Report 2015-131 Recommendation 6 Responses

Report 2015-131: California's Foster Care System: The State and Counties Have Failed to Adequately Oversee the Prescription of Psychotropic Medications to Children in Foster Care (Release Date: August 2016)

Recommendation #6 To: Madera County

To better ensure that foster children only receive psychotropic medications that are appropriate and medically necessary, counties should implement procedures to more closely monitor requests for authorizations for foster children's psychotropic medications that exceed the state guidelines for multiple prescriptions, specific age groups, or dosage amounts. When prescribers request authorizations for prescriptions that exceed the state guidelines, counties should ensure the new court authorization forms contain all required information and, when necessary, follow up with prescribers about the medical necessity of the prescriptions. Counties should also document their follow-up monitoring in the foster children's case files. In instances in which counties do not believe that prescribers have adequate justification for exceeding the state guidelines, the counties should relay their concerns and related recommendations to the courts or parents.

6-Month Agency Response

Madera County revised the JV220 Psychotropic Medication Policy and Procedure Guidelines (PPG) to ensure that foster children only receive psychotropic medications that are appropriate and medically necessary. While our 6 month response only included recommendation "6", we agreed with the entire list of recommendations included in the Auditor's report and incorporated our compliance efforts into the PPG.

Documentation will be emailed to dalec@auditor.ca.gov under separate cover.

Training was provided to all CWS staff on May 3,2017.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Fully Implemented

60-Day Agency Response

This is included in our current policy and procedure guide, but will be an ongoing training process as new staff are hired and have children recommended/placed on psychotropic medication.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2015-131

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.