When parents severely abuse or neglect Western Australian children it is the responsibility of the State Government, specifically the Minister for Child Protection Robyn McSweeney, to step in and protect them.  Regardless of whether Minister McSweeney delegates their care to foster parents or provides care in an institution it is her job to make sure their often complex needs are met.

Anecdotal evidence indicates that too many children in Minister McSweeney’s charge are managed rather than cared for.  Managed with a range of psychotropic drugs including, antidepressants, anti-psychotics, amphetamines and anti-anxiety ‘medications’ as a cheap substitute for the intensive support they so desperately need.

On the numerous occasions I have requested hard data about the issue, Minister McSweeney and others in the Barnett Government, including the Premier¹, have refused to provide it. They have consistently argued that, providing this information “would be a significant drain on the Department’s resources”.²  This is the oldest political trick in the book.  Refuse to do the research needed to confirm a problem exists and then you never have to accept responsibility for solving the problem.

Other state governments however, at least know the extent of the problem.  In 2008 the New South Wales Government found out a staggering 50% of children twelve years of age and younger in state government residential care were taking psychotropic medication.  This compared to 2% of their peers.³ Similarly, recent Queensland⁴ and US⁵research indicate that psychotropic medications are the dominant first world method of governments managing damaged children.

Obviously given their tormented history these children are far more likely to have significant mental health issues.  But we treat the causes of these behaviours as if they are biological, i.e. biochemical brain imbalances, rather than being an inevitable result of abuse and neglect.  Surely having been abused and neglected by their carers of first resort, their parents; these blameless, voiceless, victims deserve the very best from their carer of last resort.

Minister McSweeney has no excuse. She is a former child protection worker who in opposition expressed outrage about the number of children ‘medicated’ to control their behaviour.⁶ But now she is in charge, it appears likely that many of these children, having been physically and yes, sometimes sexually abused, are now being chemically abused in the care of Minister McSweeney.

If we continue to turn a blind eye, we doom too many of these children and eventually their children to a perpetual cycle of abuse, neglect, misery and medication.  Let Western Australia at least take a first step by researching the extent of the problem.

The two top priorities identified by the forum were:

1 – The redevelopment of the draft national guidelines on ADHD by a group of mental health experts without commercial ties to the pharmaceutical industry who will ignore commercially tainted evidence and incorporate the emerging evidence of long term harm into their deliberations. (refer to One Year on From the Release of the National ADHD Guidelines)

2 – Urgent action to address the disproportionate use of psychotropic drugs by children in the care of the state (in either foster or institutional care). There is significant evidence that these often previously abused children are being ‘medicated’ with a range of psychotropic drugs as a substitute for safer, more effective, individualised interventions.

Commentary – The issue of the use of psychotropic drugs on children in state care

Although hard data is patchy, there is anecdotal evidence of the widespread use of psychotropic drugs as the primary method of behaviour control for children in the care of welfare authorities across Australia. The issue has attracted some interest in Queensland and New South Wales. On Sunday 12 February 2011 the (Brisbane) Sunday Mail published an article titled ’Foster children doped up in care’ highlighting the issue of the use of ‘ADHD medication’ by children care in Queensland (refer to http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/sunday-mail/foster-children-doped-up-in-care/story-e6frep2f-1226005048486). In 2008 The Australian published an article titled ‘Children in care drugged’ which covered similar concerns about the use of ‘chemical straightjackets’ on New South Wales children in care (refer to http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/children-in-care-drugged/story-e6frg6nf-1111117927563). 

Other states don’t even know the extent of the problem. For example on 5 May 2009 Martin Whitely MLA in the Western Australian Parliament asked of the Minister representing the Minister for Child Protection; What is the number and proportion of children in State care, both in institutions and foster care, that are prescribed the following classes of psychotropic medications: (a) Antidepressants; (b) Antipsychotics; (c) Amphetamines; and (d) Amphetamine-like substances (eg. Methylphenidate)? The reply was that ‘this information is stored on individual case files and is not itemised on the Department’s information management system in a way that is reportable. A manual check of all information on all case files required to provide this information would be a significant drain on the Department’s resources.’  Since then the West Australian Government has refused numerous requests by Martin Whitely MLA to review the use of psychotropic drugs by children in care in WA.

This is an issue that needs urgent attention in Western Australia and across Australia. It is too easy for governments in direct care of children who have very often suffered significant abuse and neglect to rely on drugs to temporarily suppress the child’s troubled behaviours. It is too easy for state governments to avoid the issue. It is a national disgrace that we do not know how many abused Australian Children are going on to be chemically abused in state care.

Update; At least things have not got as bad as they appear to have in Miami Florida a highlighted in this article in the Miami Herald written in May 2011 http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/05/28/2240617/creating.html