Report 2015-131 Recommendation 10 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 #10 To: Madera County

To better ensure that foster children only receive psychotropic medications that are appropriate and medically necessary, counties should develop and implement a process for county staff and caregivers to work together to ensure the psychotropic medications are authorized before being provided to foster children. This process should also ensure that the counties obtain accurate medication start dates from caregivers.

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.