25 Percent of Colorado Foster Kids Being Heavily Medicated?

An article in today's 7-News online addition showed that 25 percent of Colorado foster kids are on psychotropic medications.  (Click For Article)  As a foster parent in Adams County, I have to say that this does not surprise me, but it did make me take a second look at the situation.

What We Know:  Over the past 5 years, we have had over 16 children through our home.  Not one has come to us on medications and we have never requested medication for any of them.  I don't say this to claim that medicating is innately wrong, but Jennifer and I see it as a very last resort.  We have had, and still
have children who have behavioral issues that definitely push into the realm of bipolar and have had friends with children who were schizophrenic and the claim by "officials" (whoever they are) that this is caused by extreme trauma is well founded.  The vast majority of children who have been in our home have been traumatized.  Some of these kids see and experience things that we could only imagine but even those who have not dealt with physical or emotional abuse or even neglect were still traumatized the day they were removed from their parents.  If they are in the system, it's because their little lives are screwed up and their hearts a broken.  Many people see medicating as the only way to overcome the acting out that occures because of this.

Our Take:  The fact is that there is a lot of hurting in our world and the kids in the foster system are the result of this hurt.  A pastor of ours used to say "hurting people hurt people", and it's true.  These kids were hurt because their parents were hurt somewhere along the way and the chain probably doesn't end there.  This is a problem that goes way beyond drugs, therapy or government intervention.  When the Bible says " . . . and the greatest of these is love (I Cor. 13:13) it is speaking to all of us whether you believe in God or not.  The fact is that Love is the only thing that will ever fix this problem.  It takes society reaching out to the hurting and lost and caring for them.  And no, I'm not trying to say that just loving a broken kid will fix them.  It's much deeper than that.  It takes generations of love to overcome and change the paths these kids are on so that the cycle does not continue.

What We Do:  What Jennifer and I do every day and will continue doing as long as we are blessed with the patience to do so is to love these kids, love their birth families and love everyone involved.  Sometimes this means fighting for what is right.  Sometimes this may mean medicating a child.  But it is our belief that God does not want to see any of these kids get lost.  For that reason we will continue working to "Heal these Little Hearts".