Report 2015-131 Recommendation 8 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 #8 To: Madera County

To better ensure that foster children only receive psychotropic medications that are appropriate and medically necessary, counties should implement processes to ensure that foster children receive any needed mental health, psychosocial, behavioral health, or substance abuse services before and concurrently with receiving psychotropic medications.

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

All Recommendations in 2015-131

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.