Maine's Outrageously High Foster Care Psychiatric Drugging Statistics Revealed

AUGUSTA -- A new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request just revealed that 23.1% of Maine’s foster children are being prescribed mind-altering psychiatric drugs and that 9.2% percent of foster children are on at least two of these drugs at a time

While California, with similar destructive treatment of their foster children with just under 25% of their foster children on psychiatric drugs, was so outraged that they just passed three new laws to curb the prescriptions , the Maine legislature doesn’t even appear to be aware of what is occurring under their watch as no bills to address the situation have been filed in the state.

Below is the FOIA response from Mandy Milligan of the Office of Child and Family Services to Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) New England investigator Bev MacPhee that gives the exact data:

The Office of Child and Family Services partners with the Office of MaineCare Services (aka Medicaid) to monitor the children in foster care that are being prescribed psychotropic medications. The following data is based on the Office of Child and Family Services account of children in foster care at the end of September 2015 and health provider data of psychotropic medications prescribed between July – September 2015 by category of the medication. The categories that are reported to us include: (1) ADHD, (2) Anti-anxiety, (3) Antidepressant, (4) Antipsychotic, (5) Combination Antipsychotic and Antidepressant and (6) Mood Stabilizing and Anticonvulsant Medications.
A total of 1963 children were in foster care at the end of September 2015 (this includes all ages).
There were 434 children in DHHS (Department of Health and Human Services) custody that were prescribed a psychotropic medication between July-Sept 2015. 214 were prescribed more than one of the above six categories of medications (e.g. prescribed an ADHD medication as well as an Antidepressant).

The following is the breakdown by the medication category:
Medication Category # Children
ADHD Medications 274
Anti-anxiety Medications 18
Antidepressant Medications 244
Antipsychotic Medications 134
Combination Antipsychotic and Antidepressant Medication 7
Mood Stabilizing and Anticonvulsant Medications 56

By doing a little division with the data above, you have the following percentages in Maine:
% on psychiatric drugs = 23.1%
% on two or more psych drugs = 9.2%
% on ADHD meds = 14%
% on antipsychotics = 6.8%
% on antidepressants = 12.4%
% on anti-anxiety = 0.09%

Obviously, many of these children are on several drugs at a time but that information wasn’t requested by CCHR which is a psychiatric watchdog group that was established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and psychiatrist Thomas Szasz to investigate psychiatric violations of human rights. CCHR considers the heavy drugging of foster children, who generally do not have parents who can defend them due to the overwhelming power of state social services agencies, to be such a human rights violation.

The three California bills that passed are SB 238
http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=2015... ,
SB 319 http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=2015..., and
SB 484 http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=2015... which are pretty much just reporting bills that will likely not be of much help.

A much more powerful CA bill, SB 253 http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=2015...
is still sitting in the legislature and would do the following according to its legislative bill summary that is shown here:
Summary: Strengthens court oversight of psychotropic prescribing. Courts would ensure foster children prescribed medications received health exams and ongoing monitoring. A second, independent medical opinion would be required when medication is prescribed to children age 5 or younger, or high doses or multiple medications are prescribed. Judges would allow teens to object, and determine whether drugs weren’t “being used as punishment,” or “for the convenience of staff” in residential facilities. (The bill also has data on laboratory tests for psychiatric drugs and the right to refuse the drugs and side effect information. )

Part of the reason for this abusive and dangerous drugging, besides just the greed and lack of real care for foster children by psychiatrists Maine mental health agencies, is that state agencies such as the Office of Child and Family Services (OCFS) in Maine, try to maximize federal funding and they get heavy matching federal funds for labeling and drugging foster children. When the foster child is Medicaid eligible or becomes so when the state removes parental rights through the courts, the US government pays the majority so the states win while the children lose.

The federal matching funds aspect would need to be addressed by federal legislation but the states can limit the psychiatric drugging of foster children by giving parents a fair chance in court against the OCFS and by giving foster teens and parents the right to refuse the drugging. Refusing the foster child psychiatric drugging is something they do not currently have the power to do as refusing drug treatment plans could keep parents from ever getting their children returned as they could be deemed “uncooperative” or guilty of “medical neglect” when simply trying to protect their children.

Some of the many legislative actions that could be done by Maine and other states include the following (and this is for you Maine legislature):

(concept - a major reason that children are heavily drugged in foster care is because parents lose their power to refuse the drugging. They officially have control over medical/psychiatric treatment until they lose their parental rights, but in reality, they risk losing rights if they refuse the drugging treatment plans)

1. State social services agencies cannot drug a child against parental will if the parent(s) of legal guardian refuses unless a court order exist declaring that the child is in imminent danger of himself or others. The parent(s) or legal guardian may appeal this decision. If DCF or its employees puts in a treatment plan to drug the child against the will of the parent(s) or guardian, the case shall be dismissed in favor of the parent(s) or legal guardian. The judge, foster child and attorneys for the child and parent/legal guardian must have the drug side effect information when a court decision on medicating a child occurs.
2. The disposition of DCF cases shall not be based on a parent or legal guardian’s decision not to put their child on psychotropic medication.
3. When a parent or legal guardian’s parental rights are terminated, the parent or legal guardian may passed the medical rights over to a qualified relative or friend.

4. Increase the standards of prosecution in foster care termination of parental rights and order of temporary custody cases. Removing a child from his or her parent should be close to the criminal standard of law as opposed to something that can and does occur with very minimal evidence.

So Maine legislature, you are now informed so how about pushing these measures through to finally start protecting these vulnerable foster children against child protective services and the psychopharmaceutical industry?