In a 2-part story on November 30, 2011 and December 1 ABC News reported that after a year of investigating, they discovered that the government abuses the children in foster programs; even infants are given kinds and doses of drugs considered too risky for adults and they’re given at a rate of 13 times that given to the average child. Our taxpayer dollars pay for the drugs, the pharmaceutical companies see a market for the drugs and doctors can move through many patients fast.
A US Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found psychotropic drugs were prescribed for infants. The report studied 5 states and found that out of 100,000 – 26,000 were on psychotropic drugs. Child advocate, Michael Paraino, CEO of the National CASA Association says – when you don’t have the time, the quick rush to judgment is the pill. He says - there’s no question that foster kids are troubled given what they’ve gone through; the answer isn’t always to try and change their brain chemistry; children are being given medications that can keep a child from his or her life. Children came out of the shadows to show ABC News their bags full of drugs. There is a young girl with 13 medications she’s been taking since the age of 4; a young boy had Lexapro (for depression and anxiety that lasts 6 months or longer) and Abilify (for schizophrenia, bipolar, autism and enhancing an anti-depressant drug); a 7 year old girl (Brooke) weighing 43 pounds was taken from her drug addicted mother and given 5 mind altering drugs at the same time; an 11 year old boy was given 12 medications over the course of 4 years for conditions doctors now say he never had (he says he doesn’t have ADHD or bipolar – he’s just naughty); since coming off the drugs he is an honor student and has been adopted. Foster parents that truly care are told if they don’t give the drugs the children will be taken away. The drugs can cause irreversible ticks and increase suicidal risks. A boy who just turned 6 years old (Gabriel Meyers) was placed into foster care when his parents went to jail; he went from foster home to foster home and soon began acting out. He went to see Dr. Sohail Punjwani, a psychiatrist, and was given a mix of mind altering drugs and he hung himself in the bathtub with the shower hose at age 7. The doctor’s response was – sad stories happen but that doesn’t mean that we are responsible for everything that happens, we are in the business of taking care of these children. Florida has kicked the doctor out of the Medicaid program but he’s still free to practice. A former state social worker said no one is looking out for the kids and if you try to speak out about it you’re told to shut up; she says it’s easier to medicate a child than to pay a therapist to talk to the children and find out what their problems are. Some states require a second opinion before such drugs can be prescribed and Florida is kicking all high prescribing doctors out of the Medicare program.
ABC News went to Washington and got the run around but finally did speak with Robert Nelson, MD, PhD at the FDA Office of Pediatrics and Therapeutics. He said foster programs are locally run, the issue has been discussed and they’re well aware of it. He said an FDA advisory or some sort of announcement but might possible. After the interview the FDA got back to ABC News and said the current warning on the powerful anti-psychotics are strong enough and they have no plan on adding any further warnings. Democratic Senator Tom Carper from Delaware was a lead requestor for the GAO report and said no adult should get the drugs Brooke was taking. Senator Carper was holding a Congressional hearing and demanding changes in the foster care program (I never heard anything more).
For at least 30 years psychiatrists have been handing out drugs for everything people didn’t want to deal with; they over diagnosed schizophrenia, bipolar, paranoia and other diseases. In the 1980s, my nephew got drugged because (as I heard it) he was walking down the middle of the road after his girlfriend left him. He has been on drugs ever since and considered disabled. He is now in his late 40s and truly disabled because of the drugs (of course after all these years they’re saying he could possibly be schizophrenic). And, although law enforcement kept telling me that I was doing the right thing when my stepdaughter acted out, I was told by a psychiatrist in the early 90s before tests were complete that she had a chemical imbalance and needed Prozac. I thought we should wait for the test results so we didn’t agree to early medication. When the test came back negative, the psychiatrist came out of his seat and got into my face to say the lab was wrong; I was right, she had a bad attitude. At another facility, I was urged to agree that my stepdaughter was picked up from school in a yellow car that we never had. The woman persisted in telling me that I was to join her fantasy and that it didn’t matter if I thought my stepdaughter needed to deal with reality.
Needless to say, the psychiatric practice has been a pet peeve of mine for too long. These so-called educated people have been and are destroying our children and society.
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