Mental health group: Kids on psychiatric drugs not well monitored

State government spent nearly $10 million providing psychiatric drugs to more than 6,000 children in a six-month period last year, in a mental health system that an advocacy group on Wednesday labeled "out of control."

"Our contention is that no one is paying attention to a system that is out of control, costly and potentially harmful to some children and adolescents in Vermont," Ken Libertoff, executive director of the Vermont Association for Mental Health, told reporters.

"Drugs have greatly replaced clinical interventions and counseling in the world of children's mental health and we need to change this environment in Vermont," said Libertoff, who got his figures on cost and children's participation from a state report.

Both Mental Health Commissioner Michael Hartman and Joshua Slen, director of the state Office of Health Access, agreed that the use of psychiatric prescription drugs with Vermonters under 18 is a cause for concern.


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