Battlefield Indiana - Screening starts At birth

[Guest guest]

Various legislators and groups in Indiana are fighting screening. They need our

backup. E-mail addresses for Indiana legislators are listed at the bottom.

Please write to them.

If we can stop this is Indiana, the effects can reverberate to other states who

will take notice of the public opposition.

On Oct. 25, 2006 the Indiana Commission on Mental Health is meeting to discuss

the plan to screen young ones for mental illness from birth to 22 year of age.

This is the result of a bill that was passed by Indiana legislators in 2005 who

didn't bother to read it and now are having 2nd thoughts.

Ed Sparks edsparks@... of EdAlert.com of Indianapolis, Indiana, " an

educational alert for our youth's future " is one of the Indiana fighters. You

can find Mr. Sparks' critique of the Indiana plan here:

http://edalert.com/edissues/TEENSCREEN/intro.php

Since most of the members on this Commission are either affiliated with drug

companies or the mental industry we need to appeal to the legislators of Indiana

instead.

If you can attend the Commission meeting in Indianapolis on October 25 please do

so. You can find the meeting notice here:

http://www.in.gov/legislative/interim/committee/comh.html If you have any

contacts in Indiana - please let them know.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), a pharmaceutical company front

group is heavy on pushing the plan to screen Indiana kids.

Messages to drive home to legislators:

1. Trash the Children's Social, Emotional and Behavioral Health Plan

2. Repeal SEA 529 (Senate Enrolled Act - this is the law that mandates

screening.)

3 Anything you want to say about mental health screening. TeenScreen is not

mentioned specifically. Yet.

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Herald Republican

Children's mental health plan to be finalized Oct. 25

BY CINDY BEVINGTON

Sunday, October 15, 2006

INDIANAPOLIS - Members of a commission charged with reviewing a legislated

mental health plan for children apparently disagree on wording in the plan, and

what recommendation, if any, the commission should make on it to the Indiana

General Assembly.

Rep. Noe, R-Indianapolis, chairs the Commission on Mental Health. The

group met Wednesday and heard presentations by various state agency heads,

including Family and Social Services Administration secretary Mitch Roob. Roob

reported on the progress the state is making toward revamping the way Indiana

deals with various social services, including mental health issues.

He talked about how far along the state has come with state hospital

reorganization, in particular, saying that he believes Indiana now has a

continuum of care that has come together for consumers.

He also announced that the state not only is rebuilding the LaRue Center

in a partnership with Clarian Health, but also will be partnering with a " large

local pharmaceutical firm " for drug research on what works effectively for

mental illness. The new building in downtown Indianapolis will house 150 beds

and will include an Indiana University research building.

The present building is greatly limited in both its ability to provide optimum

in-patient services and to conduct research in mental health care, he said.

" This is not an inexpensive opportunity, " Roob said. " But, we think it's an

investment that is important. "

Hints of discordance

Another presenter, Amy Korozos of the Indiana Bar Association and incoming chair

of the Bar's Civil Rights Committee for Children, gave a summary on her

committee's study on pilot projects for mental health screening for children

coming into the juvenile detention system.

ph Vanable, president of the Indiana chapter of the National Alliance on

Mental Illness, called on the commission, along with Indiana legislators, to

refer to mental health care as an investment rather than an avoidable cost.

Quoting from the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, Vanable

reminded commission members that the cost of untreated mental illness makes it

imperative that society make treatment a goal.

While a polite round of questions generally followed each presenter, it was the

Children's Social, Emotional and Behavioral Health Plan - which a Department of

Education task force presented at the commission's last meeting - that generated

some sparks among commission members.

The health plan is part of Indiana code, Noe started out, explaining that she

had been trying to find out where the document's language originated, and how

much of the actual plan's directives is on-code or off-code.

" What I found is that the Mental Health Commission has been asked to study this,

but has no power to stop or adopt it, " Noe said. " It has been written, adopted

and presented to the state school board, and the state school board now is

responsible for writing the rules for implementation. "

When commission member Abigail Flynn, of Fort Wayne - who also serves as a

member-at-large on the board of directors for Indiana NAMI - asked at what point

in a child's life the mental health plan begins, Noe replied, " At birth. "

Then, when another commission member, Caroline Doebbling, a psychiatrist of

Indianapolis, voiced concern about how expansive the plan is and that she wasn't

whole-heartedly behind screening every Indiana child for mental illness, the

friction began. And, she said that while she supported the plan and the law that

created it, she also was worried about losing all the good in the law and plan

for the sake of universal screening.

" I have definite thoughts about this that don't support (screening for mental

illness) from birth to 22, " Doebbling said.

Noe followed with the revelation that several legislators had admitted to her

that they " didn't have a clue " about what was in the law when they voted for it,

and that they would like to look at it again, now that the plan was finished.

Noe also suggested that the commission perhaps strike some of the most

controversial language from the law and plan, such as a section that calls for

mental health screening in schools. And, finally, she said she felt that, since

the legislature had created this law, that the lawmakers should at least have a

second-chance look at it in a legislative committee.

Those ideas didn't go down well, however, with supporters of the testing and the

mental health plan.

Several people commented that the law does not mandate testing, as some

opponents to it have said (even though the wording in the law regarding testing

is " shall, " which usually means a mandate).

Noe countered with three or four different options that the committee could

choose for modifying the law's language. But, each time, dissenters argued

against her ideas

Even as Noe persisted in her desire to allow the Legislature another look, Flynn

chastised her, asking why the commission couldn't just vote on it, rather than

letting legislators get their hands on it again. She was afraid that the

" appropriateness for screening of some kind is going to be lost in the shuffle, "

Flynn said.

Finally, Noe said that she would take everyone's input into consideration, and

would draft a few sample changes that the commission could discuss at its next

meeting, Oct. 25. She also promised that this meeting, the commission's last,

would devote most of its time to discussing the mental health plan.

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Some basic facts you may be able to use when writing:

http://www.petitiononline.com/TScreen/petition.html

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