MENTAL HEALTH

Up to 80 percent of children in foster care have significant mental health issues, compared to approximately 18-22 percent of the general population. 

Youth in foster care are prescribed psychotropic medications at a much higher rate (ranging from 13 to 52 percent) than youth in the general population (4 percent). 

Because of the complex traumas faced by children and youth in foster care, foster care alumni experienced posttraumatic stress disorder at a rate nearly five times higher than the general adult population.