Pitbull mom wrote:Responsible parents and doctors will always eliminate medical and behavioral issues before trying medication. That being said, I do believe there is some overdiagnosis going on today, as there always has been, and docs who are not specialists sometimes rush too quickly into medication, and some parents look for a "quick fix". Any parent who puts their child on medication needs to do a LOT of homework first.
I agree with you, pitbull, but there are some areas in which coming up with a diagnoses and medicating and
keeping your child medicated is beneficial to the family financially. The type of medication your child is receiving can dictate how much you will receive from the state.
There are presently about
580,000 kids in foster care and the families are paid accordingly:
.........................
Daily............................................................
MonthlyAges 00-12 .... $14.24/Day......................................................
$427/Month per child,+ clothing allowance
Ages 13-18 .... $17.58/Day......................................................
$527/Month per child,+ clothing allowance
If you can manage to get the children diagnosed with something, anything then
your monthly income increases as follows: (Levels indicate the severity of the problem), Ritalin being a Level I maybe and more psychotic would increase you to Level II and Level III.
..............................
Level I.......................
Level II...................................
Level III.............
Ages 00-12.............$5..................................$10..........................................$15.....................an additional
$150 – 450/Month per child,+ clothing allowance
Ages 13-18.............$6..................................$11..........................................$16.....................an additional
$180 – 480/Month per child,+ clothing allowance
Med. Fragile............$8..................................$13..........................................$18.....................an additional
$240 – 540/Month per child, + clothing allowance
The Child Welfare League of America reports, "Approximately 60 percent of all children in out-of-home care have moderate to severe mental health problems [ ... ] Adolescents living with foster parents or in group homes have about four times the rate of serious psychiatric disorders than those living with their own families
A 2001 study found that foster care children were more likely to have a mental health or substance abuse condition than other children receiving MedicaidThe families that have been in the system the longest can get all their kids on medication at a very young age and keep them on the medication even if it means having to relocate the family before the doctor can change his diagnoses. Many of these kids that are placed into foster care have special issues to deal with that other kids don’t have to like:
•
blaming themselves and feeling guilty about removal from their birth parents
• wishing to return to birth parents even if they were abused by them
• feeling unwanted if awaiting adoption for a long time
• feeling helpless about multiple changes in foster parents over time
• having mixed emotions about attaching to foster parents
• feeling insecure and uncertain about their future
• reluctantly acknowledging positive feelings for foster parents But I don’t think this would account for the statistic of medicating these kids at a rate of 60% or better.
The same problem exists in our welfare system also, there are approximately 5,800,000 people receiving welfare as of September and they receive similar incentives to medicate.
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