Jeb's DCF drugging emotionally disturbed foster children

[DoYouEverWonder]

More DCF stonewalling

Palm Beach Post Editorial
Friday, December 19, 2003

The Florida Department of Children and Families didn't like a watchdog group's criticism that the agency is drugging emotionally disturbed foster children. So DCF is focusing its energies on... silencing the critics.

In a similar effort to hush queries about the agency's misbehavior, DCF Secretary Jerry Regier has ordered his staff to stop speaking to a state legislator who disagreed with the department's rate cuts for contractors that help the developmentally disabled. Mr. Regier says Rep. Susan Bucher, D-Royal Palm Beach, was rude when demanding information. Rep. Bucher says she wanted answers for alarmed parents among her constituents.

If Mr. Regier were doing his job for the state's most vulnerable residents, he wouldn't feel the need to hide behind privacy laws and pouty memos. As usual, though, DCF is focused on the criticism, not on the problem. Since September, when the Statewide Advocacy Council reported widespread, unsupervised use of psychiatric drugs among children in state care, DCF has denied the group medical records of DCF clients, citing patient confidentiality. Yet in a letter to The Palm Beach Post on Oct. 16, Mr. Regier claimed that DCF is cooperating:

<snip>

The time and money Mr. Regier is wasting to seek self-serving legal interpretations of the HHS letter would be better spent investigating the hundreds of children in foster care who continue to be doped up without medical evaluation or monitoring for harmful side effects. More than half of the 1,180 girls and boys whose files SAC reviewed were on psychotropic drugs paid for by Medicaid, though many had not been prescribed by psychiatrists.



These guys are a real piece of work. Just say no to drugs, unless you happpen to be an emotionally disturbed foster child under Jeb's care. DCF has been one scandal after another since Jeb took over. Then in the summer of 2002 Jeb brought in his good buddy religious fundie Regier to straighten things out. Seems like these guys have some odd ideas about how to deal with children. Since Jeb now thinks he's a medical expert, I guess these kids don't need to be monitored by a physican. Just dope 'em up, Dr. Jeb's got everything under control.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. A favorite tactic

by that type for the young and old alike. :(