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According to the federal government, more than 30% of children in foster care who had been prescribed psychiatric medications did not have an appropriate medical plan or follow-up supervision.
A new report from the Inspector General of Health and Human Services has investigated hundreds of cases of samples from five states with the largest number of children placed on psychotropic treatment.
The watchdog stated that states only "partially" respected their own medical treatment and surveillance guidelines, and some did not include professional protocols to protect children in these situations.
The medications in question include drugs for anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder and hyperactivity disorder and attention deficit. They may have potentially serious side effects, which is why GI monitoring during these treatments is necessary.
According to the report, up to 80% of children go into the foster care system with existing mental health issues. In 2012, nearly 30% of adopted children took at least one psychoactive drug.
The watchdog also recommends some improvements to the system. One is to create a strategy to help states meet treatment and monitoring requirements. The other is to reinforce these requirements, ensuring that the medical care of children in foster care is supervised on a case by case basis.
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