Improving the Oversight and Monitoring of Psychotropic Medication Use among Children in Medicaid

This archived webinar from the TA Network and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration discusses the overuse of psychotropic medication among children and youth with behavioral health needs, particularly among those enrolled in Medicaid.

Overuse is caused by a number of factors, including inadequate screening and assent/misdiagnosis, lack of access to non-pharmacologic intervention, and limited clinical knowledge among child case workers.

The webinar also provides an overview of Oversight and Monitoring, an administrative process that was put in place to ensure that the prescription of psychotropic medication is appropriate, within acceptable limits, and necessarily retrospective. Finally, it provides key strategies to aid in oversight and monitoring, including aggregating data across systems to identify outlier prescribing patterns, investing in training and education for employees who work with this population of youth, improving access to alternative, evidence-based psychosocial interventions, and more.