A Digital Solution to the Overprescription of Medications for Foster Children

A Digital Solution to the Overprescription of Medications for Foster Children | Wendy Lazarus:

For children and youth in foster care, instability and disorder can be one of few constants. First, a troubled home life leads to a sudden break from families and kin. Once in foster care, such kids will likely change homes, schools and care providers several times each year. This instability disrupts crucial relationships and causes essential information to be lost in the shuffle between placements and homes. Gaps in critical information become especially problematic when it comes to health. One particular example is when children and youth in foster care require ongoing medication management and careful handoffs between medical providers -- or when past treatments were ineffective or inappropriate. This isn't just hypothetical: we now know that children and youth in foster care are prescribed powerful mood-changing drugs--including those used to treat ADHD, anxiety, depression, and psychosis -- at rates 2.7 to 4.5 times higher than other children in Medicaid. While sometimes appropriate, these high rates suggest widespread overprescribing. Fortunately, a number of technology-enabled information-sharing initiatives may soon address the gaps in information and lapses in oversight that contribute to this problem.