Lawmakers Tout Bills As Way To Curb Overuse Of Psychotropic Drugs For Foster Children
Three measure on the governor's desk would create a more rigorous court process for prescribing the drugs, require more stringent monitoring of doctors with high numbers of prescriptions and improve transparency and tracking of foster kids in the state.
Mercury News:
Drugging Our Kids: Legislators Call On Governor Brown To Sign Bills To Protect Foster Youth
Foster youth advocates and Bay Area legislators on Monday told a panel of state officials that the alarming conclusions of a recent state audit highlighting California’s weak oversight of psychiatric drugs for foster kids could be solved if Gov. Jerry Brown signs three pieces of key legislation into law this week. ... The audit, released Aug. 23, mirrored many findings of this newspaper’s series “Drugging Our Kids” that disclosed the state’s dependence on psychotropic medications to control troubled children in the state’s foster care system and the failure to track how the drugs are prescribed. Beall said that one solution is his own Senate Bill 1291, which would require better transparency and tracking of mental health services for foster kids in every California county. (Seipel, 9/26)
Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
Lack Of Data Blamed For Over-Medicating Foster Children In Sonoma County
State Sen. Mike McGuire on Monday called on top state health care and social services officials to respond to what he has called a “scathing” state audit criticizing the overuse of psychotropic medications among children in the foster care system. (Espinoza, 9/26)