[ New Freedom Initiatve Passed

[Guest guest]

November 23, 2004

 

Despite reported calls 300 to 1 against the Freedom

Initiative, this law which requires forced psychiatric

assessment of children has passed in Congress. It was

in the omnibus spending bill passed this weekend by

the senate. Ron Paul’s amendment to require parental

permission was not added.

 

Perhaps someone can add to this news.

 

http://www.thelibertycommittee.com/

 

 

November 22, 2004

 

 

Many members of the U.S. House, including House

leadership, supported

Congressman Ron Paul's language prohibiting funding of

mandatory or

universal mental-health screening of children. In

addition, Senators James

Inhofe, Sam Brownback and Rick Santorum supported Dr.

Paul's language.

However, we believe the drug companies and the

psychiatric establishment

convinced Senators Arlen Specter and Bill Frist to

block it. We are extremely

disappointed that the conference committee ultimately

rejected Dr. Paul's

language and that it was not added to the omnibus

spending bill.

 

We won't give up on this issue! Congressman Paul did

numerous radio

interviews, including ones with Michael Reagan and

Gordon Liddy. Our activists

sent 19,788 messages to Congress. Dr. Laura

Schlessinger talked about it on

her show and posted information on her Web site.

Numerous news articles and

commentaries were published about the issue. Many of

you helped spread the

word to family and friends. We will take this

momentum and work even harder

when the new Congress meets in January.

 

Thank you for your efforts! Again, we won't give up.

 

 

Here is a past post on the subject from November 18,

2004

 

NewStandard Home Iraq in Crisis Civil Liberties &

Security U.S. Business & Economy News Article

Bill to Screen, Medicate Kids May Hit Senate This

Weekby Christopher Getzan (bio)

 

Legislation to test children for " mental health

disorders " and then provide them commercial drugs

-- which would be highly controversial if people

knew about it -- could reach Congress during this

month's lame duck session.

 

Nov 15 - Funding for a controversial Bush

administration plan to submit the nation's school

children to mental health testing and drug treatment

may end up reaching the Senate floor this week, as

GOP congressional leaders look to clear the

legislative slate in order to set the table for George

 

W. Bush's second term.

 

The plan, called the New Freedom Initiative

(NFI), is the keystone of a package of initiatives by

the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental

Health, a group of doctors and mental health care

professionals established by the Bush

Administration in 2002.

 

As previously reported by The NewStandard, the

Initiative's critics, ranging from grassroots

mental health advocacy organizations to government

whistleblowers, have said the NFI's proposals do

little else but establish state-mandated markets for

the psychiatric pharmaceutical industry.

 

In 2003, the Commission published a report

recommending states encourage more mental health

testing and treatment for Americans and suggested

public schools were an ideal place to access students

and begin to root out undiagnosed and " severely

disruptive " mental health issues. It pointed to a

program begun during George Bush's governorship

of Texas called the Texas Medication Algorithm

Project (TMAP), which set a standard operating

procedure within a flow chart allowing psychiatrists

to identify and medicate possible conditions.

 

In a report posted on the website of the Law

Project for Psychiatric Rights quotes a whistleblower

who says doctors staffing the Texas program had

strong links to pharmaceutical companies, and

those doctors often prescribed expensive, brand-name

drugs over cheaper alternatives. The source of

that claim is Allen Jones, a former investigator

for the Office of the Inspector General who says he

was fired for speaking out against a TMAP-style

program in Pennsylvania.

 

The NFI plan, said Jones, does not " have the

Orwellian goal of drugging the populace for a

political purpose. " Instead, " it's the Orwellian goal

of

drugging the populace for an economic purpose. "

 

Another critic of the initiative, holistic mental

health advocate David Oaks, says the end result

of the New Freedom Initiative's recommendations

will be nothing short of " hundreds of thousands of

more kids being put on psychiatric drugs. " Oaks

is director of the mental health advocacy group

Mind Freedom.

 

In Oaks' opinion, the issues of child mental

health are not only more complicated than just

testing for disorders and putting kids on drugs, but

are also colored by powerful societal pressures and

millions of dollars in drug revenues. Oaks has

called the president's plan " No child left

undrugged. "

 

Nevertheless, the plan does have some powerful

supporters. The American Psychiatric Association,

which itself receives some of its funding from

drug companies, has voiced approval for the plan,

and a number of other states are already

researching and implementing their own versions of

TMAP.

 

During a " lame duck " session of Congress, Senate

leadership is trying to push through unfinished

appropriations measures for fiscal year 2005. The

Bush administration had requested about $44

million for states to implement mental health

screening. The House version of the bill, which has

already passed, includes $20 million in support of the

 

New Freedom Commission's plan. It is unclear how

much the Senate will appropriate.

 

On the coattails of the bill's passage out of the

House, Representative Ron Paul (R-Texas) is now

championing the " Let Parents Raise Their Kids

Act, " which would prevent federal dollars to fund any

universal system of mental health screening that

does not hinge on parental-guardian consent.

Previously, Paul had failed to insert an amendment to

the appropriations bill blocking federal funding

of the NFI recommendations.

 

 

© 2004 The NewStandard. See

 

 

 

 

 

 

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