CBS: Psychiatric drugging of foster care 'travesty' 'chemical straitjacket'

[Guest guest]

CBS: Psychiatric drugging of foster care 'travesty' 'chemical

straitjacket'

 

IMPORTANT -- CBS News just ran an excellent report about the massive

psychiatric drugging of kids in USA foster care, with quotes calling

this a 'travesty' and 'chemical straitjacket.' Please forward: Foster

kids are EVERYONE'S kids!

 

~~~~~~~

 

CBS News - 18 October 2006

 

Fostering Drug Use?

 

Byron Pitts looks into allegations that kids in foster care are being

over-medicated on anti-psychotic drugs:

 

CONROE, Texas, Oct. 18, 2006 (CBS) Colby Holcomb's mom concedes that

the 8-year-old, who's been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder,

can be a handful at home. But does such behavior merit the treatment

Colby received in foster care?

 

Andrea Holcomb lost custody of her son when he was 7, after her ex-

husband made allegations of sexual abuse, CBS News national

correspondent Byron Pittsreports. These allegations later proved

false — but in the meantime, Colby was placed in the Texas foster

care system. For 18 months, he was in at least five foster homes.

It's a time that still haunts Colby and his family.

 

Andrea says Colby was on at least 20 different drugs when he was in

foster care. Yet, she says she has " no idea " why and says it was

never explained to her.

 

While in foster care, Colby was also diagnosed as bipolar. According

to his medical records, he was taking as many as four medications at

the same time that gave him seizures.

 

" I woke up at the hospital with something stuck in my arm, " Colby says.

 

He is not alone.

 

" I found babies, 2-year olds, 3-year olds being given mind-altering

drugs, " says Carole Keeton Strayhorn, Texas' state comptroller.

 

Strayhorn conducted her own two-year investigation into allegations

that foster kids in Texas are overmedicated.

 

" Children in foster care in Texas are dying. Children in foster care

are being drugged, " Strayhorn says.

 

There are similar allegations being made in California, Ohio and

Florida.

 

" In Florida, for example, foster kids younger than 5 years old were

treated with psychiatric medications at a rate nearly four times

higher than the general population of children receiving Medicaid.

 

Gwen Olsen, a former pharmaceuticals representative who quit her job

and wrote the book, " Confessions Of A Prescription Drug Pusher, "

knows firsthand about the impact of anti-psychotic drugs on children.

 

" They clamp down on the central nervous system. In effect, they

reduce your mobility and that sort of thing, so they are sort of like

a chemical straitjacket, " she says.

 

Psychiatrist Christopher Correll is leading a nationwide study on the

impact of anti-psychotic drugs have on all children.

 

" It is a serious step to use an anti-psychotic, there’s no doubt

about it. But I think it is also very important to realize that these

medications are used under very serious circumstances to actually

help patients who have serious symptoms, " Correll says.

 

But if the foster care system is designed to protect children who've

been harmed, why would they engage in this if in anyway it was

harmful to children?

 

" To me, the true travesty of the situation is that we take children

who just got a bum rap in life to begin with and they get into the

system and are further abused chemically, " Olsen says.

 

Colby Holcomb is home and feeling better. He is no longer taking any

medications — but his mother worries how many Colbys might still be

in the system.

 

~~~~~~~~~

 

A Look At Foster Care

 

NEW YORK, Oct. 18, 2006 (CBS) What is foster care?

 

Foster family care is temporary care for children who are unable

to remain in their own homes and are placed in the custody of the

county children and youth agency by the courts. Foster parents are

individuals who are committed to providing a safe, temporary home for

children who have been abused and neglected and are unable to remain

living in their own homes.

 

How many children are in foster care?

 

According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent

Psychiatry, over 500,000 children in the U.S. currently reside in

some form of foster care as of last year. Each year, an estimated

20,000 young people " age out " of the U.S. foster care system. Many

are only 18 years old. The average age of a foster child is 10.

 

How long do children stay in foster care?

 

There is no set length for a foster placement. It depends on the

circumstances of the child and his/her birth family. But for the

children in foster care on September 30, 2004, the average amount of

time they had been in the system was 30 months. 29 percent of

children leaving care in 2004 had been away from home for a year or

longer. 53 percent of the young people leaving the system were

reunified with their birth parents or primary caregivers.

 

What are some of the challenges kids in foster care face?

 

Being removed from their home and placed in foster care is a

difficult and stressful experience for any child. Many of these

children have suffered some form of serious abuse or neglect. About

30 percent of children in foster care have severe emotional,

behavioral, or developmental problems, according to the American

Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

 

To learn more about foster care:

 

** After a year-long study, the Pew Commission on Children in

Foster Care recently issued a set of prescriptions for reform

designed to prevent unnecessary placements and to speed the movement

of children out of foster care. You can read more about them here.

 

** For more information about foster care from the National

Foster Parent Association.

 

** Click here to read some statistics about foster care from the

Administration for Children and Families.

 

** Casey Family Programs' mission is to provide and improve —

and ultimately to eliminate the need for — foster care by providing

direct services and promoting advances in child-welfare practice and

policy.

 

- end of CBS report -

 

To see a photo and register to leave YOUR COMMENT on the CBS web site

go here:

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/18/eveningnews/main2104249.shtml

 

~~~~~~~~~

 

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Please forward.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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