https://californiahealthline.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2016/01/statetakessteps.mp3

In a California Healthline report by Erika Kelly, experts discussed the higher rates in prescribing of psychotropic medications — including greater use of antipsychotic drugs — among foster youth in California. Three new laws were passed in the recent legislative session to mend the foster system, but advocates wonder if small steps will ever add up to big change.

The report includes comments from:

Former foster child Shanequa Arrington;

State Sen. Jim Beall (D-San Jose);

Public health nurse Susan Bullard from Madera County;

Bill Grimm, senior attorney at the National Center for Youth Law in Oakland;

Anna Johnson, policy advocate at the National Center for Youth Law;

Cathy Senderling-McDonald, deputy executive director of the California Welfare Directors Association; and

Mike Wofford, chief of pharmacy policy in the Pharmacy Benefits Division of the state Department of Health Care Services (Kelly, California Healthline, 10/14)

You can download a PDF of this report.