Children in Foster Care & Antipsychotic Drugs

Feds Pay for Drug Fraud: 92 Percent of Foster Care, Poor Kids Prescribed Antipsychotics Get Them for Unaccepted Uses

Posted: 04/30/2015 9:07 am EDT Updated: 04/30/2015 12:59 pm EDT 

Art Levine Contributing Editor, The Washington Monthly
Taken from the Huffington Post Blog

 

 

 Photo credit: Dai Sugano/The San Jose Mercury News/Bay Area News Group

The release in late March of an alarming new report by federal investigators has confirmed in shocking new detail what has been known for years: Poor and foster care kids covered by Medicaid are being prescribed too many dangerous antipsychotic drugs at young ages for far too long -- mostly without any medical justification at all. The report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Inspector General examined in depth nearly 700 claims filed in 2011 in five of the biggest prescribing states -- California, Florida, Illinois, Texas and New York -- and discovered that two thirds of all the prescribing with these popular and costly "second generation antipsychotics" (SGAs) raised high-risk "quality of care" concerns.
The new report noted several disturbing examples, just a few months after an overmedicated teen in foster care, Steven Unangst, died in Antioch, California. The report cited a 10-old-year with ADHD given an antipsychotic -- without any medical documentation -- mixed in with other psych drugs; a 4-year-old on four psychotropic drugs, including two antipsychotics; and a 16-year-old with bipolar disorder on six psychiatric medications, including variously three antipsychotics. Among the side effects of this polypharmacy assault: "This child experienced paranoia, hostility, unstable mood, hallucinations, and suicidal thoughts. This child also experienced significant side effects potentially resulting from the prescribed drugs, including a 22-pound weight gain, insomnia, and edema (swelling) of hands and feet."

Read the full story HERE.
 

"Fresh Start" to Provide Reconstructive Surgery

Free reconstructive surgery for children! Apply by Sep 12 for October surgery

 

 

 

The D.C.F.S. Guardian’s Office is excited to announce that the Department has entered into a partnership with Fresh Start, a California-based nonprofit that provides free reconstructive surgery and related healthcare services to infants, children, and teens with physical deformities caused by birth defects, accidents, abuse, or disease.

 

Fresh Start has expanded into Chicago by partnering with the University of Chicago Medical Center’s Comer Children’s Hospital. The first Surgery Weekend in Chicago was held in June, and the next weekend is scheduled for Oct. 25. Surgery weekends will be held three times each year for multiple children.

 

Children do not have to live in Chicago to be eligible for the program. If you would like to refer a child to Fresh Start or have questions about the application process, including completing the attached application, please contact Lisa Robinson in the Guardian’s Office.  Please fax completed applications to Lisa Robinson at 312-793-3546.

 

The referral deadline for the October Surgery Weekend is Friday, Sept. 12.

 

Fresh Start Patient Application – English

Fresh Start Patient Application – Spanish

Trauma Guide for Pediatricians

Foundation partners with AAP, Jockey Being Family to develop trauma guide for pediatricians.  Please download & print a copy to give to your pediatrician.

A child who has experienced trauma needs doctors and families who understand its effects. Research shows that a child’s developing brain can be rewired because of the trauma they experience, according to a new publication from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).
In order to give pediatricians all of the tools they need to help children in foster care, the Foundation partnered with the AAP and Jockey International’s Jockey Being Family program to develop “Helping Foster and Adoptive Families Cope with Trauma.”

The guide was designed to help pediatricians support foster and adoptive families by being better at identifying traumatized children; educating families about toxic stress; the possible biological, behavioral and social effects trauma has; and empowering families to be more adaptive in their responses to their children’s behaviors.
The guide for pediatricians is available now and can be downloaded from AAP’s website

Waiting Child Medical Needs Conference

Are You Sleeping? Webinar

Are You Sleeping?
Expert advice for adoptive families struggling to get a good night's sleep.

Thursday, May 19, 2011
7:00 - 8:00 PM Central
Q & A: 8:00 - 8:30PM Central
Cost: $15

REGISTER for this webinar at http://www.adoptionlearningpartners.org/webinars/are-you-sleeping-webinar.cfm?utm_source=blast1&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=emailblast1

Join Dr. Julian Davies for a practical, humorous, and balanced exploration of why adopted children (and their parents!) often sleep so poorly, and what to do about it!

This webinar will help adoptive families:
Explore the reasons behind sleep problems in adopted children
Formulate short-term and long-term sleep strategies for adoptive families
Trouble-shoot specific sleep problems
Add many practical sleep tips to your toolbox

Speaker:Dr. Julian Davies
Julian Davies, MD, is a Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington, where he co-directs the Center for Adoption Medicine, and works at the longest-running FAS clinic in the country. His interest in foster care and adoption started in Russia, where he started a summer arts and clown camp for Russian orphans. He now has a pediatric practice where 2/3 of his patients were fostered or adopted. Dr. Davies also created an award-winning online resource for pediatrics and adoption: www.adoptmed.org


Please Note: Registrants will be contacted and asked to submit questions prior to the event

Sponsored by: Adoption Learning Partners & Joint Council on International Children Services.