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2024/06/06

Many are voicing concerns about the State of Montana outsourcing its behavioral health to a private consulting firm, Alvarez & Marsal (A&M), which also happens to do business with China. Montana’s decision to hire A&M to revamp the state’s behavioral health system has sparked concerns mostly relating to the $300 million dollar price tag associated with the account, but oddly has avoided mention of the firm’s ties to China.  Why?

The Montana move to outsourcing these important high-dollar accounts highlights the Behavioral Health Commissions’ unchecked power and lack of public oversight. A&M, a global professional services firm, has a strategic partnership with the Chinese state-owned Zhongze Group, raising questions about potential conflicts of interest and national security risks. Entrusting a company with Chinese connections to overhaul Montana’s sensitive behavioral health infrastructure is for many a cause for alarm.

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2024/06/05

Retired Nashville-area police officer, Lt. Garet Davidson, has reported that Covenant School Shooter, Audrey Hale, was much sicker mentally than has been reported and may account for why the shooter’s mental health history, including prescribed drugs, has been withheld from the public.

According to Davidson, a psychologist who treated the shooter in 2023 had referred her to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center psychiatric department prior to the killings at Covenant. Additionally, the Tennessee Star reports that Hale had fantasies about violence.

Further, Davidson reported that “there was communication, I believe, from the therapist to [Vanderbilt] Psych, and some of those records probably were shared.”  Davidson further explained “[Vanderbilt] Psych records showed specific ideations, fantasies about mass shootings, doing that at the school.”

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2024/06/03

The aftermath of the Lewiston, Maine, mass shooting on October 25, 2023, has been marred by allegations against state and local police. Specifically, the questions surrounding the military’s decision to require state police to transport Robert Card to a private psychiatric facility, Four Winds in Katonah, New York appears an untouchable issue. Why?

The public is no closer to finding out who Card’s treating psychiatrist was and what cocktail of drugs Card was prescribed. What exactly was the psychiatric diagnosis Card received at Four Winds? All these questions must be answered before any investigation places blame on law enforcement.

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2024/06/02

The tragic cases of the father in Miami who killed his daughter and the mother in Missouri who turned herself in after killing her two children last week highlight the devastating consequences of the government backed mental health system embedded with the psychiatric and pharmaceutical industrial complex. The result of which is that no one seems to be getting better.

In fact, the data are never shared with the public about who is the treating psychiatrist or the name of the mind-altering drug or cocktail of drugs these killers have been prescribed. Why?  One would think government agencies would demand the stats of these deadly outcomes and use the information as a kind of measure. Knowing the prescribed psychiatric drugs, the killers were taking would be a first step in holding the court-appointed behavioral health vendors accountable.

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2024/05/29

The reality of news coverage across the Country relating to horrific mass killings, suicides, and tragic cases like that of Ashley Parmeley, the Missouri mother who killed her two young children, usually lacks crucial details about any mental health “help,” psychiatric drug use or the relationship with the State behavioral health vendors, the people who oversee mental health services for the state.  

Compass Health Network is the behavioral health vendor responsible for handling cases and providing services related to the Festus Police Department in Missouri, where Parmeley drove yesterday to turn herself in for the murder of her children. Its Festus location would likely be involved in any mental health assessments, evaluations or treatment needed for individuals taken into custody by the Festus police.  So, what is their relationship with Ashley Parmeley?

2024/05/18

The psychiatric drug industry and big tobacco share striking similarities in their tactics, particularly when it comes to downplaying the risks associated with their products and targeting vulnerable populations like youth. The psychiatric community has gotten away with pretending it is based in science and medicine to sell its snake oil, while the tobacco industry wasn’t so lucky.

A key difference lies in the government’s stance – while tobacco companies face increasing regulations and warnings, the psychiatric drug industry enjoys substantial government support and promotion despite the existence of black box warnings on many of their medications.  Both industries have a history of misleading marketing practices and minimizing potential harms.

Big tobacco companies notoriously concealed evidence linking smoking to lung cancer and other diseases for decades. Similarly, psychiatric drug manufacturers have been accused of selectively publishing favorable trial data and underreporting adverse effects.

2024/05/14

The United Hospital Fund, a research and analysis organization, has released a report titled “The Ripple Effects of the Adolescent Behavioral Health Crisis”  which apparently reflects survey data on substance use, mental health issues, and treatment (or lack thereof) among adolescents in the U.S., New York State and New York City. Based on this report, it appears that nobody is getting better.

This forty-page report spews so many numbers it’s hard to comprehend just how bad the mental health problem is for any given age group. But the report has bigger problems. For example, the smartest guys in the room who put together this report made a fatal error, and the report should be used as confetti.  One only need review the survey used to collect the data to see that the highfalutin analysts apparently have failed to ask those surveyed whether or not they had been on prescription psychiatric drugs, when, what kind and for how long. Why? Where are the “fact checkers?”

2024/05/09

According to data recently received from the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a psychiatric watchdog organization, there are nearly 2,000 0-to 5 years olds taking psychiatric anti-anxiety drugs in the State of Connecticut. Despite this stunning data, during the most recent Connecticut Behavioral Health Partnership Oversight Council (BHPOC) meeting that oversees the massive mental health system in the State of Connecticut, co-chair, Terri DiPietro, claimed that oversight of the number of children in Medicaid taking prescribed psychiatric mind-altering drugs is not part of the Council’s mission. 

In fact, it appears that none of the concerns regarding psychiatric behavioral health drug use is part of the council’s oversight even though the State of Connecticut passed Public Act 0124 approved June 28, 2001, which was intended to ensure this important drug information was part of the oversight. 

2024/04/16

Tennessee had proposed the first law aimed at addressing three basic reforms which, for more than two decades, have been largely overlooked in the aftermath of mass shootings across the United States. The proposed legislation had broad support, with sponsors in both the House and Senate, as well as backing from multiple organizations representing a vast majority of Tennesseans. Much needed reforms.

These reforms would have addressed three fundamental issues:  The psychiatric medication history – the specific psychiatric drug or cocktail of drugs the shooter had been prescribed, and the shooter’s mental health history, including the name of the treating psychiatrist, and the relationship between the behavioral health vendor or contractor and the state and federal government. Good legislative actions that went nowhere. Why?