History
Introduction
Research has shown that youth in state care are at high risk for severe emotional and behavioral disturbances. A substantial number of these children and adolescents are receiving psychotropic medications as part of their overall care plan.
As the legal guardian for approximately 15,000 youth in state custody, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (IDCFS) is responsible to provide consent for the psychiatric treatment of youth in Illinois state care.
The provision of consent and oversight of treatment for youth in state custody presents a few challenges for DCFS:
- Children in state care can experience frequent placement changes, making longitudinal oversight of a youth’s care more difficult.
- Placement changes often result in physician changes and loss of medical histories. Youth in care's psychotropic medication regimens may not be adequately managed or maintained, without uninterrupted monitoring of lab work, side effects, symptom presentation, and other clinical details that indicate what psychotropic medication is safe and effective for a youth in care. Ultimately, such continuous care and monitoring can protect against youth in care having excessive, unsafe, or contraindicating psychotropic medication regimens.
- DCFS does not have the medical knowledge to provide informed consent for the use of psychotropic medications in youth in their care.
In addition to reviewing medication requests, the objectives of the Clinical Services in Psychopharmacology are to:
- Provide expert consultation on particularly complex cases
- Notify the DCFS’ Office of the Guardian and Advocacy when prescribers warrant further review
- Disseminate information on new pharmaceutical developments and alerts to physicians who serve DCFS youth in care
- Train DCFS staff on caseworker-specific protocols for monitoring youth in care's psychotropic medication regimens