[rsgorman]

My partner and I are in the final stages of adopting our foster child. If all goes as planned the State of Nevada will give up their rights by month end. This has been a long process and in the end we are not adopting the original child that was placed with us. We met our current foster child (son) while we were taking Greg (the one that didn't work out) to group therapy at a group home.

I am in the processes of writing a research paper for my degree in psychology about children in the system and the over use of meds. While taking Greg to group therapy at the group, home I was astounded to find that all 10 of these children were on multiple meds. The cost was more than $1000 per child on average. Currently the state requires our son take Adderall, Seroquel and Trileptal (seizure med). The previous child was taking even more, I can't even remember the name of his drug cocktail.

I am curious to hear from any of you out there and your experiences in dealing with the agencies with regard to the requirement for meds. Especially ones that don't make sense or seem to be over-kill

[roxanna425]

meds are easier. i see them sometimes as a narcotic straightjacket. i have two who were on meds when I first heard about them and I asked the cw to take them to a developmental neurologist I know (i am a grad student, Ph.D.SW) and have him evaluate them for their meds and he said they didn't need them. i have them on melotonin and a very strict schedule and no/very low sugar intake and with their clinical psychologist and lots of exercise we have seen great improvement.

[newMafamily]

Meds are more commonly given to foster children. Why ? we don't know. Environment and biology work together to form behavior. If you have a tough environment can it change your biology- maybe. Will meds help-sometimes. If kids are in a group home behavior was a problem and chances are they have gotten a psychiatric diagnoses and some medication. Is it always appropriate-maybe not.
I come at this from a lot of different directions as a psych nurse and as a parent I have seen the need for meds. But as I tell my own son meds just help, they don't do the whole job. Stability in environment and behavioral interventions can be put in place to assist and decrease the need for meds.
Mental illness like physical illness needs to be treated. Sometimes the treatment is medication-if it is appropriate it is not a bad thing. You may find that when you have your child in your home his medications can be re-evaluated and significantly decreased and perhaps some or all can be eliminated. I reccomend finding a good child psychiatrist or develpmental neurologist to work with you on this. Not knowing your childs diagnosis I would not offer an opinion on his particular meds. I would however find out if the trileptal is being given for siezures or as a mood stabilizer. If he has no siezure history, it is likely a mood stabilizer and a physician could adjust this med as well as the others in response to your feedback about his mood and behavior issues. If you work on the meds one at a time you might also have a better outcome as regardless of whether a medication is needed a child may get used to the effect and removing it suddenly will make it harder on the child.