Foster daughter is overmedicated in my opinion. She has been taking medication for ADHD since she was five years old. Her case has gotten passed around from doctor to doctor as she has moved around to different foster homes, back to mom, family members and back to foster care.
Has anyone really taken the time to evaluate the need for this medication? Mom insisted on the medication when fd was a little girl and "bouncing off the walls, talking non-stop". Could it be that mom didn't have the patience for her exuberant daughter because she was dealing with her own issues of addiction and homelessness?
About 18 months ago (after a disrupted guardianship and another move), fd was having sleep issues so the doctor prescribed more medication. Then she started having hallucinations and hearing voices which the doctor determined was a side-effect of the ADHD medication. So the nighttime medication was changed to an anti-psychotic drug used to treat bipolar disorder in adults.
Neither of these drugs are covered by her insurance so "prior authorization" is required periodically from the doctor. The pharmacy is rude and unhelpful and there is always a lapse in medication because neither the pharmacy nor the insurance company care if someone misses medication. And, by the way, you can't just buy a few day's worth of pills while you are waiting for the authorization. And you can't determine ahead of time when the new authorization will be needed. And even if you could, you could not get the pharmacy to submit the request early so you could get it back in time.
This makes the social workers very unhappy since it means more paperwork for them what with having to file an incident report for all the missed medication. This means more lectures for us on the importance of making sure that medication is dispensed according to the doctor's instructions.
What is really amazing is that all of these headaches are because of ADHD medication that only stays in fd's system for 4 hours. Not enough to last through the whole school day, let alone through homework, chores and bedtime routine.
Is this really necessary?
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Formerly known as Snark Bait.
One house, two single moms (twins!) and now way down to one emerging adult, one teenager, one pre-teen, one kindergartener, six pets, and countless absurd adventures in foster/adoptive/guardianship parenting.
Monica's kids: "Squeaker" 14 (daughter, home 2005, adopted July 2008). "The Boss" 5 (son, home 2003, adopted June 2006). Daughter 18 (adopted October 2008) and grandson 4 (now living with his other grandma).
Ana/Auntie's kid: "Lucky" 12 (foster daughter)
Foster parents to 300+ kiddos since 2001.
One house, two single moms (twins!) and now way down to one emerging adult, one teenager, one pre-teen, one kindergartener, six pets, and countless absurd adventures in foster/adoptive/guardianship parenting.
Monica's kids: "Squeaker" 14 (daughter, home 2005, adopted July 2008). "The Boss" 5 (son, home 2003, adopted June 2006). Daughter 18 (adopted October 2008) and grandson 4 (now living with his other grandma).
Ana/Auntie's kid: "Lucky" 12 (foster daughter)
Foster parents to 300+ kiddos since 2001.
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we adopted twins from foster care who were way over medicated. In fact they were on 5 very strong meds.... and for the last 2 years they have needed NONE. They are not even hyper or over active kids. Not even a little.
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