Why is This Happening?

This is an easy The prescribing of psychiatric drugs to a large portion of the foster care population does not benefit most of the children who are forced to take them. Although most children don't benefit, there are a number of people who do benefit. Foster parents are placed into an unbelievably difficult position because they need to care for a child that in many cases has anger problems and acts out. Due to these difficult circumstances, the foster parents seek the quick fix. Psychiatric drugs are an alternative to counseling, which would take months and results would come little at a time. So the easiest solution for the parents is to allow these drugs to be prescribed and administered to the children. Most children who see psychiatrists are then told that they have a " problem" and are often given drugs the help them cope with this "problem." It is very difficult to gauge what percentage of these children actually need these drugs because such a large number of them are prescribed. The Psychiatrists and drug companies benefit from drugging foster children financially. In 2007, drug companies made about 37.9 million dollars on psychiatric drugs given to foster children. The psychiatrists benefit because for every child they see and prescribe to, they receive money from the government through public health programs such as medicaid. As we know from the recent scandals on wall street, financial benefits outweigh moral obligations in most cases. These three groups all rely on each other which has created the current dangerous cycle of over drugging foster children.