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Los Angeles County experts call for better substance-use screening and cautious use of psychotropic drugs for youth in care
Summary
On the Talk to Me podcast, child welfare and clinical experts urged improved identification and engagement of system-involved youth with substance-use problems, warned against using psychotropic medications to control behavior, and said medications for substance-use disorders should be accessible earlier in treatment.
On the Talk to Me podcast, Los Angeles County child-welfare and clinical experts said efforts to identify and engage youth in the foster care and juvenile justice systems who are using substances need to improve, and they urged caution and close monitoring when psychotropic medications are prescribed.
The discussion matters because system-involved young people are often subject to both clinical and judicial oversight; Michael Nash, executive director of the Los Angeles County Office of Child Protection, noted that in California “by a quirk of law, judges here in California have the obligation to approve or disapprove the use of psychotropic medications for system involved children.” That judicial role, the guests said, heightens the need for careful clinical practice and oversight.
Dr. Scott Hunter, a child and adolescent addiction psychiatrist who runs a…
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