This is presented here in three parts due to its length. But you can see the full article all at once in its entirety with pictures and links to the videos here:
entire story as it appears on Medical Kidnap
second installment of full story:
Studies Show Children are Worse Off in Foster Care
The evidence continues to shine the light on the grim outcomes of foster care.
In 2007 Joseph Doyle, an economics professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, published a study which tracked at least 15,000 kids from 1990 to 2002. It was the largest study of its kind at that time.
USA Today ran a story on the report – Study: Troubled homes better than foster care. Here are some excerpts:
Children whose families are investigated for abuse or neglect are likely to do better in life if they stay with their families than if they go into foster care, according to a pioneering study. Kids who stayed with their families were less likely to become juvenile delinquents or teen mothers and more likely to hold jobs as young adults.
Doyle’s study…. provides ‘the first viable, empirical evidence’ of the benefits of keeping kids with their families, says Gary Stangler, executive director of the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative, a foundation for foster teens. Stangler says it looked at kids over a longer period of time than had other studies. ‘It confirms what experience and observation tell us: kids who can remain in their homes do better than in foster care,’ says Stangler. read the full study here
USA Today highlights some of Doyle’s findings:
Children who stay in troubled families fare better than those put into foster care. Those who:
Were arrested at least once:
• Stayed with family: 14%
• Went to foster care: 44%
Became teen mothers:
• Stayed with family: 33%
• Went to foster care: 56%
Held a job at least 3 months:
• Stayed with family: 33%
• Went to foster care: 20%
Joseph Doyle did another study, one year later in 2008, comparing children left in troubled homes with foster care children to see which group was more likely to be arrested as adults. The study looked at 23,000 children, and it found that “children placed in foster care have arrest, conviction, and imprisonment rates as adults that are three times higher than those of children who remained at home.” Read the full study here.
Image – Foster Care Prison stats infographic by Adrian Moore. Source.
In another article, National Coalition for Child Protection Reform (NCCPR) shares some case histories of children who were abused in child care, proclaiming:
But in the name of ‘child protection’ children have been beaten. In the name of ‘children’s rights’ children have been raped. And in the name of ‘erring on the side of the child,’ children have been murdered. These are the stories of some of those children. Source
The Truth About Foster Care. Source
The short video below asks whether foster care is a form of neglect, saying:
“When you think about foster homes, usually you think of them as nice places, families helping out children and providing them a safe and comforting home. However, that’s not always the case. More often than you think, children are being abused in these homes.”
Toxic Stress and Drugging Children for Profit
Toxic stress response can occur when a child experiences strong, frequent, and/or prolonged adversity—such as physical or emotional abuse, chronic neglect, caregiver substance abuse or mental illness, exposure to violence, and/or the accumulated burdens of family economic hardship—without adequate adult support. This kind of prolonged activation of the stress response systems can disrupt the development of brain architecture and other organ systems, and increase the risk for stress-related disease and cognitive impairment, well into the adult years. Source.
In the article, Family Preservation is Safer Than Foster Care, the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform (NCCPR), declares:
The failings of America’s child welfare system can be summed up by the very rationalization often used to justify the way it works today, an approach that can be boiled down to ‘take the child and run.’ You’ve probably heard it many times: Sure adults may suffer when their children are needlessly taken away, but, it is claimed, we have to ‘err on the side of the child.’ In fact, there probably is no phrase in the child welfare lexicon that has done more harm to children than ‘err on the side of the child.’
When a child is needlessly thrown into foster care, he loses not only mom and dad but often brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, grandparents, teachers, friends and classmates. For a young enough child it can be an experience akin to a kidnapping. Other children feel they must have done something terribly wrong and now they are being punished.
One major study of foster care ‘alumni’ found they had twice the rate of post-traumatic stress disorder of Gulf War veterans and only 20 percent could be said to be ‘doing well.’
How can throwing children into a system which churns out walking wounded four times out of five be ‘erring on the side of the child’? source
There is a financial benefit for the state to label children as “special needs” and “prescribe” them drugs. Katie Rucke reports in America’s Foster Care System: Test Lab for Big Pharma, Cash Cow for Caretakers?
Of the more than 400,000 children in the U.S. foster care system, it’s estimated that more than 50 percent are on some sort of psychiatric drug.
Money is part of the reason. Foster parents are paid more to take care of a child with mental health issues.
On average, a foster family earns about $17 a day for taking in a child who needs a basic level of care. But a child who is taking drugs such as antidepressants, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, anxiety medications or anticonvulsant medications is worth around $1,000 a day.
And foster parents are not responsible for paying for the medicines, either, as they are covered by Social Security.
Many child and human rights advocates are concerned about the dramatic number of children who are classified as ‘special needs’ after entering the foster care system. One reason doctors, psychiatrists and therapists may not be speaking out against the unnecessary drugging of these children is because those who prescribe the drugs often benefit financially, receiving big payouts from pharmaceutical companies. Source.
Nehemiah Flynt, a former foster parent, adds:
They have an agenda to medicate as many children as they can, to label them with mental health disorders, and to stop anyone who stands in their way – at any cost. Source.
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) offers a search engine to check the side effects of drugs available here.
And how many children in foster care are being used in drug trials and experimentation? Without parents in the way, the state has access to unlimited “guinea pigs” and with no accountability.
Gloria Wright, from Ablechild.org, comments:
As a grandparent and a member and officer of Ablechild, a 501(C) 3 organization, I wish to bring to your attention our cry for the protection of human rights of foster children across America!
Our organization frequently hears from parents across the nation who implore us for assistance in the matter of the clinical trial/experimental drugging of their children while in state custody and in foster care. These children have been placed on clinical trial drugs without a legal advocate responsible for safeguarding their health, or their life. As minors these children are unable to opt out of these tests/experiments, the parents have been denied their right to dissent and there obviously are no procedures in place to safeguard the rights of the children. Source.
(end of second installment–final installment to follow tomorrow)
Once again, the source for this story which is completely presented here but in installments is Medical Kidnap.
Pick up a copy of all my works here: By Peter Weiss
