Dr. April Ping is a pediatrician in Livingston county. She's known by foster parents in her area as somebody who understands the complications the foster care system brings, and the health concerns it creates for kids.

The mental health care concerns for kids in the system can be extensive. Ping says she is the only pediatrician in her current practice, and the practice before this one, with extra training to meet these needs. “There are doctors in this county being forced to do it," she says. "They don’t have any extra training, or knowledge or interest."

By necessity and inclination, Ping has embraced her role in what is Michigan's very imperfect system of mental health care for vulnerable kids. The system relies heavily on pediatricians to plan and monitor the complicated diagnosis and treatment process child psychiatrists are better trained and more qualified to do. That is especially true when psychotropic medications are part of the treatment plan.

Powerful drugs for young bodies.

Psychotropics are a huge class of drugs that alter mood or behavior that range from anti-psychotics to ADHD medication. These pills certainly help millions of people, but data going back decades show kids in the foster care system are somewhere between 3 to 5 times more likely to be put on psychotropic drugs than kids outside that system.

For more on this article by Sarah Alvarez see: http://stateofopportunity.mich...s-psychotropic-drugs