Citizens Commission on Human Rights of Florida (CCHR Florida) Blog » Foster Care

How Are America’s Foster Children Being Treated?

CCHR Florida — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:15:52 +0000

The answer is, “not so well,” according to recent investigations. Apparently what happens is this: children are first taken out of abusive or neglectful homes and put into the foster care system, presumably to be given the chance at better lives. So far, so good. However, removal from one environment that has victimized them, and entry into another highly questionable one, is the surprising discovery of government and media investigations into the matter. What was found is that the chosen method of treatment in many cases is child drugging — excessive, unnecessary, and at extremely high doses.

This is not to mention the exorbitant cost of these drugs paid with Medicaid funds, which American taxpayers trust will be spent constructively and responsibly. Some states spend so much on psychiatric drugs that it will become necessary to divert funds from education and social services to keep covering the costs. In the state of Massachusetts, for example, almost 40% of foster children were found to be on at least one psychotropic drug.

Troubled children entering foster care are routinely interviewed by cold clinicians, sometimes for just 15 minutes or less, hastily pronounced “disordered”, and then medicated. Most often prescribed are the newer class of drugs called “antipsychotics” intended for seriously ill adults, not for the most commonly diagnosed childhood “disorder”, “ADHD”. Inappropriate application of these heavy drugs seems inexplicable until one considers that these newer antipsychotics are more heavily advertised and higher priced. This leads one to ask if those factors are influencing doctors more than the welfare of their patients, especially in light of kickbacks offered by some drug companies for prescribing their brand.

These antipsychotic drugs were not even tested for children; but now their liberal clinical use has proven them destructive, often tragically so. The 2009 case of seven-year-old Gabriel Myers who committed suicide while under foster care was traced to multiple high dose drugs prescribed by his Medicaid psychiatrist. Rather than the wake-up call his death should have been, this kind of dangerous drugging has been allowed to continue and pervade the foster care system. Statistically, foster children are given over ten times as many drugs as those outside the system. Apparently, out of the public view or a parent’s watchful eye, anything can happen. Now, however, government officials and Medicaid have been alerted, and have instituted reporting requirements to prevent this, and have dismissed some of the high-prescribers in their employ.

One could ask if these drugs are at all effective in fixing what is wrong. Not according to the children themselves, or their foster parents, who spoke out in a three part ABC program portraying this disturbing scene in America. ABC’s long-term investigation exposed the fact that Medicaid psychiatrists, rather than offering the sincere concern, attention, and compassion thus far lacking in these children’s lives, find it simpler to fix them with drugs. What was also exposed is that the side effects of child drugging are often so severe that a second drug is given to combat them, then another to combat newer side effects, and so on until as many as five drugs are prescribed for one child. Side effects are sometimes irreversible, such as diabetes, neuro-muscular deterioration, and the most tragic of all – suicide.

Many foster children described what they experienced in foster care. They spoke not about the nurturing welcome one hopes would greet them when entering foster care, but about the incorrect diagnoses and bags of meds they were handed. One child described his medicated state as like a pile of bricks on his head weighing him down. Though it would seem less likely that a child could “act out” with his muscles and psyche shackled; actual films showed extreme tantrums while under medication, which subsided when the medications were withdrawn.

Some children told of being on drugs beginning at age six, and continuing throughout their foster “care”. Even when placed in temporary homes, foster parents were pressured to keep them drugged up. One foster family chose to pay for an independent therapist who suspected that the heavy cocktail of drugs was causing the extreme behavior he witnessed. When weaned off the heavy “cocktail” of meds, this child’s behavior radically improved. One teen in foster care gained over 100 pounds as a side effect of her medication, putting her at risk for diabetes.

Another foster child from an earlier investigation told her story of being placed in a home with over a dozen foster kids, all under heavy medication. Unhappy about being unable to interact with them because they were so out of it, she was sent to a psychiatrist. Her first visit resulted in being labeled bi-polar for being “depressed”, and she was prescribed Prozac and Seroquel. Subsequent visits were stressful to her because the doctor would first and last ask her about the drugs. She feared, if she said anything negative about them, that he would raise the dose or add more. Seeing the heavily drugged kids at home, she wanted no part of it. Taking her meds, she said, would knock her out so that she could not stay awake at school. Such foster child drugging is clearly both counter-productive and oppressive. Though America’s duty is to protect and foster the physical and mental well being of these children, the real beneficiary of the current program seems to be the pharmaceutical industry.

It seems obvious to state that abusive and neglectful homes caused the emotional states of these children. Anger, frustration and other emotions are the consequence of disordered and destructive environments. One child trauma authority said that the failure of many psychiatrists to understand this, and their blaming brain-based disorders instead, is leading to all the child drugging. Nurturing, improved environments and rehabilitating therapy are what is needed. An ABC correspondent questioned how the costs of such a program would be covered. On an immediate look, resources may seem to be lacking. But if the current expenditure of millions of Medicaid dollars on expensive drugs were eliminated and re-allocated, the funds would then be available to rehabilitate foster children with proven, positive methods carrying none of the dangerous side effects of child drugging.

Like Candy? Foster Kids Get More Antipsychotics // Pharmalot

Study Finds Foster Children Often Given Antipsychosis Drugs – NYTimes.com

The Children’s Monitor | On Our Watch

Why Are So Many Foster Care Children Taking Antipsychotics? | TIME Healthland

Foster Kids More Likely To Be Given Psychotropic Drugs – Capsules – The KHN Blog

Psychiatric Drugs in the Foster Care System

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What is CCHR Florida?

CCHR Florida — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 15:03:49 +0000

A Video for YOU–Learn What CCHR Florida Does Every Day—For You and your family!

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ABC NEWS: New Study Shows U.S. Government Fails to Oversee Treatment

CCHR Florida — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:29:01 +0000

Children in foster care are more likely to take multiple antipsychotic medications for longer periods of time than any other group of children

By DR. MARK ABDELMALEK, BRINDA ADHIKARI, SARAH KOCH, JOSEPH DIAZ and CLAIRE WEINRAUB

Nov. 30, 2011

The federal government has not done enough to oversee the treatment of America’s foster children with powerful mind-altering drugs, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report to be released Thursday.

ABC News was given exclusive access to the GAO report, which capped off a nationwide yearlong investigation by ABC News on the overuse of the most powerful mind-altering drugs on many of the country’s nearly 425,000 foster children.

The GAO’s report, based on a two-year-long investigation, looked at five states — Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon and Texas. Thousands of foster children were being prescribed psychiatric medications at doses higher than the maximum levels approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in these five states alone. And hundreds of foster children received five or more psychiatric drugs at the same time despite absolutely no evidence supporting the simultaneous use or safety of this number of psychiatric drugs taken together

To read full story and to watch full Episode of Diane Sawyer’s TV Broadcast: http://abcnews.go.com/US/study-shows-foster-children-high-rates-prescription-psychiatric/story?id=15058380

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More on Action Alert and News Update on the psychotropic drugging of Foster Care children:

CCHR Florida — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 16:42:00 +0000

“More than 8% of children in foster care have received antipsychotic medication, and just over one quarter of those in foster care who also receive disability benefits take these drugs, according to a recent studyin the journal Pediatrics…

The numbers suggest that the influence of pharmaceutical company marketing cannot be overlooked…

All of the major manufacturers of these drugs have been fined by the Food and Drug Administration for illegal marketing practices – in part, for marketing the drugs for unapproved use in children – with some convicted of criminal charges…

The new study by dosReis and colleagues included records of more than 600,000 children enrolled in Medicaid in 2003, including those in foster care, those receiving disability benefits for mental diagnoses, and those on the welfare program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Overall, nearly 3% of all youth on Medicaid received at least one prescription for an antipsychotic medication that year…”

MORE: Study: Antipsychotics Show No Benefit for Treating Veterans’ PTSD

http://healthland.time.com/2011/08/03/study-antipsychotic-drugs-show-no-benefit-for-veterans-ptsd/

MORE: Drugging the Vulnerable: Atypical Antipsychotics in Children and the Elderly

http://healthland.time.com/2011/05/26/why-children-and-the-elderly-are-so-drugged-up-on-antipsychotics/

Action Alert: Locate your state Senators and let them know that Florida’s Foster Care children deserve the right to non-psychiatric, alternative treatments. Per the Florida Statute on Informed Consent.

To locate your State Senators: http://www.flsenate.gov/Senators/Find

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Gabriel Myers’ Psychiatrist Arrested for Cocaine Possession

CCHR Florida — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 16:12:10 +0000

Punjwani first came under scrutiny when it was revealed he had prescribed several psychiatric drugs – some of which were linked to an increased risk of suicide among children – to 7-year-old Gabriel Myers, who hanged himself at his foster home in 2009.
Police report can be found here:

Story below.

Punjwani, Gabriel Myers' Psychiatrist

Miami Herald

Child welfare | Gabriel Myers’ Psychiatrist

Boy’s county psychiatrist has other issues

Two years after Gabriel Myers’ suicide, his psychiatrist faces increased scrutiny.

By Carol Marbin Miller and Diana Moskovitz

In the two years since the death of Gabriel Myers, the boy’s Broward County psychiatrist, whose prescribing practices drew the ire of state regulators and children’s advocates, has found himself in ever-deeper hot water.

On July 18 of last year, Sohail Punjwani was arrested by Miami Beach police officers for driving under the influence and cocaine possession.

In August, Punjwani entered into a pretrial diversion program and will not be prosecuted for the cocaine charges if he completes the program, Miami-Dade court records show.

Punjwani has not been disciplined by the Department of Health, a spokeswoman said.

Although Punjwani declined to comment directly, his lawyer, Brian Bieber, stated: “With respect to the DUI charge, that matter is presently pending in the county court and we are vigorously defending that charge. It is significant to note that the criminal charges have absolutely nothing to do with Dr. Punjwani’s ability to practice medicine.”

Punjwani provided The Miami Herald with a sworn statement from a consulting doctor who concluded “within reasonable medical and psychiatric probability” that Gabriel’s death was not attributable to Dr. Punjwani’s prescribing practices.

“Gabriel had exhibited impulsive and aggressive behavior well before he was prescribed any medication by Dr. Punjwani, and he had undergone a number of significant and very emotional changes in the several weeks predating his death,” concluded Manuel R. Garcia, a child psychiatrist and lecturer who taught psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of California at San Diego.

According to a police report, Punjwani was driving a black Mercedes Benz northbound on Alton Road when officers noticed he was swerving among traffic, “nearly sideswiping vehicles and then quickly over-correcting this action and nearly striking a curb.”

Officers pulled Punjwani over, and “noticed [he] had a white powder substance around his nostrils Officers also observed that Punjwani “had bloodshot, watery eyes, slurred speech and the smell of alcohol upon him.”

A search of the car turned up a small baggie with white powder in it. The powder turned out to be cocaine.

Punjwani first came under scrutiny when The Miami Herald revealed he had prescribed several psychiatric drugs – some of which were linked to an increased risk of suicide among children – to 7-year-old Gabriel, who hanged himself with a detachable shower cord at his Margate foster home on April 16, 2009.

A report on the case by the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, obtained by the Herald, concluded that “the medications that were prescribed for Gabriel may have contributed to his actions directly prior to and during his accidental death.”

Punjwani, the team wrote, “has already been sanctioned for over-prescribing medications to patients, and, for the age-inappropriate prescription of medications to Gabriel Myers.”

“The combination of the prescription of psychotropic medications to a 7-year-old boy and the lack of proper supervision and/or failure to centralize responsibility of treatment of Gabriel Myers is a significant contributor to his mental state at the time of his death.”

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Review of Psych Drugs on Foster Children will Save Millions of Dollars

CCHR Florida — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 17:31:35 +0000

“House Bill 23 hits a rare political sweet spot. The proposal to create an independent clinic review of the drugs foster children are given has support from Democrats and Republicans because of its efforts to protect the vulnerable – and projections that it will save the state millions of dollars.”

http://www.ajc.com/news/concern-over-high-medication-846324.html

Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Concern over high medication rate among foster kids
Review of kids’ psych drugs urged
By April Hunt
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

While in foster care, Giovan Bazan, now 20, says he was put on Ritalin, anti-depressants and sleeping pills. At 18, he elected to stop all drugs, and says he learned he didn’t need them.

Giovan Bazan was 6 when a doctor first gave him medicine to treat his diagnosis of hyperactivity.

Bazan admits he was unruly at the time. Perhaps it was because the only parent he had ever known, his foster mother since he was an infant, had just died.

No one asked about that. Nor did anyone check years later to see that he was on a double dose of Ritalin when another physician, seeing a boy so mellowed out that he barely reacted, prescribed an antidepressant. “They start you on one thing for a problem, then the side effects mean you need a new medicine,” Bazan said. “As a foster kid, I’d go between all these doctors, caseworkers, therapists, and [it] seemed like every time there was a new drug to try me on.”

When he turned 18, Bazan elected to stop all medications. It turned out he didn’t need any of them.

Now, the Georgia House is weighing an idea to better track the psychotropic drugs foster children take at a far greater rate than other kids.

To read the full story, click here:

http://www.ajc.com/news/concern-over-high-medication-846324.html

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Florida Bans Foster Children from Clinical Drug Trials

CCHR Florida — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 18:30:12 +0000

>Secretary Sheldon

Secretary of the Florida Department of Children and Families

http://www.youthtoday.org/view_blog.cfm?blog_id=385

Youth Today

August 06, 2010

by Pareesha Narang

Sixteen months after 7-year-old Gabriel Myers committed suicide while taking psychotropic drugs, the state of Florida has banned allowing any children in the state’s custody from participating in clinical drug trials.

Though Florida officials had suggested that, under such circumstances, the Federal Food and Drug Administration ban all foster care children from participating in such trials, the agency refused, saying the children might benefit from the drugs.

In a letter last month, George Sheldon, secretary of the state’s Department of Children and Families (DCF), announced that regardless of the FDA’s stance the state, using “administrative procedures,” was precluding children in state care from participating in such trials.

“Children who come into our care are often the victims of abuse, neglect, and abandonment,” Sheldon said in the letter. “It is therefore imperative that the state do all in its power to stabilize their environment, to protect them from further trauma, and to foster their successful growth into adulthood.”…

Before he hanged himself in his foster home, Gabriel had been taking different drugs for a variety of psychological problems – and some of the drugs were not approved for use in children. Some of these drugs, including Lexapro, Vyvanse and Symbyax, had “black box” warnings cautioning dangerous side effects such as suicidal thoughts.

Gabriel was placed in foster care in June 2008 after his mother was arrested on drug-related charges. In under a year’s time he lived in three homes, his last in Margate, Fla.

The psychiatrist who prescribed the drugs to Gabriel, Dr. Sohail Punjwani, received a warning letter from the FDA in February, citing several instances in which he had overdosed patients on an undisclosed drug after not following the trial’s protocol for dosing. One of the patients who overdosed slit her wrists, but survived.

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Foster children on psychotropic drugs

CCHR Florida — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 03:15:30 +0000

As most of you are already aware, 7-year old foster child, Gabriel Myers, hung himself last year while being on multiple psychotropic drugs. Shortly thereafter, the FDA sent a warning to the psychiatrist who prescribed the drugs to Gabriel. The warning had to do with children and clinical trials. Recommendations have been made by the Department of Children and Families to prevent tragedies, like Gabriel’s death, from happening again. Let’s pay attention to what actually gets done on this issue. Actions speak louder than words and in the case of young children, it could end up saving lives.

Government is daring to keep kids on drugs

Herald Tribune

By Tom Lyons

July 25, 2010

Apparently the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had at least heard about the suicide of Gabriel Myers.

Myers’ death by hanging happened in a Florida foster home last year, but that wasn’t the main reason it triggered a major reaction at Florida’s Department of Children and Families.

The real reason: He was 7 years old.

Whatever else might have helped lead such a young child toward ending his life, one detail was impossible to ignore: The boy was being treated with three different psychotropic medications.

Medications of that sort make some people more depressed or even suicidal, and their effects when combined are harder to predict, especially in children.

So DCF did a quick check on how many foster children were being given such drugs. Troubling facts emerged.

Not only was the percentage high, it was not really known. And, in more than a third of known cases, required approval permission documents were missing.

DCF Secretary George Sheldon quickly acknowledged the problem and started a study group to learn more and give advice. And a year later, the picture is at least more clear. Very few files lack required documentation now. And when I asked for the most current numbers, they were available, and somewhat lower. In the Sarasota-Manatee-DeSoto county region, 11 percent of foster children are given psychotropic meds. Statewide, it is 13 percent.

Some critics insist too many foster parents, lacking the skill or patience to work with troubled children who arrive as strangers, are still too quick to see medication as the way to curb problem behavior or just keep foster children quiet, no matter the side effects.

But whatever the truth of that, the study group recommended some good changes, and one made sense immediately, I thought: Ban the use of foster kids in drug trials.

See full article at http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20100725/COLUMNIST/7251032/2055/NEWS?p=1&tc=pg

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Your vote is needed – Florida Bans Psych Drug Trials on Foster Kids

CCHR Florida — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:23:08 +0000

Is Florida Correct To Ban Foster Kids From Drug Trials?

Vote here: http://www.pharmalot.com/2010/07/florida-tells-fda-no-children-in-psychotropic-trials/

Florida Tells FDA: No Children In Psychotropic Trials Pharmalot

By Ed Silverman

July 19th, 2010

Gabriel Myers

Last year, a 7-year-old foster boy named Gabriel Myers committed suicide in Florida and, after reams of publicity and hand-wringing over the use of psychotropic medications in such children, a state task force recommended, among other things, that children never be allowed to participate in a clinical trial designed to evaluate new psychotropic meds or whether such drugs approved for adults should be given to children.

The move was prompted, in part, because a Florida psychiatrist, Sohail Punjwani, who treated the boy before he committed suicide, received an FDA warning letter for failing “to protect the rights, safety and welfare” of children enrolled in clinical trials (back story). Before the suicide, the psychiatrist prescribed to kids several drugs, some of which weren’t approved by the FDA for use on children and had been linked to dangerous side effects, including an increased risk of suicide among children (back story).

George Sheldon, Secretary, Department of Children and Families

As part of the follow-up, George Sheldon, who head’s Florida’s Department of Children and Families, wrote FDA commish Margaret Hamburg for info about any foster children who might have participated in clinical trials for psychotropic meds (read the letter) and asked the FDA to forbid foster kids from participating in these trials. Last month, the agency wrote back to say the agency does not agree with a “blanket prohibition” on enrolling foster children. Why? Such a policy fails to account for the greater risk of off-label prescribing and research involving children can yield benefits that cannot be obtained by tracking usage in adults, Jill Warner, acting associate commissioner for the FDA’s Special Medical Programs, wrote back (see here). Drugmakers, by the way, also have something at stake – they receive an extra six months of marketing exclusivity in return for having conducted the pediatric trials.

We asked Florida officials if they are rethinking their position. The answer? No way. The state is resolute. A department spokeswoman writes us to say this: “There is no impasse. While we appreciate the information provided by the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Children and Families, not the FDA, is responsible for the protection of children in its care and takes those responsibilities extremely seriously. To that end, we have, by administrative procedures, prohibited the use of children in state care in clinical trials relating to the development of new psychotropic medications.

“Additionally, this Department’s operating procedure on ‘Institutional Oversight of Human Subject Research and Institutional Review Board Designation’ now further specifies: “At no time shall a child in the custody of the Department be allowed to participate in a clinical trial that is designed to develop new psychotropic medications or evaluate the suitability of providing medications previously approved for adults to children” (read more here). She adds that the department expects to send a formal response to the FDA in the “immediate future.” What do you think?

Is Florida Correct To Ban Foster Kids From Such Trials?

Vote here: http://www.pharmalot.com/2010/07/florida-tells-fda-no-children-in-psychotropic-trials/

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Photos from Gabriel Myers Vigils -Part 3

CCHR Florida — Wed, 05 May 2010 03:35:43 +0000

Gabriel Myers Day-April 16, 2010

In the memory of Gabriel Myers-the Right to Informed Consent

At 8 o’clock, around the state-a moment of silence was held…every sound of every car passing by, every voice, any bang, clang or siren was hushed…as hundreds of advocates remembered Gabriel and dedicated themselves to being the champions of Florida’s children.

Call (727) 442-8820 to help on the vigil for 2011.

Hosts of the Ocala Vigil: Ivette Fermaint, Lina Oliver and Bill Brown

Host of the Boynton Beach Candlelight Vigil: Dr. Timothy Kehrig

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