Article by: JEREMY OLSON , Star Tribune Updated: December 3, 2011 - 11:35 PM
....That's a distinction that has to do with the "mad or bad" debate. Bipolar is a "mad" disorder, an inherited chemical imbalance for which children can't be held accountable, he said. On the other hand, ODD is a "bad" disorder, a combination of temper and disregard for authority that requires therapy and discipline. FULL STORY
Which discipline is utterly forbidden by CPS
Showing posts with label doping kids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label doping kids. Show all posts
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Friday, December 2, 2011
ABC- Mind-Altering Psych Drugs for a 7-Year-Old
By Joseph Diaz and Claire Weinraub
Dec. 2, 2011
Not long ago, 7-year-old Brooke was on a medical regimen that might seem extreme, even for an adult: The 43-pound girl was prescribed multiple mind-altering psychotropic drugs.
Dealt a tough hand early in life — her birth mother had a history of drug dealing and prostitution — Brooke was…
[See VIDEO - ABC NEWS DAY THREE - THE CHILDREN SPEAK here]
[See ABC NEWS DAY TWO - Video and Story here]
[See ABC NEWS DAY ONE Video and Story here]
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Examining the Costs of Medicating America’s Foster Children
New post on The Children's Monitor
YaMinco | December 1, 2011 at 7:28 PM
Today the Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security held a hearing on the financial and societal impact costs of medicating foster children. Chairman, Tom Carper (D-DE) opened the hearing by admitting that a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) study had in fact confirmed one of his worst fears: that children in foster care were being improperly prescribed mind-altering medications at an alarming rate, that had proved to be a waste of tax payer dollars, and an affront to the health and well-being of children. The findings were clear: children were being prescribed medication in excess of the maximum dosage for their age as recommended by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA ), hundreds of children were found to be receiving more than five or more medications at one time, and finally that children under the age of one were also being prescribed mind-altering meds.
Following Carper’s opening statement, Ranking Member Scott Brown (R-MA), spoke about his dismay at the findings of the GAO report, and affirmed that he had already reached out to his home state of Massachusetts to inquire as to why nearly 40% of the foster children in the state were being prescribed at least one psychotropic drug (a rate almost four times that of non-foster children). He also noted that since the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has limited authority to adequately oversee state monitoring programs for youths in state custody, in many cases the programs fall short of providing the comprehensive oversight that is desperately needed. Instead, states’ were relying on HHS’ best practices to help inform state monitoring programs for children in state custody. He u rged HHS to do more, including providing consistent and comprehensive guidelines in this area in order to more effectively treat and reduce harmful risks to children in the Medicaid program, and particularly foster children.
Next up was Ke’onte Cook, a twelve-year old from Texas, who spent over four years in foster care and at one time was on multiple anti-psychotic medications. He recounted the time he spent in foster care and in mental hospitals and how for the majority of the time he was treated with medication, instead of therapy like he currently receives. He described some of the side-effects that the medications caused and said that he was often told the reasons that he was being prescribed certain meds, but has come to realize over the years that he does not have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) nor is he bipolar. In fact, he is excelling in school and his extra-curricular activities.
HHS Administration on Children, Youth and Families (ACYF) Commissioner Bryan Samuels shared his personal story and experience and confirmed that HHS is strongly committed to the appropriate prescription and use of psychotropic therapies for children. He insisted that HHS is willing to comply with the GAO recommendation to issue a guidance to state Medicaid and child welfare agencies explaining the best practices for monitoring the use of psychiatric drugs in foster children. However, he clarified that Congress would first have to intervene with legislation before HHS could issue a national standard that all state Medicaid agencies would have to follow. As a result, Brown and Carper agreed to work with him to achieve this shared goal. Samuels also spoke to some of the broader needs of the child welfare system, and reiterated the Administration’s commitment to continue to build the capacity of the system to more effectively respond to the complex needs of the children they serve.
The Chairman closed by offering a challenge for all parties to accept responsibility in ensuring that Medicaid program works for all of the children it serves. Carper and Brown agreed to plans to write bipartisan legislation to reduce the risks that children in foster care would be inappropriately prescribed psychotropic drugs.
http://childrensmonitor.wordpress.com/2011/12/01/examining-the-costs-of-medicating-americas-foster-children/
YaMinco | December 1, 2011 at 7:28 PM
Today the Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security held a hearing on the financial and societal impact costs of medicating foster children. Chairman, Tom Carper (D-DE) opened the hearing by admitting that a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) study had in fact confirmed one of his worst fears: that children in foster care were being improperly prescribed mind-altering medications at an alarming rate, that had proved to be a waste of tax payer dollars, and an affront to the health and well-being of children. The findings were clear: children were being prescribed medication in excess of the maximum dosage for their age as recommended by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA ), hundreds of children were found to be receiving more than five or more medications at one time, and finally that children under the age of one were also being prescribed mind-altering meds.
Following Carper’s opening statement, Ranking Member Scott Brown (R-MA), spoke about his dismay at the findings of the GAO report, and affirmed that he had already reached out to his home state of Massachusetts to inquire as to why nearly 40% of the foster children in the state were being prescribed at least one psychotropic drug (a rate almost four times that of non-foster children). He also noted that since the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has limited authority to adequately oversee state monitoring programs for youths in state custody, in many cases the programs fall short of providing the comprehensive oversight that is desperately needed. Instead, states’ were relying on HHS’ best practices to help inform state monitoring programs for children in state custody. He u rged HHS to do more, including providing consistent and comprehensive guidelines in this area in order to more effectively treat and reduce harmful risks to children in the Medicaid program, and particularly foster children.
Next up was Ke’onte Cook, a twelve-year old from Texas, who spent over four years in foster care and at one time was on multiple anti-psychotic medications. He recounted the time he spent in foster care and in mental hospitals and how for the majority of the time he was treated with medication, instead of therapy like he currently receives. He described some of the side-effects that the medications caused and said that he was often told the reasons that he was being prescribed certain meds, but has come to realize over the years that he does not have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) nor is he bipolar. In fact, he is excelling in school and his extra-curricular activities.
HHS Administration on Children, Youth and Families (ACYF) Commissioner Bryan Samuels shared his personal story and experience and confirmed that HHS is strongly committed to the appropriate prescription and use of psychotropic therapies for children. He insisted that HHS is willing to comply with the GAO recommendation to issue a guidance to state Medicaid and child welfare agencies explaining the best practices for monitoring the use of psychiatric drugs in foster children. However, he clarified that Congress would first have to intervene with legislation before HHS could issue a national standard that all state Medicaid agencies would have to follow. As a result, Brown and Carper agreed to work with him to achieve this shared goal. Samuels also spoke to some of the broader needs of the child welfare system, and reiterated the Administration’s commitment to continue to build the capacity of the system to more effectively respond to the complex needs of the children they serve.
The Chairman closed by offering a challenge for all parties to accept responsibility in ensuring that Medicaid program works for all of the children it serves. Carper and Brown agreed to plans to write bipartisan legislation to reduce the risks that children in foster care would be inappropriately prescribed psychotropic drugs.
http://childrensmonitor.wordpress.com/2011/12/01/examining-the-costs-of-medicating-americas-foster-children/
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
New Study Examines Antipsychotic Treatment among Youth in Foster Care
New Study Examines Antipsychotic Treatment among Youth in Foster Care
by YaMinco | November 23, 2011 at 12:34 PM
A new study, Antipsychotic Treatment Among Youth in Foster Care, examined concomitant antipsychotic use among Medicaid-enrolled youth in foster care, compared with disabled or low-income Medicaid-enrolled youth. The study looked at a sample of roughly 17,000 youth who were continuously enrolled in Medicaid program and had at least one psychiatric diagnosis and one antipsychotic prescription. Most of the children in the study were in foster care, some also had a disability, and the others were adopted out of foster care during the study period. For comparison, the researchers also looked at kids on Medicaid who had disabilities or were receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, but were not in foster care.
They found that more than a third of the kids in foster care without disabilities had multiple antipsychotic prescriptions lasting longer than 90 days. The children who were not adopted had the highest rates of prescriptions, representing 38 out of every 100 children in foster care. In comparison, 26 out of every 100 children who were on public assistance but not in foster care had more than one antipsychotic prescription.
The findings suggest that children in foster care are being prescribed antipsychotic drugs just as frequently as some of the most disabled children on Medicaid. The authors recommend that additional studies are needed to assess the clinical rationale, safety, and outcomes of concomitant antipsychotic use and to inform statewide policies for monitoring and oversight of antipsychotic use among youth in the foster care system.
While statistics suggest that up to 80% of all children in foster care have serious emotional problems, approximately half of them have chronic medical problems, and the youngest, those ages 0-5, have developmental delays, experts believe that doctors are this population with the same powerful drugs given to people with schizophrenia and severe bipolar disorder, even though there is no evidence to support this kind of use in young children, and despite the fact that these disorders are rare in young children.
In recent years, doctors and policy makers have grown concerned about high rates of overall psychiatric drug use in the foster care system. Previous studies have found that children in foster care receive psychiatric medications at about twice the rate among children outside the system. In 2008, the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support held a hearing on the utilization of psychotropic medication for children in foster care. In 2010, Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI) asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate the prevalence of prescribed psychotropic medications for children in foster care.
http://childrensmonitor.wordpress.com/2011/11/23/new-study-examines-antipsychotic-treatment-among-youth-in-foster-care/
So what's gonna be done about the obvious, ungodly FRAUD? I have a suggestion-
Monday, November 7, 2011
Shoddy records stall drug probe at Florida Department of Juvenile Justice
By DARA KAM AND MICHAEL LAFORGIA
Palm Beach Post Staff Writers
Updated: 12:24 a.m. Friday, Nov. 4, 2011
Posted: 9:53 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011
TALLAHASSEE — Shoddy record-keeping by the Department of Juvenile Justice is hampering the agency's own investigation into the dosing of jailed children with powerful antipsychotic drugs, the department's head told a top state lawmaker this week.
In a letter to state Sen. Ronda Storms, Secretary Wansley Walters wrote that the in-house review was taking a "frustratingly long time" largely due to a "lack of electronic medical records."
With no centralized database, officials have no easy way of telling how many jailed children are taking antipsychotic drugs or whether the drugs were prescribed properly.
Storms, who met with Walters on Tuesday for an update on the drugging probe, said Thursday that measures should be taken to improve the department's records system.
"What I was surprised by and what (Walters) is surprised by is there is no easy record-keeping in DJJ to determine who is doing what," said Storms, R-Valrico, head of the Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee. "That is a problem. And the fix to that is relatively easy in my opinion."
Florida's inability to access its own medical records was a key finding of a Palm Beach Post investigation published this spring. The series showed that the Department of Juvenile Justice plied children with heavy doses of powerful antipsychotic drugs, and that a third of the psychiatrists hired to prescribe drugs for jailed children had taken payments or gifts from drugmakers.
In May, responding to The Post's stories, Walters ordered internal investigators to scrutinize the department's use of the potent medications, which can cause serious health problems in children. But the effort, Walters wrote Tuesday, is moving slowly because investigators are slogging through paper records from more than 124 jails and homes statewide.
Although Storms and Walters agreed that DJJ medical records should be easily searchable, they apparently have different ideas about how such a system should work.
Storms said she wants the department to tap into the Florida Safe Families Network, a case management database the Department of Children and Families operates. The system is supposed to track prescriptions for mind-altering drugs.
In September, Walters' department asked the legislature for about $3.5 million to pay for an electronic medical records system and $37,200 to set up a child psychiatry hot line for phone consultations.
Storms said she wasn't holding out hope that the legislature would approve new computer systems at a time when lawmakers are looking to slice $2 billion from the budget. She said she feared such a proposal "has a snowball's chance in this environment."
As DJJ's internal review drags on, the effort is churning out information that wasn't previously available, Walters' letter suggests.
A look at 4,153 children in state custody on a single day in September, for example, revealed that about 20 percent were taking mind-altering drugs.
Walters also wrote that her department spent about $2.7 million in the past two years on psychotropic medications, which include antipsychotics.
Juvenile justice spokesman C.J. Drake said Thursday that Walters' views DJJ's use of antipsychotics as a "critically important issue."
"The information we provided to the senator underscores the seriousness and urgency with which we are dealing with it," Drake said. "We want everyone to know that we don't support the misuse of psychotropic medications to treat the young people in our care."
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/crime/shoddy-records-stall-drug-probe-at-florida-department-1949798.html
They aren't accepting comments there. Gee, I wonder why not? After all, there must be a bunch of people who think this is just fine and want to defend it.
Palm Beach Post Staff Writers
Updated: 12:24 a.m. Friday, Nov. 4, 2011
Posted: 9:53 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011
TALLAHASSEE — Shoddy record-keeping by the Department of Juvenile Justice is hampering the agency's own investigation into the dosing of jailed children with powerful antipsychotic drugs, the department's head told a top state lawmaker this week.
In a letter to state Sen. Ronda Storms, Secretary Wansley Walters wrote that the in-house review was taking a "frustratingly long time" largely due to a "lack of electronic medical records."
With no centralized database, officials have no easy way of telling how many jailed children are taking antipsychotic drugs or whether the drugs were prescribed properly.
Storms, who met with Walters on Tuesday for an update on the drugging probe, said Thursday that measures should be taken to improve the department's records system.
"What I was surprised by and what (Walters) is surprised by is there is no easy record-keeping in DJJ to determine who is doing what," said Storms, R-Valrico, head of the Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee. "That is a problem. And the fix to that is relatively easy in my opinion."
Florida's inability to access its own medical records was a key finding of a Palm Beach Post investigation published this spring. The series showed that the Department of Juvenile Justice plied children with heavy doses of powerful antipsychotic drugs, and that a third of the psychiatrists hired to prescribe drugs for jailed children had taken payments or gifts from drugmakers.
In May, responding to The Post's stories, Walters ordered internal investigators to scrutinize the department's use of the potent medications, which can cause serious health problems in children. But the effort, Walters wrote Tuesday, is moving slowly because investigators are slogging through paper records from more than 124 jails and homes statewide.
Although Storms and Walters agreed that DJJ medical records should be easily searchable, they apparently have different ideas about how such a system should work.
Storms said she wants the department to tap into the Florida Safe Families Network, a case management database the Department of Children and Families operates. The system is supposed to track prescriptions for mind-altering drugs.
In September, Walters' department asked the legislature for about $3.5 million to pay for an electronic medical records system and $37,200 to set up a child psychiatry hot line for phone consultations.
Storms said she wasn't holding out hope that the legislature would approve new computer systems at a time when lawmakers are looking to slice $2 billion from the budget. She said she feared such a proposal "has a snowball's chance in this environment."
As DJJ's internal review drags on, the effort is churning out information that wasn't previously available, Walters' letter suggests.
A look at 4,153 children in state custody on a single day in September, for example, revealed that about 20 percent were taking mind-altering drugs.
Walters also wrote that her department spent about $2.7 million in the past two years on psychotropic medications, which include antipsychotics.
Juvenile justice spokesman C.J. Drake said Thursday that Walters' views DJJ's use of antipsychotics as a "critically important issue."
"The information we provided to the senator underscores the seriousness and urgency with which we are dealing with it," Drake said. "We want everyone to know that we don't support the misuse of psychotropic medications to treat the young people in our care."
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/crime/shoddy-records-stall-drug-probe-at-florida-department-1949798.html
They aren't accepting comments there. Gee, I wonder why not? After all, there must be a bunch of people who think this is just fine and want to defend it.
Friday, October 28, 2011
15 people arrested in Medicare scheme
Clinic and pharmacies re-billed the government for anti-psychotic medications
By Adolfo Flores, Veronica Rocha and Jason Wells
October 27, 2011 | 6:40 p.m.
LA TIMES
Fifteen people were arrested Thursday on suspicion of taking part in an elaborate $18-million Medicare fraud scheme that officials say involved a Glendale medical clinic and a pharmacy in San Marino.
The scheme involved so-called “prescription harvesting,” in which Manor Medical Imaging Clinic and San Gabriel Valley pharmacies allegedly re-billed the government repeatedly for anti-psychotic medications, according to a federal criminal complaint unsealed Thursday. FULL STORY
By Adolfo Flores, Veronica Rocha and Jason Wells
October 27, 2011 | 6:40 p.m.
LA TIMES
Fifteen people were arrested Thursday on suspicion of taking part in an elaborate $18-million Medicare fraud scheme that officials say involved a Glendale medical clinic and a pharmacy in San Marino.
The scheme involved so-called “prescription harvesting,” in which Manor Medical Imaging Clinic and San Gabriel Valley pharmacies allegedly re-billed the government repeatedly for anti-psychotic medications, according to a federal criminal complaint unsealed Thursday. FULL STORY
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Incarcerated kids drugged with antipsychotics
Incarcerated kids drugged with antipsychotics
Sunday, November 14, 2010 by: Evelyn Pringle, health freedom writer NaturalNews
What happens to children held in juvenile detention centers? Many are put on mind-altering drugs.
Evelyn Pringle reports on this chemical child abuse being pushed by psychiatry: And the FRAUD on Medicare to pay for it.
Sunday, November 14, 2010 by: Evelyn Pringle, health freedom writer NaturalNews
What happens to children held in juvenile detention centers? Many are put on mind-altering drugs.
Evelyn Pringle reports on this chemical child abuse being pushed by psychiatry: And the FRAUD on Medicare to pay for it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)