Are Drugs Being Misused On Foster Kids?

There's Growing Concern That Anti-Psychotic Drugs Are Being Misused On Children In Foster Care

(CBS)  Colby Holcomb's mom concedes that the 8-year-old, who's been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, can be a handful at home. But does such behavior merit the treatment Colby received in foster care?

Andrea Holcomb lost custody of her son when he was 7, after her ex-husband made allegations of sexual abuse, CBS News national correspondent Byron Pittsreports. These allegations later proved false — but in the meantime, Colby was placed in the Texas foster care system. For 18 months, he was in at least five foster homes. It's a time that still haunts Colby and his family.

Andrea says Colby was on at least 20 different drugs when he was in foster care. Yet, she says she has "no idea" why and says it was never explained to her.

While in foster care, Colby was also diagnosed as bipolar. According to his medical records, he was taking as many as four medications at the same time that gave him seizures.

"I woke up at the hospital with something stuck in my arm," Colby says.

He is not alone.

"I found babies, 2-year olds, 3-year olds being given mind-altering drugs," says Carole Keeton Strayhorn, Texas' state comptroller.

Strayhorn conducted her own two-year investigation into allegations that foster kids in Texas are overmedicated.

"Children in foster care in Texas are dying. Children in foster care are being drugged," Strayhorn says.

There are similar allegations being made in California, Ohio and Florida.

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FYI: Learn More About The Foster Care System

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"In Florida, for example, foster kids younger than 5 years old were treated with psychiatric medications at a rate nearly four times higher than the general population of children receiving Medicaid.

Gwen Olsen, a former pharmaceuticals representative who quit her job and wrote the book, "Confessions Of A Prescription Drug Pusher," knows firsthand about the impact of anti-psychotic drugs on children.

"They clamp down on the central nervous system. In effect, they reduce your mobility and that sort of thing, so they are sort of like a chemical straitjacket," she says.

Psychiatrist Christopher Correll is leading a nationwide study on the impact of anti-psychotic drugs have on all children.

"It is a serious step to use an anti-psychotic, there’s no doubt about it. But I think it is also very important to realize that these medications are used under very serious circumstances to actually help patients who have serious symptoms," Correll says.

But if the foster care system is designed to protect children who've been harmed, why would they engage in this if in anyway it was harmful to children?

"To me, the true travesty of the situation is that we take children who just got a bum rap in life to begin with and they get into the system and are further abused chemically," Olsen says.

Colby Holcomb is home and feeling better. He is no longer taking any medications — but his mother worries how many Colbys might still be in the system.

[itmaiden-2009]

The psychotropic drug issue is a mix of political agenda and monetary gain. And that political agenda goes so deep that if I posted it, CBS would remove it from this board.
But we can take an honest look at the bigger players in this dilemma per information from their own websites.

World Bank/IMF (International Monetary Fund), which had to create new loan programs to countries to increase the asset side to offset the liability side because of the countries that never paid back their loans. Mental Health program funding is one of the new programs. You have to research other documents to find out about the loan programs. Not usually published openly.

WHO (World Health Organization) which touts that millions of children all over the world have mental health problems, and need mental health intervention and "drugs".

UN (United Nations) who speaks on the Convention of the Rights of the Child. But the children have no rights when drugs are forced into their bodies causing permanent long term damage to the central nervous system, endocrine system, and other internal organs. When did they get the right to refuse these drugs, or the parents the right to refuse ?

Then after these come the International and Domestic mental health organizations, pharmaceutical companies, the NIH, NIMH, and other US gov't organizations are involved.
If you want to stop the madness you cannot just work from the bottom opportunistic feeders, but must also work from the top.

[savemart55]

For two hundred years psychiatry has been masquerading as a science. The answer is always the same. Yes, we killed thousands of people with lobotomies, but we have new treatments now. Yes, we killed thousands of people with electric shock, but we have drugs now. Yes,thousands of people will die from these drugs and the answer will be, well we have a new brain operation now. When will it stop?
Only when we stop listening and start looking at the results. The cost, thousands of lives and billions of dollars. The cures, zero.

[savemart55]

For two hundred years psychiatry has been masquerading as a science. The answer is always the same. Yes, we killed thousands of people with lobotomies, but we have new treatments now. Yes, we killed thousands of people with electric shock, but we have drugs now. Yes,thousands of people will die from these drugs and the answer will be, well we have a new brain operation now. When will it stop?
Only when we stop listening and start looking at the results. The cost, thousands of lives and billions of dollars. The cures, zero.

[childrescuer]

To LostSheep2: The fact is that there are already laws on the books passed and signed by President Bush, The Amendment Prohibiting Forced Drugging, which are not being enforced by States such as California. The Attorney General is ultimately responsible for upholding these laws. If prosecutors refuse to uphold the laws that already exist, they need to be removed from office and prosecuted themselves for crimes against humanity. It is time for the Military and the National Guard to get involved. This is not a democrat or republican thing, this is a coup of criminal authorities who are traitors to the U.S. Constitution, and it is time for the American people to exercise their human rights and send those criminal authorities to prison.

[lostsheep2]

Childrescuer...Good points,and as you have stated 7 years of media contact...sadly because of the limited numbers that actually go to the media,it takes a scandal or epidemic of suicides/adverse reactions,to get their attention...SO all of us who post to these boards need to also post/Email to the reporters themselves,speaking amongst our selves will serve no purpose at all....Except to further educate each other on these horrors....Has any one noticed that the Fosters who were so pro for drugging have all left this forum when asked to simply verifiy these theories of chemical imbalance and mental illness....? They like the pill pushers them selves,can't.
Keep in mind people this board is no differnt than a yahoo group....Don't expect CBS to view this thing or rely upon it to do further investigating....The days of Watergate type reporters are long gone.....

[lostsheep2]

dh2043 asked "How do we get the Goverment involved"....They are that is why there is a problem in the first place.....And since this nation has forgotten it's rights as idividuals and as a nation as a whole,we give them the power of such blatant control...We out of laziness have become our own worst enemies....
Wasn't it Nancy Reagan who declared"Just say No"..Same mind set as a woman who does want to have *** with some one....Executing ones rights in ones life....We have always had them,we simply fail to use them,and again out of laziness expect the goverment to fix all our problems instead of dealing with them ourselves.
If people stopped long enough to actually look at the individuals that are in office,then get out of the mind set that based soley upon this Gang policy two party trash....Loose their loyalty to a stupid name,and then write in who we as individuals feel is best suited for the job.

[childrescuer]

I have informed the major news media regarding this issue for seven years and have been ignored. Why did it take almost a decade for Media to acknowledge this holocaust? It is a little too little, a little too late, now that so many children's lives have been completely destroyed and many children have been murdered. Yes, drugging children is assault with a deadly weapon and it is a domestic terrorist act that should be punishable by the death penalty. I was a Refugee claimant in Canada because I rescued my then 7 year old from assault in foster care institution in California where he was illegally kidnapped from me without due process of law. Government agents knew about this for seven years. We want those who knew about this issue and did nothing to be held accountable along with the State civil servants who aided and abetted in this holocaust. If legislators and prosecutors refuse to cooperate, we will take the law into our own hands like the Russians did when they tore down the Wall. We will tear down your Wall! ACT NOW!!!

[lostsheep2]

Atessitore Need a Whistle...? I'll send you one.LOL Really when one has such information at ones disposal,share it...If you have been cornered by the fear of retribution from former employers...Find another who isn't.....Hint Hint
:)
Showing the payment incentive to prescribe would sorta make it hard for any further denial on any of their parts....Many of these current kiddie shrinks/quacks....Have many an address to also utilize when dealing with various manufacturers and their products...hence forth why so many are "contracted/consulting" to counties and evaluation centers not with in the very state they call home.
I believe the term is quality of care...And just what sort of care can one expect from a 30 -40 minute prescription visit with the pusher...
"Up the Dose" is their Mantra..or...We can try a differnt drug in another family of drugs....That becomes poly-pharma...and if any one notices or bothers to read the warning labels,they are clearly marked "do not stop abruptly" One must be weaned off one poison prior to another being started,especially from different families of meds....ie. SSRI's,Amphetimines...anti-convulsants....The shrink knows all too well he is not following manufacturer guidelines,and that there will be an adverse reaction(again) to further your need to continue to come to him for a monthly sign off to pad his checks....

[lostsheep2]

Atessitore Need a Whistle...? I'll send you one.LOL Really when one has such information at ones disposal,share it...If you have been cornered by the fear of retribution from former employers...Find another who isn't.....Hint Hint
:)
Showing the payment incentive to prescribe would sorta make it hard for any further denial on any of their parts....Many of these current kiddie shrinks/quacks....Have many an address to also utilize when dealing with various manufacturers and their products...hence forth why so many are "contracted/consulting" to counties and evaluation centers not with in the very state they call home.
I believe the term is quality of care...And just what sort of care can one expect from a 30 -40 minute prescription visit with the pusher...
"Up the Dose" is their Mantra..or...We can try a differnt drug in another family of drugs....That becomes poly-pharma...and if any one notices or bothers to read the warning labels,they are clearly marked "do not stop abruptly" One must be weaned off one poison prior to another being started,especially from different families of meds....ie. SSRI's,Amphetimines...anti-convulsants....The shrink knows all too well he is not following manufacturer guidelines,and that there will be an adverse reaction(again) to further your need to continue to come to him for a monthly sign off to pad his checks....

[dh2043]

I am with you wolflady4.Iam from PA and we need an investigation.Parents are always considered
guilty even if they are not and the system does not want to hear anything they have to say.The system will not hear the children either.Do people know you get more money if the children are on drugs? It's all about the money and control
and it is time for us to take action and save the kids.I have two grandchildren in the system I'm
trying to save.Wolflady4,you hit on everything
but how do we get the Government involved?

[dh2043]

I would like to express my concern about the children on drugs in foster care and ask for help.
I have 3 grandchildren in PA,2of which have been put on drugs in foster care.Despite complaints
from the parents,grandmother,letters written to the system,doctor,police report filed;no one will help and these children remain on phycotic drugs.
These children were happy,loving children when taken, and have been put on more than 20 drugs,one
was even committed to a hospital.PA system needs
investigating.We need help.

[bdurant1]

With much hard evidence of fraud, abuse, emotional, and physical torture, why has Texas Attorney General failed to act in stopping these crimes? How much are political contributions worth? I found out too much the hard way in Texas. Beware, if you dare to try and stop the abuses and frauds by complaining to DHS or CPS, the very agencies that your tax dollars paid to serve and protect, will lie, cover-up, and even write on their reports "this complainant has threatened to kill people". Nothing further from the truth; and I have much hard evidence, but; I'm thinking of taking the Texas DHS scripts, which were written to protect nursing homes and pharma, to law enforcement, and telling them to arrest me, so that I won't ever have to support such disgraces in care and protection again. It's past time for change in our government at every level (city, county, state, and federal)to remove these money hungry vultures of human flesh. Assisting with the abuses are the phony guardianships that clearly are nothing but, a way to romove the victim's rights and steal their monetary assets (even their home). I have hard evidence of that too; but, nobody will prosecute the brother of the Republican District Judge.

[bdurant1]

For some reason, my posts are not being printed. Who does not want the public to know about Bush's role in TMAPS? I also had hopes for Mrs. Strayhorn. But, you have to remember, shen Nanci Wilson interviewed her keyetv.com (investigative video), she never mentioned why the gov. protective agencies had not stopped the abuses. She also failed to mention that it has been reported that she was one of the original TMAPS supporters and that both her son's have jobs under Bush's regime, one over CMS, where the frauds of our tax dollars should have been questioned. At least she has spoken out about some of the tortures. Our acting Gov. Perry has not. It's obvious that he care not! Remember while acting as President Bush said that "states were getting too creative in getting federal funding". Is the pot calling the kettle black? He pushed TMAPS. The states get reimbursed 100% for TMAPS drugs; in turn, pharma gives the states gifts and grants. Why didn't CBS cover the children in child residential centers, as they were killed from restraint and drugs? Why didn't they report that none of the killers went to jail. If it happened to a dog, in your home, you'd be in jail.

[kenhamlett]

While it is clear from the article and the feedback that everyone seems to know that Psychiatry is a corrupt, perverse implementation of crime as medicine, our government not only refuses to remove these criminals from society but relies on them to bypass law and the constitution on the theory that a person has no rights if a psychiatrist says so.
In South Carolina it is actually organised crime with state sponsorship. Whether it is drugging, detention without habius corpus, wiretapping, or an assortment of other crimes, it is ok here and if your state happens to have tighter controls, SC can export their corruption to you state. FACT.
Please remember, save the children and save us all by denouncing Psychiatry including the endless line of "experts" the networks places before us every day.

[atessitore]

TCohen3 report that to the FDA! That has "cha-ching" written all over it. There are hundreds of stories like this, if they are reported to the drug company they may not get to the FDA. Report them directly to the FDA. Participating psychiatrists in incentive programs set up by sales reps are not going to report adverse effects against the hand that feeds them. Report it to the FDA. Everyone should just start reporting these old or new incidences to the FDA. Even if it was 13 years ago. Ex, again in the company I worked for when 9/11 hit the psychiatric drug company was having a field day. It was like they hit the lottery. They started to publish all this Post-traumatic info and "national surveys." At my company they wanted to buy more phone lines to get calls in requesting their drug, because they were going to advertise BIG TIME to the public and their plan was to increase business 5 times in the next few months. Sick. A national tragedy and the psychiatrists/pharma companies wanted to cash in. Very sick. As a nation, we need to seriously do something about them taking responsibility for the harm done to our country.

[metalrabbit]

http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?file=article&name=News&op=modload&sid=830

The Texas Medication Algorithm Project, or TMAP, was named by the commission as a %u201Cmodel%u201D medication treatment plan that %u201Cillustrates an evidence-based practice that results in better consumer outcomes.%u201D Medical algorithms are a decision-tree approach to treatment. If symptoms A, B, and C are evident, use treatment X. In 1995, TMAP began as an alliance of individuals from the University of Texas, the pharmaceutical industry, and the mental health and corrections systems of Texas. This plan was trumpeted by the American Psychiatric Association even as it asked for increased funding to implement TMAP. When an employee of the Inspector General%u2019s office revealed that state officials with influence over the plan had received money and perks from drug companies who stood to gain from it, the plan came under severe criticism.

[tcohen3]

It is long overdue that QUACK psychiatrists pay dearly for their crimes against innocent children regarding this issue. The children who have been placed in foster care are NOT the only victims of these sleazy con artists either. Three years ago, I was told by a QUACK shrink that I needed to take Zyprexa for my bi polar disorder (which I do not suffer from). Furthermore, 13 yrs earlier before the idiot diagnosed me as being bi polar, I underwent a successful kidney transplant. Zyprexa has been proven to cause acute renal failure and diabetes which is a leading cause of kidney failure also known as ESRD (End Stage Renal Failure). The idiot "doctor" (and I use that term loosely) gave me a videotape to watch that was about Zyprexa. In the tape, it warns this drug can cause kidney failure in rare cases, but patients with a history of kidney disease should NEVER use it. When I questioned him about this, he said don't worry he only gave me 5mgs per day.
no further comment is neccessary at this point.

[atessitore]

Lostsheep2 You are correct. I worked for a drug marketing company. I would love to disclose all of the drug companies names and drugs (yes - psychiatric) but can't. They used us as a third party then we hired another outside agency to cut the checks for the doctors. It becomes very remote from the mother drug company and the liability for these violations can then be pinned to the hired marketing companies and the drug company becomes absolved of responsibility. The Sales rep commission works like this. They recruit doctors to give samples and prescription of the drug. (That is why consumers you are getting these samples- it is not a humanitarian effort) The doctor gets paid per Rx written. The Sales Rep gets paid for how many Doctors with so many Rx written. They get paid a commission and the top Sales Rep gets a Sound System or somthing like that. Sales Reps must be shaking in their boots right now reading all this. Too much is known. Quit!!! Go sell books for kids or recycled paper or work for lawyers suing these guys for fraud. That will be the next money maker and it is ethical. Because the facts are there and will be disclosed. Thank me later.

[atessitore]

There is no %u201Cgene%u201D nor genetic ties to mental illness. The "parents were mentally ill then child is too" theory is marketing of the psychiatric industry for future patients. An educated person with true medical and ethical standards will let you know there is no imbalance or physical proof. IT DOES NOT EXIST! The pharmaceutical industry is FULL of theories. I worked for a drug marketing company that delt with these drug companies and reported them. From not reporting adverse effects to the FDA (illegal) to paying doctors for patient surveys that they could later use to market their drugs to those patients that took the survey (illegal) to paying doctors for every Rx they write to free stethoscopes with the drug name on it. How often you're asked by a psychiatrist at insurance call centers "how many visits are left" and then see the change in diagnosis before the last covered visit is up? More visits approved for a new diagnosis! This is fraud and costly to insurance companies! How often are adverse effects not reported through these 800# TV drug ads. Proof? I invite any person working in an insurance company or pharmaceutical call center or to STAND UP and report to the FDA these violations. They are told they will loose their jobs if they talk. People die because of these drugs. Don%u2019t make a living off blood money. Hear that Pharmaceutical Sales Reps? State agencies go nuts with this because there is no one watching them. Get Congress to ACT! Investigate!!!!!

[lostsheep2]

bdurant1 asked why other things of note are not mentioned by CBS and Strayhorn....ie. TMAP They have been but due in part to the constrictions of the news alotted time slots,the simple fact that too often reporters get tunnel vision,(narrow focus of an issue)and the fact as a society as a whole we are too slef absorbed,and too busy being busy and we are selves have short national attention spans(ADD by the shrinks own definitions)we cannot(most)connect the dots and see the big picture and the Love of Money that drives so many.....I encourage all to visit the following website and look around....We haven't missed all that much and there it sits for all to peruse at leisure,you just may not like what you find that we have in the last few years alone.
www.familyrights.us For the medication and willfull violations of various goverment groups,and Pharmas influences... www.ahrp.org
And for the effects of all these "safe" poisons
www.breggin.com.
Time to flip the coin people and see whats on the other side of life.