(no subject)

[theweaselking]

A tale of foster care and malpractice.

Desiree was 2½ when she and her 12-year-old brother were placed in foster care in April 2005 after their mother neglected them.

Because the goal of Family Court is to reunite children with their parents, the mother underwent treatments for drug addiction and mental illness to help her reclaim her children.

Desiree, whom a caseworker described as "adorable," was characterized as a normal, "outgoing youngster" when she began foster care. By September 2005, she was in her fourth foster home and reportedly had been abused in two of the previous foster homes. "No details of the alleged abuses are in the record," [Judge] O'Connor said in her ruling, although noting that the girl had a bruise on her buttocks that resembled a bite mark.

In the fourth foster home, Desiree showed separation anxiety when her mother left after visits. The foster mother — who said Desiree had daily, sustained tantrums, bit six people and woke up crying in the night — responded by leaving the girl "alone in her room kicking, crying and screaming, for far longer than the typically recommended one minute of time-out per year of age," O'Connor wrote.

The foster mother also punished Desiree by refusing to allow her to see her older brother.

Although the girl's play therapist and day care workers didn't see the same behavior, a doctor at the county Foster Care Clinic who never saw the girl recommended medicating her with a mind-altering drug, based solely on the foster mother's claim, according to O'Connor's decision.

The doctor recommended that Desiree be given Depakote (divalproex sodium), which was developed to treat manic episodes associated with bipolar disorder. Although little research has been done on the drug's effect on children, a serious side effect can be permanent brain damage.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is what you get when you have a "health care" system run for-profit, and "doctors" who prescribe more, newer, more expensive medication get immediate material rewards for doing it, and who consider diagnosis to be secondary to selling treatment.

Comments

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

You know, I despise our health system as much as might be expected, but where the hell are you getting "doctors" who prescribe more, newer, more expensive medication get immediate material rewards for doing it? Are you under the impression that there's cash kickbacks or something for doctors who write prescriptions? 'Cause I can tell you first hand, there aren't.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Kickbacks, no. The more treatments prescribed, however, the more the doctor gets paid to perform the treatments. The more prescriptions you write with less diagnosis, the more patients you get through and the more consultation fees you bill.

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. I've just heard "OMG DOCTORS GET PAID TO WRITE PRESCRIPTIONS BY TEH DRUG COMPANIES" enough times that my hackles go up easily.

[publius1.livejournal.com]

I can't help but think that the lesson to be drawn here is less one of our crappy health-care system than our crappy foster care system, but enh. YMMV.

[publius1.livejournal.com]

No, but there are incentives, absolutely. No money changes hands, but I've seen enough advertisements on prescription slips, computers, and lab equipment in doctors' officers to know that they're not paying for much of that themselves. I wager that it's happening pre-prescrip though as an incentive to remember to prescribe that particular little pill and/or suppository.

[anivair.livejournal.com]

Also there is the age old problem of knowledge. doctors are just like any other profession. sure they know way jmore about medicine than me, but there are really clever and knowledgeable doctors and really lazy doctors. A really lazy doctor will perscribe you medication because it's well funded and well advertized (since he knows about it) and maybe not perscribe you as effective a treatment as a doctor who is more active and well read. All fields are like that.

[catlin.livejournal.com]

This is why I dispise our foster care system. Because no one cared that that little girl was going through hell, and no one thought it was odd her foster mom would just call the docter and get her medicated for mental illness, without a serious behaviour analysis. Because that little girl had no one to protect her from the evil in the world.

[kali-kali.livejournal.com]

Agreed. This has nothing to do with health care, but all to do with foster care. If people in the foster care system had been doing their job properly, the health care side wouldn't have been an issue.

[ceramufary.livejournal.com]

I agreed. I was a bit surprised by the conclusion weaselking drew here. *shrugs a little* I imagined a harried, worried doctor being bullied by the foster mother into prescribing something to keep the girl quiet. I'm surprised it wasn't valium.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I consider it both.

However, there are not nearly as many victims of the crappy foster system as their are victims of your kleptocratic and nonfunctional "health care" system.

[thette.livejournal.com]

advertisements on prescription slips *boggle*

(You can see my frame of reference in this pdf, page 22 for regular medications, page 23 for narcotic drugs.)