A National Examination of Informed Consent Processes for Psychotropic Medication Use among Youth In Foster Care: A Typology of Approaches to Informed Consent and Implications for Policy and Practice

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Medicaid-insured youth in foster care hold rates of psychotropic medication prescribing more than four-fold that of the Medicaid-insured children not in foster care. Given the charge of child welfare agencies to serve in loco parentis or “in place of the parents,” child welfare assumes unique responsibilities in how they ensure processes of informed consent and shared decision-making in psychotropic medication prescribing for youth in foster care. Given calls for patient-centered medicine and limited detail on the ‘state of the states’ in provision of informed consent, this paper examines how …