|
|
Bush
- Labeling Kids Mentally Ill For Profit
By
Evelyn Pringle
Citing
recommendations by the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health (NFC), Bush
wants to launch a nationwide mental illness screening program in government
institutions, including the public school system, for all students from
kindergarten up to the 12th grade.
The
New Freedom Commission was established by an Executive Order Bush issued on
April 29, 2002. According to a July 22, 2003, press release, the Commission
recommends transforming
“Achieving
this goal will require greater engagement and education of first line health
care providers - primary care practitioners - and a greater focus on mental
health care in institutions such as schools, child welfare programs, and the
criminal and juvenile justice systems. The goal is integrated care that can
screen, identify, and respond to problems early,” the Commission’s press
release stated.
According
to the NFC, its recommendations are being already being promoted in Alaska;
Arizona; Arkansas; California; Colorado; Connecticut; Delaware; Florida;
Georgia; Hawaii; Idaho; Illinois; Indiana; Kansas; Kentucky; Louisiana;
Maryland; Massachusetts; Michigan; Montana; Nebraska; New Hampshire; New
Jersey; New Mexico; New York; North Carolina; North Dakota; Ohio; Oklahoma;
South Carolina; Tennessee; Texas; Utah; Virginia; Washington; West Virginia;
Wisconsin; and Wyoming.
The
truth is, this is nothing but another Bush profiteering scheme to implement a
drug treatment program for use in the public institutions that will generate
high volume sales of the relatively new, but inadequately tested, high-priced
psychiatric drugs. If all goes as planned, the scheme will generate millions
of new customers for the drug companies.
Original
Scheme Hatched In
The
commission’s final report identifies what it claims are several model
programs as examples of how aspects of mental health care have been
transformed in selected communities. One program is the Texas Medication
Algorithm Project (TMAP), a medication treatment program that screens people
for mental illness and then prescribes highly profitably psychiatric drugs.
However,
the plan came under intense scrutiny when it was implemented in the state of
Through
the
After
securing access to the public systems, the next step in the
The
number of children on antidepressant medication increased by over 500% between
1999 and 2003. Antidepressants and anti-psychotics now constitute two of the
four top classes of drug sales. For example, Zyprexa is manufactured by Eli
Lilly and is one of the drugs on the list in
In
2003, it became Eli Lilly’s top seller with worldwide sales of over $4
billion. According to the New York Times, 70% of the Zyprexa purchased in the
During
the 2000 presidential election year, Lilly gave over $1.5 million to political
candidates and over 80% that $1.5 million went to Bush and other Republican
candidates. Many members of the New Freedom Commission also have ties to
the pharmaceutical industry and have served on drug company advisory boards.
What’s
In Store For Us
The
NFC appointed 15 subcommittees to review of the mental health service delivery
system and appointed a Chair for each one. Several other Commissioners served
on each subcommittee, and chose experts to provide advice and support. The
experts prepared discussion papers that outlined key issues and presented
policy options for consideration by the full subcommittee. The subcommittee
reported to the full Commission only in summary form, on which the full
Commission reached a consensus on the policy options that would be included in
its final report entitled, “Achieving the Promise: Transforming Mental
Health Care in America.”
A
February 5, 2003, summary report by the Policy Options Subcommittee on
Medicaid, began by stating, “An effective and comprehensive mental health
system must rely on many sources of financing. Many States have made
significant use of flexibility in the Medicaid program to support their
systems of care. This has resulted in Medicaid being the largest payer of
public mental health services in the country.”
The
report outlined the following recommendations:
Enhance
Service Delivery
1.
Public financing should support evidenced-based practices that are necessary
and effective for successful community living.
2.
Medicaid financial incentives and opportunities for the most appropriate
community-based care should be increased.
Enhance
Service Planning and Coordination
1.
Federal leadership should guide and facilitate improved planning among State
agencies that fund and implement services for persons with mental illness.
2.
The federal government should assure proper data collection and reporting to
facilitate and support mental health planning and quality management at all
levels of the public mental health system.
One
February 5, 2003, report by a subcommittee titled, Promoting, Preserving and
Restoring Children’s Mental Heath, began in part, by saying, “Mental
health problems among children and adolescents constitute a public health
crisis for our nation. ... The extent, severity, and far-reaching consequences
of mental health problems in children and adolescents make it imperative that
our nation adopt a comprehensive, systematic, public health approach to
improving the mental health status of children,” the report said. The
approach, the report advised, should focus on “both strengthening services
and supports for children with serious emotional disorders and their families,
and on prevention and early intervention strategies for all children.”
The
subcommittee wanted the Federal and State governments to formulate a plan to
(1) implement a cross-agency, comprehensive, public health approach for
children’s mental health at Federal and State levels; (2) strengthen
children’s mental health focus in State governments; and (3) establish a
Federal interagency entity for children’s mental health.
As
for funding, the subcommittee said: “Federal and state agencies and
commercial insurers should realign funding policies related to children’s
mental health to support a comprehensive array of services and supports,
including home and community based services and supports that are
individualized, family focused, coordinated, and culturally competent.”
The
subcommittee specified that a plan should be developed for Medicaid to support
home and community-based services and support and individualized care, and
maximize strategies to provide coverage and mental health care to uninsured
children. In addition, the subcommittee wanted the government to provide
technical assistance related to more efficient and effective implementation of
early and periodic screening, diagnosis, and treatment (EPSDT).
Here’s
good one. The subcommittee we should strengthen Federal and State requirements
for family participation. “Federal and state governments should promote a
broader concept of “mental health” services for children and adolescents
with emotional disorders and their families,” it advised. “Recognizing
that children receive more services through schools than any other public
system,” the report recommended that “federal, state, and local agencies
should more fully recognize and address the mental health needs of youth in
the education system,” it advised. “Likewise, these agencies should work
collaboratively with families and develop, evaluate, and disseminate effective
approaches for providing mental health services and supports to youth in
schools,” it wrote.
The
subcommittee recommended training teachers and school personnel to recognize
signs of emotional problems in children and to make appropriate referrals for
assessment and services. “Systematic screening procedures to identify ...
problems and treatment needs should be implemented in specific settings in
which youngsters are at high risk for emotional disorders or where there is
known to be a high prevalence of these or co-occurring mental health and
substance abuse disorders,” according to the report.
And
get this! Anyone involved in the juvenile justice system or welfare system is
really in for trouble. “Screening should be implemented upon entry into, and
periodically thereafter in, the juvenile justice and child welfare systems, as
well as in other settings and populations with known high risk, such as the
Medicaid population. When mental health problems are identified, youth should
be linked with appropriate services and supports,” the report advised.
This
gang of thugs is even coming up with ways to make money off infants shortly
after they enter the world. This particular report recommends screening for
all children ages 0 to 5 for social and emotional development as part of
primary health care visits.
Mega-Bucks
For Shrinks
Dr
Jane Orient, the Executive Director of the Association of American Physicians
and Surgeons (AAPS) has a few things to say about this latest profiteering
scheme. "Teams of experts are awaiting an infusion of cash,” she says,
“They'll be ensconced in your child's school before you even know it.”
Orient
says an added “bonus is that your little darlings will probably give them
quite a bit of information about you also, and then you can receive therapy
you didn't know you needed."
According
to Orient, kids will be asked invasive personal questions like whether their
parents raise their voice, or “Ever spank them? Have politically incorrect
attitudes? Use forbidden words? Own a gun? Smoke cigarettes, especially
indoors? Read extremist literature? Refuse to recycle? Prepare for a knock at
the door."
The
answers to these questions could lead to a home visit with parents, and
accusations of "poor parenting skills, inadequate housekeeping, harmful
literature, or a baby who is crying. ...," Orient warns.
She
lists the many tools at the disposal of what she calls "the mental health
squad," including "Counseling sessions. Drugs. Group therapy.
Removing the child from the home." Although removing a child from the
home is listed as a last resort, the mere threat of it "can accomplish
wonders," Orient noted.
According
to the he University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Student Health Center, privacy
rights are essentially being ignored. The center is telling patients that if
government agencies want to see their medical records, they get to review them
without a patient’s knowledge or consent. "By law we cannot reveal when
we have disclosed such information to the government," the center
advised.
Screen
Those In Dire Need First
If
you want to see mental illness, just go knock on the door of the White House,
or the Bush‘s home in Crawford, Texas. I recommend that we start this
mandatory screening program with the Bush family.
Lets
find some treatment for their deep-seeded mental health problems. For
instance, what rotten things happened in the Bush home that drove the twins to
start drinking excessively while under age. And what emotional problems caused
them to intentionally embarrass their father in a matter of months after he
took office.
Then
lets screen the President’s nieces and nephews to see why Jeb’s kids find
it appropriate to forge prescriptions for drugs, and why his son would engage
in underage sex in a car parked in a public shopping center lot. Or why
Jeb’s wife would try to smuggle in goods from other countries without paying
the fees.
Then
lets move on to brother Neil and have him screened to find out what compelled
him to have sex with strange women who showed up at his motel room door in
foreign countries, which resulted in a case of incurable VD. And let’s find
out what possessed him to have an affair with his mother’s secretary while
both parties were still very married..
Next,
let’s line up members of the Bush administration and find out what
compulsions need eradicating. Then let’s continue on to the officials at the
FDA and figure out what happened to their consciences, which allow them to
promote medicating kids for profits.
Freedom
My Butt
Granted,
the "New Freedom Commission" is a catchy title. However, words can
be very deceptive. I fail to see how forcing people to undergo mental health
testing can possibly represent freedom, or how drugging people for profit can
hardly be viewed as a form of freedom.
I
agree with an article I read on NewsTarget.com that said, “these people have
lost their minds in a mad attempt to generate obscene profits regardless of
the cost to human life, individual privacy, and human rights.”
(Evelyn Pringle is a columnist for Independent Media TV and an investigative journalist focused on exposing corruption in government)
