Fight Mental Health Screening For Children
by Kent Snyder
The
American tradition of parents deciding what is best for their children is, yet
again, under attack. The pharmaceutical industry has convinced President Bush
to support mandatory mental-health screening for every child in America,
including preschool children, and the industry is now working to convince
Congress as well. But mandatory screening alone is not what the pharmaceutical
industry wants. The real payoff for the drug companies is the forced drugging
of children that will result -- as we learned tragically with Ritalin - even
when parents refuse.
Congressman Ron Paul, an OB/GYN physician for over 30 years, is desperately
trying to keep the drug companies, politicians and federal bureaucrats from
becoming parents to your children. Dr. Paul will introduce on Wednesday
afternoon or Thursday morning (whenever the floor schedule allows) an
amendment to the Labor, HHS, and Education Appropriations Act for FY 2005 that
will withhold funds for this new federal mental-health-screening program. He
will urge his congressional colleagues to support his effort in a letter to be
distributed tomorrow morning.
Psychotropic drugs are increasingly prescribed for children who show nothing
more than children's typical rambunctious behavior. Many children have
suffered harmful effects from these drugs.
Dr. Paul's letter says in part: "As you know, psychotropic drugs are
increasingly prescribed for children who show nothing more than children's
typical rambunctious behavior. Many children have suffered harmful effects
from these drugs. Yet some parents have even been charged with child abuse for
refusing to drug their children. The federal government should not promote
national mental health screening programs that will force the use of these
psychotropic drugs such as Ritalin."
If you think this
action alert is about something that "can't happen here," think again. In
1995, the state of Texas launched the Texas Medication Algorithm Project.
(WorldNetDaily.com, June 21, 2004)
Universal mental health screening and the drugging of children needs to be
stopped. America's school children should not be medicated by expensive,
ineffective, and dangerous medications.
The state of Illinois has also approved a mental health screening program. The
Illinois legislature passed the Children’s Mental Health Act of 2003 which
will provide screening for "all children ages 0-18" and "ensure appropriate
and culturally relevant assessment of your children's social and emotional
development with the use of standardized tools." In addition, all pregnant
women in Illinois are to be screened for depression.
Dr. Karen R. Effrem, another physician and leading opponent of mandatory
screening recently stated, "Universal mental health screening and the drugging
of children, as recommended by the New Freedom Commission [presidential
commission], needs to be stopped so that many thousands if not millions of
children will be saved from receiving stigmatizing diagnoses that would follow
them for the rest of their lives. America's school children should not be
medicated by expensive, ineffective, and dangerous medications based on vague
and dubious diagnoses."
Dr. Effrem warns of the following:
Parental rights are unclear or non-existent under these screening programs.
Parents are already being coerced to put their children on psychiatric
medications and some children are dying because of it.
Mental health screening does not prevent suicide.
Mental health diagnoses are “subjective” and “social constructions” as
admitted by the authors of the diagnostic manuals themselves.
Most psychiatric medications do not work in children.
The side effects of these medications in children are severe.
The untoward influence by the pharmaceutical industry, or at least the
impropriety, is abundantly clear in two important aspects of this issue.
Merging screening with the academic standards required by No Child Left
Behind, as is happening in Illinois, will lead to diagnosis for political
reasons. School mental health and violence prevention programs funded by NCLB
and government counterterrorism operations are already using such criteria as
"homophobia" and "defenders of the US Constitution against federal government
and the UN" to label school children and US citizens as mentally unstable and
violent.
Texas first...Illinois second...and the rest of America to follow if we aren't
successful within the next 24 to 36 hours. We'll be calling on House members'
offices tomorrow asking for votes in favor of Dr. Paul's amendment to stop
this forced, federal mental-health screening.
Join concerned citizens from Eagle Forum, Gun Owners of America, the
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Concerned Women of America,
Freedom 21, the Alliance for Human Research Protection, and the International
Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology to get Dr. Paul’s amendment
passed.
One last note...if mental-health screening for every American child isn't bad
enough, how about mandatory mental-health screening for every American adult?
Yes, that's coming too. The final report of the President's New Freedom
Commission on Mental Health states, "Both children and adults will be screened
for mental illnesses during their routine physical exams."
The Psycho State (by Congressman Ron Paul)
