Posted on 11/24/2004 3:52:54 AM PST by Lindykim
No Child Left Unmedicated by Phyllis Schlafly, November 24, 2004
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.
Eagle Forum • PO Box 618 • Alton, IL 62002 • phone: 618-462-5415 • fax: 618-462-8909 • eagle@eagleforum.org Read this article online: http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2004/nov04/04-11-24.html
ping
bump
pssssst. buy stock in lexapro
And the homeschools will just laugh!
bump for wednesday lead.
Oh George, George. You and every President since Nixon have got to stop trusting the Big Pharma lobby.
A lot of children are suffering from mental illnesses. Perhaps if there were some screening they could be helped before their problems become part of their personality. I think something along these lines is worth studying.
Usually by kindergarten a psychologist can, with the help of teachers, spot the kids who are anti-social.
I don't think the answer is always medication, but sometimes that can help people make a turn-around.
Our society is so busy that children aren't having their emotional and spiritual needs met. They are often tired, poorly fed, and emotionally neglected by tired over-stressed parents. Many have divorced parents.
Many parents don't realize when their child is depressed. They think it is a "phase" until the child commits suicide.
Families used to have parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins. There were people to talk to and guide you. Now children are often home alone after school with the TV.
We hold this truth
That all human beings are created different.That every human being has the right to be mentally free and independent.
That every human being has the right to feel, see, hear, sense, imagine, believe or experience anything at all, in any way, at any time.
That every human being has the right to behave in any way that does not harm others or break fair and just laws.
That no human being shall be subjected without consent to incarceration, restraint, punishment, or psychological or medical intervention in an attempt to control, repress or alter the individual's thoughts, feelings or experiences.
{universal declaration of mental rights and freedoms}
prozacspotlight.org
ping
A little too much abuse of the pen IMO.
There are 163 of them so far. He's on par with WJC.
Already posted here..
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1287349/posts
Psychiatry is not a science it is an educated liberal person stating an opinion. Most of them have a mental illness in my opinion. We have no business messing with kids minds,9 times out of ten discipline problems arent with the kids it is with the parent. Show me an Amish kid who is on prozac.Discipline and work make for good kids, Television,video games and spoiling by parents who believe their kids can do no wrong IS a problem.
( waiting for the post accusing me of wanting to use kids for slave labor) fact is kids need some sort of responsibility around the house when they get old enough.cleaning their own rooms and dumping the trash for instance.
Discipline and work make for good kids,
I'm with you on this one sgt.
A little work never hurt anyone and in most cases, helps everyone.
Amen, Sarge.
The ICMHP is social engineering at its worst; a make jobs program for the educational Bureaucracy.
This scary scenario of putting all children under one 'net' or cookie cut personalities is more than deadly for the future of our country. Home School whenever possible!
Another reason for getting your children OUT of the Federal Schools. Just keeping them home will enhance their safety and there's no way for them not to learn more than they would in public schools just from the tailored attention. Parents must revolt agains this child abuse.
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