Sedating Forgotten Children: How Unnecessary Psychotropic Medication Endangers Foster Childrenâ•Žs Rights and Health
نویسنده
چکیده
State foster care systems are forcing many foster children to take high dosages of dangerous, mind-altering psychotropic medications. State actors have little medical background for each child and have limited time to diagnose disorders, thereby creating potential constitutional and human rights violations. States are only supposed to administer psychotropic medication to a child when necessary and in the child’s best interest. Many children in foster care, however, are heavily medicated despite the difficulties of proving necessity. Those difficulties are due to a combination of diagnosis practice, the foster child’s background, and the poor condition of state foster care systems. In light of these limitations and the potential for using medication solely to curb bad behavior, such high prescription rates are unjustified. Many states lack in-depth tracking and oversight measures and fail to recognize this problem, thereby allowing abuse to continue and potentially preventing foster children from seeking justice.
منابع مشابه
Variations in Mental Health Diagnosis and Prescribing Across Pediatric Primary Care Practices.
BACKGROUND Primary care pediatricians increasingly care for children's mental health problems, but little is known about practice-level variation in diagnosis and psychotropic medication prescribing practices. METHODS This retrospective review of electronic heath records from 43 US primary care practices included children aged 4 to 18 years with ≥1 office visit from January 1, 2009, to June 3...
متن کاملPsychotropic medication patterns among youth in foster care.
CONTEXT Studies have revealed that youth in foster care covered by Medicaid insurance receive psychotropic medication at a rate > 3 times that of Medicaid-insured youth who qualify by low family income. Systematic data on patterns of medication treatment, particularly concomitant drugs, for youth in foster care are limited. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this work was to describe and quantify patte...
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