Page 2 - Congregate Care News Today

This month, approximately 90 children from Montana were attending facilities approved by Montanas Medicaid program in 10 other states.

The high demand for treatment for troubled children has led MT health officials to send kids to programs in other states with less stringent oversight.

State health officials are using Medicaid funds to send children in their care to treatment programs in states with less stringent regulations.

Good philanthropic intentions fueled efforts to severely limit the number of foster children placed in group settings. But the movement has gone too far. More such facilities are needed for kids whose mental and behavioral challenges make placing them with families extremely difficult.

Individual states begin looking into and regulating the 'troubled teen industry' but advocates say more is needed on the federal level.

Five days after Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed a law meant to provide stronger oversight of the more than 100 residential youth treatment programs operating in the state, a 12-year-old boy arrived at one of them, Provo Canyon School. Before long, he was forced into seclusion, denied communication with his family and given antipsychotic medication without parental permission, according to relatives.

No federal laws govern these private, for-profit residential treatment programs, boot camps, and wilderness programs. That’s left regulation largely to the states, with mixed results.

Advocates say new state laws in Utah, Montana and elsewhere aren’t enough to effectively regulate programs for troubled teens.

This was the third-annual bipawtisan Halloween party, where lawmakers parade their dogs in costume around the Capitol. Many dogs made political statements with their attire.

Hilton and other survivors say they don’t want any more teenagers to go through what they once endured.