behavior

In the late 1990s, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Kaiser Permanente published a landmark study showing that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can have a long-lasting negative impact on a person’s overall health and well-being as they enter adulthood.

Research by the Texas-based organization Upbring explores the prevalence of special health care needs (SHCN) of children involved in the United States child welfare system. Its third white paper, entitled “Special Health Needs of Children Investigated for Maltreatment”, finds that behavioral SHCNs are more predictive of out-of-home placement than physical needs.

In the debate about children and psychotropic medications, everyone is looking for better outcomes. Foster youth are seeking to assert more control over their lives and their health care, and they want people to understand that medications alone cannot fix the hurt they feel.