Report Writing Weekend

This weekend I have been working with our foster youth interns to help them find research, write, and edit their reports for Congress. We spent all day yesterday in the office working, which was so much fun! There are about 11 CCAI staff and 4 CCAI interns and 13 Foster Youth Inters in a little townhouse office building. There is food everywhere and lots of it, we started the day today singing a song a co-worker made up about good attitudes, and I'm getting to learn all of the FYIs' personal stories. I have been working with an FYI on her report about the use of psychotropic medication in foster children. I am learning several things about the use of psychotropic medication with foster youth: 1) children 1-5 years old are being prescribed anti-psychotic medication, 2) many youth are being prescribed this medication without even obtaining second opinions, 3) judges often provide consent for the agency to prescribe the meds, 4) children aren't being given an option of whether they want to take them, and 5) this medication is often prescribed to these kids without first seeing how they do with counseling or a change in environment. It is no surprise that a child ages 2-11 are going to act crazy! They will act out, their personality changes, boys are tough and rough, and girls get serious attitudes- throw physical, emotion, and psychological abuse, neglect, and violence on top of that and no wonder these children are not coping! It is so sad that these children are not given the care and attention they need after experiencing these types of trauma. Instead, they are given 3 or more antipsychotic medications and are labeled ADHD, Bipolar, extremely agressive, etc. While the government is beginning to take a look at these issues, a lot of decisions need to be made on how to prioritize the well-being of these children. Just like you and I, they need someone to listen and really care for them, especially if the government wants them to grow up like any other non-agency child.