotropic drugs in US, study says

Report Shows 1/3 of Foster Kids Are Improperly Prescribed Psychiatric Drugs

A September 17th NBC News article discussed a report that showed 1/3 of foster children were prescribed psychiatric drugs without treatment plans or follow up. The report was released by the inspector general’s office of the Department of Health and Human Services. The drugs in question include medications intended to treat ADHD, anxiety, PTSD, depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.

More >> Report Shows 1/3 of Foster Kids Are Improperly Prescribed Psychiatric Drugs

Foster children prescribed meds they might not need, report says

Thousands of children in foster care are taking medications they might not need.

A new U.S. Department of Health report highlights the health concerns related to foster children being prescribed psychiatric drugs with no follow-up care and also shows the financial implications.

More >> Foster children prescribed meds they might not need, report says

Report: Foster children over medicated with psychiatric drugs

Overmedicated, and in some cases, out of control.  Thousands of foster children across Florida might be taking powerful psychiatric drugs they do not need, and the medications could be making their lives worse.

Doctors said a local 11-year-old who was removed from her mother’s care had post-traumatic stress disorder, ADHD, attachment disorder, anxiety, depression, and optional defiant disorder.  A handful of five or six pills kept her under control.

However, the girl’s foster mother says the meds did the opposite.

More >> Report: Foster children over medicated with psychiatric drugs

Maine fifth-highest in nation in prescribing psychotropic drugs to foster children

Nearly 30 percent of foster children in Maine who were prescribed powerful psychiatric drugs did not receive a basic “treatment plan” or regular reviews of their medications, a federal investigation has found.

Just shy of one-third of children in foster care in Maine during the period reviewed by federal investigators were prescribed anti-depressants, drugs to treat anxiety and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorders or other “psychotropic” medications. The proportion of Maine foster children receiving such drugs – 1,155 of the 3,527 children in foster care, or 32.7 percent – was well above the 22.2 percent national average for the analyzed period, ranking Maine fifth behind North Dakota, Virginia, New Hampshire and Iowa.

More >> Maine fifth-highest in nation in prescribing psychotropic drugs to foster children

States aren’t giving foster kids the psychiatric drugs they need, government report finds

Vulnerable kids in foster care were taking too many — or too few — psychiatric drugs when the systems in charge of their welfare weren’t paying attention, a new government report released Monday found.

One nurse coordinator listed in the report — conducted by investigators at the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — questioned why a six-year-old boy in foster care was prescribed four psychotropic drugs, especially since a dosage increase in one of the drugs negated the need for another medication he was on. There wasn’t any evidence that a treatment plan was developed before the boy started taking the drugs, government investigators discovered, despite the fact that his state required it.

More >> States aren’t giving foster kids the psychiatric drugs they need, government report finds

APNewsBreak: Few safeguards for foster kids on psych drugs

Thousands of children in foster care may be getting powerful psychiatric drugs prescribed to them without basic safeguards, according to a federal watchdog's investigation that finds a failure to care for youngsters whose lives have already been disrupted.

The report due Monday from the Health and Human Services inspector general's office found that about 1 in 3 foster kids from a sample of states were prescribed psychiatric drugs without treatment plans or follow-up, which are considered standard for sound medical care.

More >> APNewsBreak: Few safeguards for foster kids on psych drugs

Case Over Psychotropic Drugs Given To Missouri Foster Kids Now A Class Action

A lawsuit charging Missouri officials have failed to properly oversee the administration of psychotropic medications to children in foster care was certified Thursday as a class action.

Finding that they face “a substantial risk of serious harm,” U.S. District Judge Nanette K. Laughrey certified a class consisting of all children in the state’s foster care system who are receiving psychotropic drugs.

More >> Case Over Psychotropic Drugs Given To Missouri Foster Kids Now A Class Action

The U.S. Has A Long History Of Drugging Distressed Kids In Its Custody

Among the most disturbing allegations against privately operated shelters publicized last week by a Reveal and Texas Tribune investigation was the charge that the Office of Refugee Resettlement “routinely administers children psychotropic drugs without lawful authorization,” according to court filings. 

More >> The U.S. Has A Long History Of Drugging Distressed Kids In Its Custody

Lawsuit Exposes State in Taking Kids from Parents and Heavily Drugging them with Psychotropics

Foster children in Missouri have been dangerously over-medicated with antipsychotic drugs — intended to treat conditions like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia — to manage behavioral disorders like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to a new civil rights lawsuit, which instead effectively puts them in “a chemical straightjacket.”

More >> Lawsuit Exposes State in Taking Kids from Parents and Heavily Drugging them with Psychotropics

Migrant Children Drugged Without Consent At Government Centers, Court Documents Show

Staff working on the behalf of the Office of Refugee Resettlement are routinely drugging detained child migrants with psychotropics without their parents’ consent, according to legal filings.

Trump administration officials have repeatedly insisted that the family separation policy they implemented over the last six weeks is humane. But the ongoing lawsuit over the Flores agreement, a 1997 settlement that partly governs the detention of child migrants that the White House hopes to overturn, alleges a litany of wrongdoings at the ORR-contracted facilities.

More >> Migrant Children Drugged Without Consent At Government Centers, Court Documents Show

• The Trump administration is stealing children; private facilities are drugging and abusing them
• Psychology Experts Condemn Taking Migrant Children From Parents: 'That Is Child Abuse'
• Despite Trump's executive order, families may never be put back together
• What it's like to be a foster parent for separated migrant kids
• Separating Immigrant Families Is Costing Millions More Than Keeping Them Together
• Connecticut Receives Migrant Children Separated From Parents At Southern Border
• LePage: Migrant 'parents have a right to take their children and go back home'
• Gov. LePage says he would 'absolutely' send Maine troops to border if asked
• Maine agrees to send 2 National Guard pilots to border
• Commercial airlines ask that migrant children separated from parents not be on its flights
• House Democrats Propose Bill to Counter Trump's 'Dangerous' Executive Order to Lock Up Families Indefinitely

‘Children home girls drugged before rape’

The minor girls living at the government-run ‘children home’ on Sahu Road in Muzaffarpur were being allegedly drugged regularly before being raped.

Quoting the rape survivors, a police officer said on Wednesday they were given two tablets after their dinner. “They told police one tablet was white and the other was pink,” the officer said, adding the victims would fall asleep after taking the medicines.

More >> ‘Children home girls drugged before rape’

Dark Secrets: Children Are Being Deliberately Drugged Into Foster Care

Here is a fact that may be unbeknownst to you–all across America, on a daily basis, thousands of children are being drugged in foster care. Not only is it legal, but it is also hugely profitable to the bigwigs.

More >> Dark Secrets: Children Are Being Deliberately Drugged Into Foster Care