Nearly one in every 10 American children is diagnosed with a mental health disorder. Often the treatment prescribed is medication, and often the medication is heavy-duty — so-called antipsychotic drugs.
In this report, you’ll see that foster care children are prescribed drugs at a rate much greater than that of other kids. Concern over their well-being — not to mention the amount it costs to treat them — has prompted the Government Accountability Office to investigate potentially abusive prescribing practices in America’s state foster care systems. The GAO findings are expected to come out later this year.
Need to Know correspondent Shoshana Guy went to Texas to investigate overuse of psychotropic drugs in foster children, as well as that state’s efforts at reform.
Shoshana Guy, along with Sarah Fitzpatrick and Mar Cabra, produced the segment.
Research support was provided by The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute, now known as Type Investigations, as well as the New York Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Stabile Center for Investigative Reporting.