In an investigatory piece, the Los Angeles Times (2/17, Therolf) reports that officials in Los Angeles County “are allowing the use of powerful psychiatric drugs on far more children in the juvenile delinquency and foster care systems than they had previously acknowledged, according to data obtained by The Times through a Public Records Act request.” The data reveal that “Los Angeles County’s 2013 accounting failed to report almost one in three cases of children on the drugs while in foster care or the custody of the delinquency system.” The Times also notes that “in California, 51% of children on psychiatric medications are taking the most powerful class of the drugs — antipsychotics — which have experienced explosive growth in foster care over the last 15 years, according to data obtained by the National Youth Law Center through a Public Records Act request.”
Related Links:
— “Rampant medication use found among L.A. County foster, delinquent kids,” Garrett Therolf, Los Angeles Times, February 16, 2015.