Write, Phone, & SPEAK OUT AGAINST Mandatory Mental Health Screening

[Guest guest]

Ok, guys, let's make our voices heard!

Let's contact our senators and congressmen (Federal and state), and make

it known that we OPPOSE this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This type of

legislation sounds like a totalitarian state--keep your voices and your

" non-mainstream " ideas to yourself, or you risk being

DRUGGED--as a child, teenager, or pregnant woman, no

less!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rrrrrrrrrrrrrr . . . . This kind of

stuff REALLY makes me MAD, MAD, MAD!!!!!!!

Doctors Group Opposes Mandatory Mental Health

Tests for Kids

Dave Eberhart, NewsMax.com

Thursday, Nov. 11, 2004

Under new law being considered, the federal government would require that

every child in America undergo psychological screening and receive

recommended treatment, including drug therapies.

Next week the Senate re-convenes to consider an omnibus appropriations

bill that includes funding for grants to implement mandatory universal

mental health screening for almost 60 million children, pregnant women,

and adults through schools and pre-schools.

But officials of the respected Association of American Physicians &

Surgeons (AAPS) decry what they see as “a dangerous scheme that will heap

even more coercive pressure on parents to medicate children with

potentially dangerous side effects.”

One of the most “dangerous side effects” from anti-depressants commonly

prescribed to children is suicide, regarding which AAPS added, “Further,

even the government’s own task force has concluded that mental health

screening does little to prevent suicide.”

The bill would fund initiatives of the “New Freedom Commission on Mental

Health,” including a program designed to subject every school age child

in the country to psychological testing and recommendations for

treatment. The House has already voted to appropriate $20 million for the

plan, and the Senate will be considering whether to bump it up to $44

million.

Last September, AAPS lifetime member Rep. Ron , M.D., R-Tex., tried

to stop the plan by offering an amendment to the Labor, HHS, and

Education Appropriations Act for FY 2005. The amendment received 95 “yes”

votes, but it failed to pass.

tells NewsMax: “At issue is the fundamental right of parents to

decide what medical treatment is appropriate for their children. The

notion of federal bureaucrats ordering potentially millions of youngsters

to take psychotropic drugs like Ritalin strikes an emotional chord with

American parents, who are sick of relinquishing more and more parental

control to government.

“Once created, federal programs are nearly impossible to eliminate.

Anyone who understands bureaucracies knows they assume more and more

power incrementally. A few scattered state programs over time will be

replaced by a federal program implemented in a few select cities. Once

the limited federal program is accepted, it will be expanded nationwide.

Once in place throughout the country, the screening program will become

mandatory.

“Soviet communists attempted to paint all opposition to the state as

mental illness. It now seems our own federal government wants to create a

therapeutic nanny state, beginning with schoolchildren. It’s not hard to

imagine a time 20 or 30 years from now when government psychiatrists

stigmatize children whose religious, social, or political values do not

comport with those of the politically correct, secular state.

“American parents must do everything they can to remain responsible for

their children’s well-being. If we allow government to become intimately

involved with our children’s minds and bodies, we will have lost the

final vestiges of parental authority. Strong families are the last line

of defense against an overreaching bureaucratic state.”

“Congressman and several of his colleagues will never give up,” adds

an AAPS spokesperson. “He and his colleagues have drafted a letter to

Chairman Ralph Regula, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Labor,

Health and Human Services, Education Appropriations, asking for his

help.”

The letter states in part:

“We respectfully request that the following language be included in the

final committee report on the Labor, Health and Human Services, and

Education Appropriations bill for fiscal year 2005, or any report

accompanying an omnibus bill containing the Labor, Health and Human

Services, and Education appropriations for fiscal year 2005:

‘None of the funds made available for State incentive grants for

transformation should be used for any programs of mandatory or universal

mental-health screening that performs mental-health screening on anyone

under 18 years of age without the express, written permission of the

parents or legal guardians of each individual involved.’”

By way of background: in April 2002, President W. Bush created the

New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. Its objective was to enhance

mental health services to those in need.

Among other things, the commission concluded that there is a need to

search for mental disorders – especially in children – and the best way

to do this was with mandatory mental health screening for everyone,

starting with preschoolers.

According to the Commission's 2003 report: “Quality screening and early

intervention should occur in readily accessible, low-stigma settings,

such as primary health care facilities and schools.”

The report goes on to say: “...the extent, severity, and far-reaching

consequences make it imperative that our Nation adopt a comprehensive,

systemic approach to improving the mental health status of

children.”

However, critics of the plan suggest that the random testing of millions

of people makes little sense to anyone but the drug companies that will

stand to profit from the potential customers.

The New Freedom Commission’s proposed treatment programs are based on the

Texas Medication Algorithm Project (TMAP). TMAP, which was first used in

Texas in 1996 and has since expanded to other states, is a set of very

specific medication recommendations – most of them new, expensive,

psychotropic drugs.

Despite the criticisms, the White House has remained solid behind the

testing initiative, noting that the commission found that schools are in

a “key position” to influence the phenomena of young children being

“expelled from preschools and childcare facilities for severely

disruptive behaviors and emotional disorders.”

But detractors are just as adamant that “problem” children in schools are

readily identifiable, making the universal testing an unnecessary tool

that does nothing but infringe on a parent’s right to make decisions

regarding their child’s welfare.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/11/11/140125.shtml