The CCHR Florida Youth Group will be decorating our X-Mas tree from 4-5pm. 

Celebrate the X-mas season with our team and remember all the children helped by our office.

Guest Performer: Nicky Baker and CCHR Florida Youth Group singers

CCHR Florida cares about Florida’s foster care children and their right to say “no” to psychiatric drugging.  Too many tragic consequences have occurred in our state, among this population of children.

Nov. 20, 1011, in the New York Times, there was an article, titled “Drugs Used for Psychotics Go to Youths in Foster Care”.

In regards to Foster care across the U.S., it states, “In recent years, doctors and policy makers have grown concerned about high rates of overall psychiatric drug use in the foster care system, the government-financed program that provides temporary living arrangements for 400,000 to 500,000 children and adolescents. Previous studies have found that children in foster care receive psychiatric medications at about twice the rate among children outside the system.

The new study focused on one of the most powerful classes of drugs, antipsychotics. It found that about 2 percent of foster children took at least one such drug…”

Full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/health/research/study-finds-foster-children-often-given-antipsychosis-drugs.html?_r=1

Help us to get more advocacy work done each week–Sign up as a volunteer for CCHR Florida!

 You can work from home, come to the office, and/or join us on our many events throughout the state.  Call 727-442-8820

Senator Ronda Storm

State Sen. Ronda Storms objects to “chemical straitjackets.”

 
Comments can be made here:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/civil/in-wake-of-childs-suicide-legislature-moves-to-limit-foster-cares-reliance/1080996

St. Petersburg Times
In wake of child’s suicide, Legislature moves to limit foster care’s reliance on psychiatric drugs
 

By Cristina Silva, Times Staff Writer 
Friday, March 19, 2010  

TALLAHASSEE – A year after a 7-year-old boy heavily medicated on powerful psychiatric drugs hanged himself in his Margate foster home, lawmakers are pushing to reform state medical requirements for foster children.
 

The Senate’s Children, Families, and Elder Affairs Committee unanimously approved a measure Thursday designed to curb the prescription of mental-health drugs to children in state care.

The proposed law would require the state Department of Children and Families to assign volunteer guardians to oversee each child’s mental health care. It prohibits foster children from being the subject of clinical drug trials and raises the age at which children are allowed to take these drugs from 6 to 11 in many cases.

The measure (SB2718 and HB1567) would also give children some say in the drugs they take.

“We are not just going to medicate them until they turn 18 and then dump them into adulthood,” said sponsor Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Brandon, chairwoman of the Children, Families, and Elder Affairs Committee.

The state’s growing use of adult medication on emotionally and mentally troubled children has sparked debate for years.

Multiple state studies show child-welfare doctors and case managers routinely failed to follow legally required treatment plans or properly document when and why drugs were given to foster children, creating a network of youth sedated by “chemical straitjackets,” Storms said.

The death of Gabriel Myers in April further revealed the shortcomings of 2005 legislation that required more information sharing, parental involvement and second-party review of doctors’ prescriptions for the youngest children.

Because foster children are often cared for by multiple service contractors, communication lapses and fragmented mental health care are still rampant, a recent state report on Myers’ death determined.

“Our response to him was to medicate him, and medicate him, and medicate him,” Storms said.

Under the bill, proposed medical treatment plans must be explained to a child and the child must consent to the treatment in many cases before taking the drugs.

“What this means is less medication and more behavior analysis so that they are not just sedated little zombies,” said Jan Montgomery, president of the Florida Association for Behavior Analysis, which would train legal guardians to observe and treat behavioral problems.

Still, Montgomery said she did not expect a sudden culture shift, given failed past efforts to track foster children’s medical records.

“It’s going to be a slow slide toward what we are hoping is the right way,” Montgomery said. 

Gabriel Myers

On the Florida House side, the first committee needs to schedule it for a vote.

Please urge the House Representatives on the Health Care Services Policy Committee to schedule and vote YES on the Gabriel Myers Bill – House Bill 1567.

————————————————————————

Lots of comments are being made here: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20000546-504083.html

Gabriel Myers

CBS NEWS
After 7-Year-Old Gabriel Myers’ Suicide, Fla. Bill Looks to Tighten Access to Psychiatric Drugs
By Edecio Martinez

March 17, 2010

Gabriel Myers (Credit: Family Photo)

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. The apparent suicide of 7-year-old boy Gabriel Myers, who was taking several psychiatric medications, has led to the introduction of a bill in the Florida legislature, which would assure that powerful mental health drugs dispensed to Florida foster care children would be more closely monitored.

The proposal is largely based on the findings of a task force formed after Gabriel locked himself in a bathroom and hung himself with a shower cord last April.

Gabriel Myers (Credit: Family Photo)

Gabriel was on Seroquel – used to treat bipolar disorder – and other psychiatric drugs linked by federal regulators to potentially dangerous side effects, including suicide, but the risks may not have been adequately communicated to his foster parents.

The drugs are not approved for use by young children. But doctors often prescribe them ‘off-label,’ for purposes for which the drugs have not been approved.

Sen. Ronda Storms said prescribed drugs have replaced talk therapy and are over-prescribed to subdue unruly children. The measure would require an independent review before psychiatric drugs can be administered to children 10 or younger.

“All you do is mask the behavioral problems by treating him (psychotropically). All you’re doing is putting him in a chemical straight jacket so that he can’t act out so you can get him to 18 and dump him into adulthood and that’s not acceptable,” said Storms to CBS affiliate WFOR.

Gabriel’s death prompted a statewide investigation that found 13 percent, or 2,699, of all foster children are on such drugs, according to a Department of Children and Families(DCF) study. That compares with only an estimated 4 percent to 5 percent of children in the general population.

Child advocates say the prescribing doctors often lack pertinent information on the child, including medical history and behavioral background. The bill requires caregivers and doctors to report any adverse side effects, which DCF must document.

The bill also requires children to have a mental health treatment plan that includes counseling for children prescribed such drugs. 

  Candlelight Vigil

 April 16th, 7pm-8:30pm

 At the bridge from Clearwater to Clearwater Beach

 (city parking near the courthouse) 

In Memory of Gabriel Myers and the Right to Informed Consent

Gabriel Myers

Hosted by Dr. Elizabeth Young and the Citizens Commission on Human Rights of Florida.

We need 200 champions, minimally.

 Call to confirm-727-442-8820 or email laurie@cchrflorida.org

 Go to www.cchrflorida.org/vigil to get more information.

Miami Herald
FLORIDA LEGISLATURE
Regulations sought for foster kids prescribed psychiatric drugs
March 2, 2010

In the wake of a Broward child’s death, state lawmakers will consider a bill designed to make it harder for child welfare workers to use mental health drugs to control foster kids.

BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER

Florida lawmakers will once again consider a measure to rein in the use of psychiatric drugs among foster children in the wake of last year’s death of a 7-year-old Broward boy who was on a cocktail of mood-altering drugs.

A new bill, filed Friday by state Sen. Ronda Storms, a Brandon Republican, would, among other things, require that foster children assent¹ to the use of psychiatric drugs. The proposed law would require caseworkers to explain to children, in a manner they can understand, why the drugs are necessary and what risks they carry.

“It’s a huge step forward for the children of Florida,” Robin Rosenberg, deputy director of Florida’s Children First, said of the provision. “It’s integral to effective treatment for children to be involved at a developmentally appropriate level.”

The requirement that foster kids be involved in their own treatment was one of scores of recommendations made by a child welfare work group of administrators from the Department of Children & Families, doctors and children’s advocates who studied the death of Gabriel Myers last April.

Gabriel, originally from Ohio, entered state care in June 2008 when his mother was found slumped in her car in a restaurant parking lot — with a narcotic pill bottles surrounding her. Gabriel hanged himself on April 16, using a retractable shower cord as a noose.

In the aftermath, The Miami Herald reported that the boy had been prescribed several anti-psychotic and anti-depressant drugs in the months before his death. Most of the drugs have not been approved for use with children, and some have been linked to serious side effects, including an increased risk of suicide.

While Storm’s bill tracks most of the work group’s findings, it differs in some respects. One major difference: The work group wanted each child being administered psychotropic drugs to have the benefit of a lawyer at all court appearances.

Storms’ bill requires the state to appoint guardians ad litem², or volunteer lay guardians. Storms said the guardians are qualified for the role because they already are involved in the children’s lives.

Rosenberg, who was a member of the Gabriel Myers Work Group, said “the work group concluded that attorneys are best suited to protect children’s interests when prescribing medication,” she said.

The bill would also:

· Prohibit children in state care from being involved in clinical trials designed to determine the safety or efficacy of drugs that have not yet been approved by the FDA.

· Require an independent medication review before psychiatric drugs can be administered to children 10 or younger.

· Require mental-health professionals to prepare an overall treatment plan, including the use of counseling and therapy, when children are prescribed psychiatric drugs.

“We want to give a preference to behavioral therapy,” said Storms, the bill’s sponsor. “We’re not going to just drug them through their childhood and adolescence.”

Storms said she thought the prescribing of such drugs has become a crutch for therapists, who are eschewing traditional couch chats with children. Research shows, she said, that some doctors are writing one prescription for a child every three minutes.

DCF administrators have supported the legislation, which marks the second time this decade where lawmakers have sought to crack down on mental-health drug use among kids in state care.

“With young kids, we really need to err on the side of caution,” said DCF Secretary George Sheldon, who has supported both the work group and the legislation.

State Sen. Nan Rich, a Sunrise Democrat who is vice chair of the children’s committee, said the bill will fail if lawmakers decline to set aside enough money to pay for it — especially the provision that requires guardians for foster kids who are prescribed drugs.

1. assent definition: to agree to something, especially after thoughtful consideration.
2. ad litem definition: a term used in law to refer to a party appointed by a court to act in a lawsuit on behalf of another party—for instance, a child or an incapacitated adult—who is deemed incapable of representing him or herself.

Gabriel Myers - 2007

Comments can be made here: http://tinyurl.com/florida-foster-child-drugging (short registration required) 

TALLAHASSEE — A task force investigating the apparent suicide of a 7-year-old foster child approved a list of nearly 100 recommendations concerning the use of psychiatric medications by foster children Thursday as the examination of the hanging death of Gabriel Myers continues.

The panel called for several measures to toughen accountability in the dispensing of psychotropic drugs and making sure the medications aren’t the only part of a child’s therapy.

Members of the working group also called for the Legislature to devote more resources, including the creation of a chief medical officer for the Department of Children & Families, to keep an eye on treatment for foster children.

“We need to have a better system of accountability over children who are being taken care of,” said Jim Sewell, former assistant commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and head of the task force. “… If we’re serious about making sure we’re taking care of children, we’ve got to make sure that we’re devoting funding to it.”

The recommendations include calling for tighter oversight by local DCF workers of the nonprofit organizations that handle foster care services and increased scrutiny from the agency’s central office. The panel also suggests making sure that caseworkers and caregivers get second opinions for the use of certain types and frequencies of medications.

Sewell said the panel’s recommendations, which are being put into final form after an hours-long meeting Thursday to hammer out the details, focus less on whether the psychiatric medications are over-prescribed than whether they are “properly prescribed.”…

The use of the drugs and whether the agency was obtaining proper consent from parents or courts entered the spotlight when, in the aftermath of Gabriel’s death, the department revealed that more than 3,000 foster kids were taking the medications without the legally required permission.

While the major recommendations for the Legislature involve what Sewell described as “tweaks” to the law and more resources for monitoring the use of the drugs, lawmakers are likely to more closely examine the use of psychiatric medications for foster children.

Members of the Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee from both parties pledged this month to toughen laws and rules for prescribing psychiatric drugs to children in the wake of Gabriel’s death.

“We’ve got a lot deeper issues than the medical director,” Sen. Tony Hill, D-Jacksonville and a member of the committee, said Thursday.

He said lawmakers could move around funding to provide the necessary money for things like the medical position, but also wanted assurances that there would be accountability for failures like Gabriel’s death.

“We need to find out what the department is going to do about this to makes sure there won’t be another Gabriel Myers situation down the line,” Hill said.

________________________________________
28,916 petition signatures:
http://www.petitiononline.com/TScreen/petition.html

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfU9puZQKBY

Dr. Fred Baughman explains, “They [psychiatrists] made a list of the most common symptoms of emotional discomfiture of children; those which bother teachers and parents most, and in a stroke that could not be more devoid of science or Hippocratic motive–termed them a ‘disease.’ Twenty five years of research, not deserving of the term ‘research,’ has failed to validate ADD/ADHD as a disease. Tragically–the ‘epidemic’ having grown from 500 thousand in 1985 to between 5 and 7 million today–this remains the state of the ‘science’ of ADHD.”⁴

We at CCHR Florida are very concerned with these numbers.  Why are so many foster children being diagnosed with mental disorders?

Per the Equal Justice Foundation’s, “No Child Left Behind” Reverend Ruth Peterson (2003),

“When a child resists bonding with the foster or adoptive parents, they are immediately admitted into therapy for psychological problems. And, at times, if the child becomes violent or combative, or prone to tantrums due to their anger at being the focal point of all the family destruction, they are placed into a mental health facility and subsequently started on medication known as “psychotropic” medication, or mind-altering drugs to make them more docile, and easier to manage and control.”

‘This is quite common in nursing homes for the elderly, if the patient is labeled as ‘combatant’ or ‘combative.’ I have seen the results of those types of ‘psychotropic’ drugs and it is horrible. They rob the patient of any and all humane feelings.’

‘Any child, who has been deprived of what belongs to them by birth and nature, will invariably become combative at some stage during the transition of losing their own past lives, no matter how good or bad it may have been. One child bit the finger off a school nurse as she was administering medication to him.” ⁵

Central Florida University confirms, “Since 1986, the number of foster children has increased by 90 percent in Central Florida…Florida ranks 35th out of the 50 states in child well being.” ⁶

St. Petersburg Times claimed that Florida’s DCF has many problems ranging from out-of-date records to the lack of a judge’s consent to place a child on psychotropic mediation.⁷

Jacksonville News reported,

“Members of the Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee from both parties said the state needed to toughen laws and rules for prescribing psychiatric drugs to children in the wake of the hanging death of Gabriel Myers and an ongoing examination by a Department of Children and Families task force’

‘…DCF acknowledged that the state has tried before to get handle on the number of children taking psychiatric drugs…”

‘It’s the same problem over and over and over again,’ said Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico.  Storms said legislators would need to follow up on any laws it passes to ensure that the initiative would be more successful than past changes to the law.” ⁸

Thank you, Senator Storms, for speaking out to protect our foster children.

DCF of Florida defines the rights of foster children:

You have the right:

To Know Your Rights

• To be given a copy of this document,

• To have your rights explained to you in words you can understand, and

• To have your rights explained when you enter into care and every time you move to a different placement.

To Have Your Rights Respected

The people responsible for your care and protection must respect your civil and legal rights.

To Privacy

• To have your privacy protected,

• To send and receive mail without anyone reading it unless the judge says someone else can open your mail to protect your safety, and

• To make telephone calls at reasonable times, unless the judge says you cannot.

To Have Your Property Protected

• To have your property (for example, your clothes, books, electronics, money and other things you own) kept safe where you live.

• To bring your property with you when you move,

• To be told how money being held by the Department is being used.

• To ask that your money be used for specific things, and

• To ask that your money be saved for future uses.

To Live With Your Parents or Caregivers

unless a person from the Department and a judge determines that you must be moved.

To Live In A Safe Place

• To live in a safe home where no one will touch you without your permission, scare you, or hurt you, and

• To live in a home where you will not get into trouble for telling people that your rights or safety are not being protected.

To Understand Documents You Are Asked to Sign

• To have any person who asks you to fill out or sign a paper explain it to you, and

• To understand what you are signing and why you are being asked to sign it.

To Complain about Your Care or Services

• To make a grievance (a complaint) to the Department about how you are being cared for by your foster parents, services worker, or other people providing you services,

• To make a grievance to the Department if any of your rights are violated,

• To make a grievance to your community-based care provider, and

• To have a lawyer or other person assist you in making a grievance or complaint.

To Be Heard In Court

• To attend court hearings involving your care, and

• To tell the judge what is happening to you and what you want.

To Have Representation In Court

• To have a guardian ad litem appointed for you by the judge,

• To have the guardian ad litem tell the judge what you want, in addition to what your guardian ad litem thinks is best for you,

• To obtain an attorney of your choice, or to ask the judge to appoint one for you, and

• To have the immediate and unlimited ability to meet with your guardian ad litem and attorney.

To Medical Care

• To be taken to doctors and dentists, including eye doctors, for medical evaluation and treatment.

To Education

• To attend school, and

• To obtain special educational services if you need them.

To Permanency

• To have all efforts in court made without delay because time is of the essence (very important).

• To have a permanent home or family.

To Same Rights As Everyone Else

 • To enjoy the same rights established in the Constitutions of the United States and Florida as every other person in the state. That means you have the right to individual dignity, liberty, privacy, pursuit of happiness, and the protection of your civil and legal rights.⁹

Yes.  Foster children have the right to the pursuit of happiness.  Let us help them achieve this right.  For additional information and help on children see our website’s section “Help for Children.”

RESOURCES:

1. Hunter College, Foster Care Maintenance Payments (2008) http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/socwork/nrcfcpp/downloads/foster-care-maintenance-payments.pdf
2. Adoption.com, “Reimbursement of Non-Recurring Adoption Expenses for Special Needs Children” http://library.adoption.com/articles/reimbursement-of-non-recurring-adoption-expenses-for-special-needs-children.html accessed November 2, 2009
3. Florida’s Department of Children and Families, http://www.dcf.state.fl.us/adoption/specialneeds.shtml accessed November 2, 2009
4. Dr. Fred Baughman, “Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder” http://www.adhdfraud.org/ accessed November 2, 2009
5. Equal Justice Foundation http://www.ejfi.org/family/family-98.htm accessed October 31, 2009, original author, Ruth Peterson, “No Child Left Behind” (2003)
6. University of Central Florida, The Center for Community Partnerships College of Health & Public Affairs, “The Economics of Child Foster Care in Central Florida” http://www.cohpa.ucf.edu/ccp/library/fostercare_study.pdf accessed November 2, 2009, original source: Child Welfare League of America
7. St. Petersburg Times, “DCF’s drug records suspect” (2009) http://psychrights.org/Articles/090529TampaBayDrugRecordsSuspect.htm
8. Jacksonville News, (2009) “Florida lawmakers pledge action on psychiatric drugs in foster care” http://jacksonville.com/news/florida/2009-10-07/story/florida_lawmakers_pledge_action_on_psychiatric_drugs_in_foster_care
9. Department of Children and Families http://www.dcf.state.fl.us/publications/fsp/brochures/fsp5320.pdf, accessed October 31, 2009

MOTHERS Act
The bill includes the language of the MOTHERS Act, to “expand treatment for postpartum conditions” and calls for the development of “improved screening and diagnostic techniques,” but makes no provisions to ensure any entities doing such research are free from conflicts of interest or pharmaceutical funding.  For example, Screening for Mental Health, Inc., and its sub-organization Signs of Suicide, who heavily promote and conduct mental health screening, received $4,985,925 from pharmaceutical companies prior to 2008, and ten leading psychiatric researchers have been exposed in the last year for failing to disclose millions of dollars in pharmaceutical payments.  Yet this bill contains no provisions for full disclosure of conflicts of interest for any “entity” that could receive federal taxpayer funded grants, do research or promotional campaigns – such as the provision in the bill calling for a national PR campaign using TV, radio public and other public service announcements to urge women be screened and seek treatment for postpartum depression.  The bill also calls for “clinical research” for the development of new treatments (drugs), but again, no guidelines for ensuring that any researchers/research entities are free from pharmaceutical funding or conflicts of interest. Section 2529, Page 1418

Mental Health Parity
The bill mandates Mental Health Parity, or equal insurance coverage for mental disorders as what are covered for physical diseases, whether under their regular health insurance or whether a person gets their new coverage through the Health Insurance Exchange.  Psychiatric patients are traditionally “cured” when their insurance benefits run out.  In this bill, those benefits never run out.  Considering there are no medical tests to verify the existence of any psychiatric disorder, and without anything other than a psychiatrist’s opinion about whether or not the person’s “illness” is “cured,” this legislation becomes nothing more than taxpayer funded billions to the psycho/pharmaceutical industry who will continue their jihad of mass drugging of Americans.  This provision could easily encompass all 374 diagnoses in psychiatry’s diagnostic manual, covering everything from Phase of Life Problem to Arithmetic Disorder.  Section 214, Page 100

Home Visitation Programs for Families with Young Children or Families Expecting Children
The bill creates a home visitation program for families with young children or which are expecting children or who have certain “risk factors.”  The program provides assessments regarding matters of “age appropriate behaviors,” for children, prevention of family violence and referral to outside services.  – Section 1904, Page 1177

School Based Health Clinics
The bill includes funding for School Based Health Clinics that will include subjective psychiatric mental health screening (called mental health assessments) of children, and “referral to a continuum of services including emergency psychiatric care, community support programs, inpatient care, and outpatient programs” as part of their “comprehensive primary health services.”  This is a direct feeder line for the psycho/pharmaceutical industry directly into our schools. – Section 2511, Page 1352

Wellness Program Grants for small employers
The grants in the bill serve as an incentive for employers to include “mental health” as part of the Wellness Program Grants to businesses.  Part of the program entails a “Behavioral Change Component” that encourages “healthy living through counseling” and may include programs relating to “tobacco use, obesity, stress management, depression and mental health.” – Section 112, Page 67

Federally Qualified Behavioral Health Centers
The bill creates new “Federally Qualified Behavioral Health Centers” and in order for existing community mental health centers to qualify, they have to provide, among other things, “mental health screening, assessment, and diagnosis,” as well as “outpatient clinic mental health services, including screening, assessment, diagnosis, psychotherapy and medication,” in addition to “crisis mental health services including 24-hour mobile crisis teams.”  - Section 2513, Page 1367

Your voice needs to be heard in Washington on this outrageous bill. Call, fax, or email your Representative and tell them that you are opposed to the above points in the Health Care Reform bill. To find your Representative and get their contact information, go to http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt to look them up (you need to enter your zip code). You can also call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

Source: CCHR International: http://www.cchrint.org/legislative-alerts/federal-health-bill-calls-for-billions-in-orwellian-psych-programs-and-treatments/update/

“Why would a child as young as 3 ever be on mind altering drugs?”

“Well for the past 8 months the troubleshooters have poured through reams of state documents and discovered that thousands of foster kids are on mind altering drugs.  Many of these children are barely in kindergarten.  Somc are even toddlers…”

Watch the NBC video to find out more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISFPJL66p4c