Advice for Foster Parents Concerned About Overmedication
The overmedication of children in foster care is a complex issue. It has been repeatedly shown that children in this population do have more mental health issues than their peers. We recommend that foster parents advocate for the kids in their care to receive a multi-faceted treatment plan for each child’s issues and diagnoses. We believe that each foster child should be individually evaluated for appropriate mental health care. Quality counseling as well as medications and other forms of therapy should be considered. These children should never be used as medical guinea pigs.
From Nevada to Florida to Texas, more and more states in the past six years are taking a hard look at the quantities of antipsychotic and other medications being prescribed as well as participation in clinical trials in the foster care population. This article from Oklahoma shares some practical advice for foster parents to be proactive about this issue. http://www.examiner.com/foster-families-in-oklahoma-city/anti-psychotic-medications-overused-on-children-foster-care
[Examiner.com 1/8/11 by Joyce Owens Smith]
Sixteen State Study
Oklahoma is one of 16 states that participated in an informal data‐sharing agreement to pull and share utilization and demographic data with Rutgers University. Others states included: Alabama, California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and Washington.
The final report by the Medicaid Medical Directors Learning Network and Rutgers Center for Education and Research on Mental Health Therapeutics is called Antipsychotic Medication Use in Medicaid Children and Adolescents: Report and Resource Guide from a 16-State Study. MMDLN/Rutgers CERTs Publication #1, July 2010 can be found at http://rci.rutgers.edu/~cseap/MMDLNAPKIDS.html
A powerpoint presentation gives further explanation here: http://www.nasmd.org/mental/docs/Anti-psychoticdrugsinchildrenMentalHealthTAG.pdf
Specifically, the project identified a common set of red flags linked to safety concerns:
-
Children less than 5 years of age receiving Anti-Psychotic medications
-
Children and adolescents being prescribed three or more mental health medicationsin a calendar year
-
Children and adolescents being prescribed two or more Anti-Psychotic medications in a calendar year
-
Doses of Anti-psychotic medications exceeding recommended range
-
Gaps in therapy that exceed 20 days
FAS
For children with Alcohol Related Neurological Disorder (ARND), more commonly known as Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), we direct our readers to this resource about the medications in this population: http://www.come-over.to/FAS/MedsRisks.htm and http://www.come-over.to/FAS/meds.htm. We suggest you read them and use them as tools to discuss your child’s medication plan with your health providers. To reiterate a word of caution from this site “One child may respond favorably to a medication, and another child may have undesirable effects. Don’t make a decision about medication based on somebody else’s experience. There is no way of knowing how your child will respond to any specific medication”.
REFORM Puzzle Piece
Recent Comments