The goals of the legislative bill are to require the Department of Human Services to regulate the use of psychotropic medication for children in state custody and assure they are provided with the appropriate mental health care.  Benefits which may come from the proposed solution are less tragedies resulting from incorrect medication administration and alternatives to mental health without medication.

Currently all children in foster care are eligible to receive services.  The people who stand to lose in this particular case would be health care providers, Medicaid, and drug companies since they are the ones who make money off these drugs.  The conflict is between drug companies, physicians and child advocates.  Drug companies do not want to lose the millions of dollars they make off prescriptions issued to foster children while child advocates clearly see foster children being over-medicated without their consent as a human rights violation.  Some physicians feel monitoring prescriptions too closely may discourage psychiatrists from treating foster children all together, but someone needs to be held accountable.   The intended outcome is children may be prescribed medication, but the administration of the medication would need to be closely monitored.  No one seems to be willing to take responsibility.

An unintended consequence of the following solution would be more work for the foster parents and case managers.  If the bill passes and children need to be monitored more closely, the responsibility may fall on these already overworked people.  A provision has not been made to address them; but a possible provision would be placing more responsibility on the psychiatrists writing the prescriptions.