(Matt Largey/KUT-Public Radio)
State and federal authorities are not doing a good enough job overseeing psychotropic medications for foster children, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. The GAO looked at rates of medicating foster children in five states, including Texas. Investigators found high rates of potentially risky practices here.
Twelve-year-old Ke’onte Cook spent about four years in foster care. He was adopted two years ago and now lives outside Dallas. Like almost a third of foster kids in 2008, he was taking psychotropic drugs to treat behavior problems while he was in state custody.
“All I knew was that if I didn’t take them like I was told to, I couldn’t watch TV, play video or play with my toys,” he testified before a Senate panel yesterday in Washington. “Some of the meds I took made me have stomachaches,” he said. “I would get so tired all of a sudden; it felt like I would collapse wherever I was in the house. My foster parents would tell me something and I wouldn’t be able to process it like a normal person.”
(Full story at KUT-Public Radio)
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- Some Combat Dogs Suffer Post-Traumatic Stress Too (KUHF-Public Radio)
- Santa Arrived Early for Texas Children’s with a Check for $1.9 Million (Houston Culture Map)