YIKES

Report: Doc Giving Immigrant Children Psychotropic Drugs Not Board Certified

Dr. Javier Ruíz-Nazario also received upwards of $2,000 from drug manufacturers of pills he prescribed.

A psychiatrist who has been giving immigrant children psychotropic medications at a federally-funded residential treatment center for youths has not been certified by the medical board to work with children for almost 10 years, according to Reveal. Dr. Javier Ruíz-Nazario has been named in a lawsuit that claims that children were forced to take medications at Shiloh Treatment Center regardless of their condition and without their parent’s consent. In documents, Ruíz-Nazario is often named as the prescribing doctor, though he lost his child psychiatry license in 2010 when he failed to meet board requirements—including taking courses and an exam. Ruíz-Nazario also received $2,576 between 2013 and 2015 from the manufacturers of Seroquel XR, Latuda, and Zoloft—which were all prescribed to the children at Shiloh. The Office of Refugee Resettlement does not require psychiatrists at contracted facilities to be board-certified, but does require the administering of psychotropics to be from certified doctors.