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N0KFQ > NEWS 24.11.04 20:11l 112 Lines 5245 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: No Child Left Unmedicated
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To : NEWS@ALLUS
Big Brother is on the march. A plan to subject all children to mental
health screening is underway, and the pharmaceuticals are gearing up
for bigger sales of psychotropic drugs.
Like most liberal big-spending ideas, this one was slipped into the
law under cover of soft semantics. Its genesis was the New Freedom
Commission on Mental Health (NFCMH) created by President George W.
Bush in 2002.
The NFCMH recommends "routine and comprehensive" testing and mental
health screening for every child in America, including preschoolers.
President Bush has instructed 25 federal agencies to develop a plan to
implement the Commission's recommendations.
The NFCMH proposes utilizing electronic medical records for mental
health interrogation of both children and adults for mental illnesses
in school and during routine physical exams. The NFCMH also
recommends integrating electronic health records and personal health
information systems.
The NFCMH recommends "linkage" of these mental examinations with
"state-of-the-art treatments" using "specific medications for specific
conditions." That means prescribing more expensive patented
antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs.
Illinois became the first state to jump on board. By near-unanimous
votes in 2003, the Legislature passed the $10 million Illinois
Children's Mental Health Act creating a Children's Mental Health
Partnership (ICMHP), which is expected to become a model for other
states.
The ICMHP's plan, released on July 16, calls for periodic social and
emotional developmental examinations to be administered to all
children, and for all women to be interrogated for depression during
pregnancy and up to a year postpartum. When the ICMHP showcased this
plan with five public hearings stacked with bureaucrats and social
service workers, a political tempest erupted, with state legislators
saying they had no idea this was what they had voted for.
Illinois legislators were shocked to hear the details. The plan
includes periodic developmental exams for children ages 0-18 years, a
statewide data-reporting system to track information on each person,
social-emotional development screens with all mandated school exams
(K, 4th, and 9th), and report cards on children's social-emotional
development.
The plan is to add mental health assessment to the state's physical
examination certificate, along with mandatory immunization records.
All children in Illinois, unless religiously exempt, are required to
have up-to-date health examinations and immunizations for school
entry.
The ICMHP requires the Illinois State Board of Education to develop
and implement a plan that incorporates social and emotional standards
as part of the mandated Illinois Learning Standards, which are due on
the Governor's desk by December 31, 2004. This inevitably opens up
screening for politically incorrect attitudes and non-conformity with
liberal attitudes of tolerance.
Mental health diagnoses are inherently subjective and social
constructions, as even the diagnostic manuals admit. Many thousands
if not millions of children would receive stigmatizing diagnoses that
would follow them for the rest of their lives.
"State-of-the-art treatments" will result in many thousands of
children being medicated by expensive, ineffective, and dangerous
drugs. The long-term safety and effectiveness of psychiatric
medications on children have never been proven.
The side effects of suggested medications in children are severe.
They include suicide, violence, psychosis, cardiac toxicity, and
growth suppression. Several school shooters, such as Eric Harris
(Columbine) and Kip Kinkel (Oregon) had been on antidepressants or
stimulants when they committed their crimes.
The validity of much scientific research has lost its credibility
because the Food and Drug Administration has allowed the
pharmaceutical industry to withhold data not favorable to their
products and because persons in the pay of the pharmaceuticals are the
ones recommending the medications.
The current controversy about links between suicide and antidepressant
drugs that have not been adequately tested has contributed to the
uproar. The FDA posted an analysis in August that some
antidepressants pose a risk of suicide in children.
Parental rights are unclear or non-existent under these mental
screening programs. What are the rights of youth and parents to
refuse or opt out of mental screening?
Will they face coercion and threats of removal from school, or child
neglect charges, if they refuse privacy-invading interrogations or
unproved medications? How will a child remove a stigmatizing label
from his records?
A Columbia University pilot project of screening students called
TeenScreen resulted in one-third being flagged as "positive" for
mental health problems, and half of those being turned over for mental
health treatment. If this is preview of what would happen when 52
million public school students are screened, it would mean hanging a
libelous label on 17 million American children and putting 8 million
children into the hands of the psychiatric/pharmaceutical industry.
November 24, 2004 by Phyllis Schlafly
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