San Jose Mercury News has released part four of its extensive investigation into the high rates of psychiatric drug prescribing to children in foster care in California. “Finding Yolanda: One doctor’s daring approach allowed a troubled girl to emerge from years of a drug-induced haze. Could that success be a model for the entire California foster care system?”
Finding Yolanda (San Jose Mercury News, December 21, 2014)
This is criminal: kids, elderly, women, blacks, poor people… Sick repressive institution.
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“Considering the children that we were treating, I don’t think what was being tried was appropriate,” she said. “There were kids at Lincoln that if they were not on meds, I don’t even want to think about what things would have been like.” “It’s important to say that Ed Levin was a bit of an extremist,” said psychologist Lesleigh Franklin, who led the therapy team at Lincoln.
What a rotten thing to say, and what is that even supposed to mean? Would the kids have been able as opposed to unable to speak, like Yolanda, able to read and write at age 12? Able to be exponentially less aggressive? “Considering the children we were treating.” A bunch of abused foster kids who needed love and care?!?!
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Reminds me of the I believe 5th season of the Wire (I highly recommend the whole show btw). A bunch of kids “diagnosed” with a bunch of things which in fact were results of their social problems and re-mediated by giving them attention and treating them like human beings.
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It’s heartbreaking what is happening to foster children in this country. Why any psychiatrist would believe massively tranquilizing small children will help them deal with traumatic experiences, rather than deter such healing, is beyond me.
Truly the psychiatrists should be required to experience the effects of their own toxic drug cocktails, since they obviously have no idea how sick the psychotropic drugs make people.
Torturing children with psychotropic drugs is morally repugnant.
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ABC 20/20 drugging foster children Part 1 of 3
Part 1: Children reveal painful memories of neglect, heavy duty drug treatments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W8SHEe5y-o
Contrary to psychiatric opinion, children are not “experimental animals.” They are human beings who have every right to expect protection, care, love and the chance to reach their full potential in life. A chance denied them by psychiatry’s labels and chemical straitjackets.
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It is very good that a story with this clear language hits the news, still pretty bad how brief and narrowly it sustains the impression of the general public or how the impact on the media doesn’t stop biopsychiatry’s access to free advertising for a minute–and maybe ramps it up.
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This is an amazing series! I recommend that everyone reads all four parts. I work in foster care advocacy and this series captures what is going on incredibly well. I only wish we could get the NYT or someone big to pick it up. It’s great research and great writing telling a story that really needs to be told.
—- Steve
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