Foster Care Mental Health

Up to 80 percent of children in foster care have significant mental health issues, compared to approximately 18-22 percent of the general population.

As a result of these increased mental health issues, foster youth are prescribed psychotropic medications at a much higher rate than non-foster youth, costing the state, through fee-for-service programs such as Medicaid, millions of dollars a year.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, Healthy Foster Care American Initiative, identifies mental and behavioral health as the “greatest unmet heath need for children and teens in foster care.”

Factors contributing to the mental and behavioral health of children and youth in foster care includes the history of complex trauma, frequently changing situations and transitions, broken family relationships, inconsistent and inadequate access to mental health services and the over-prescription of psychotropic medications.