November 18, 2018
Imagine you’re 12 years old. Since entering foster care, you’ve been given powerful drugs to control your behavior. You’re prescribed six medications at once, including lithium and two antipsychotics. Your new foster mother never received your medical history.
This is the story of just one boy, Joe*, who Children’s Rights is representing in a class action lawsuit that seeks to hold government authorities in Missouri accountable. On any given day, thousands of children in foster care across the country are administered psychotropic medications to address mental health and behavioral issues. Some of these children receive combinations of two, three, or more such medications at a time, often in elevated dosages. Some, like Joe, are even placed on antipsychotics, which led him to say, “I feel like I have knives in my eyes.”
* To protect anonymity and privacy, names have been changed to protect innocent minors.