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Last updated on Tuesday, August 21, 2018
(INDIANAPOLIS) - The Indiana Department of Child Services (DCS) in conjunction with the Indiana University School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry has released a two-year evaluation of their collaborative initiative to improve prescribing practices for mental health concerns.
"The overuse of psychotropic medications for children and teens in the child welfare system has been a concern for many years in Indiana and across the nation," DCS director Terry Stigdon said. "To keep kids in our system safe, DCS partnered with the IU School of Medicine to make sure doctors are helping those who have complex mental health needs in the best way possible."
The program's goal is to work with local doctors to make sure kids and teens in the care of DCS receive necessary, safe and appropriate psychotropic medications. Whenever there are serious concerns about a child's medications, doctors from the IU Psychiatry department conduct peer-to-peer consultations with the prescribing physician to provide relevant medical recommendations to ensure the child's safety and well-being.
Overall, findings of the independent evaluation indicate the program has achieved significant improvements in unsafe prescribing practices. Specific findings for participating children include the following:
Since the start of the program in 2015, IU doctors reviewed 787 cases and conducted 336 consultations with doctors. Indiana is one of only two states in the country to have conducted this type of evaluation.
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