Bush Mental Health Screen Slammed: 2 News Articles

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Fri, 30 Sep 2005 11:26:14 -0700

mindfreedom-news

Bush " Mental Health Screen " Slammed: 2 News Articles

 

BELOW are 2 short news articles published

this week covering criticisms of plans by

President Bush to make " mental health

screening " common throughout the

USA for adults and children.

 

The 1st is a very brief news article

about a new campaign by MindFreedom

using humor to warn the USA public.

 

The 2nd is a serious article about

how parents of a " screened " 15-year-old

in Indiana filed a lawsuit against

mental health screening on 19 Sept. 2005.

 

At BOTTOM are actions you can take, and

a new public statement by MindFreedom

with 6 reasons to stop screening now.

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

_Eugene Weekly_ Eugene, Oregon, USA

29 September 2005

 

Northwest of Normality

 

The Eugene-based nonprofit MindFreedom

International will be screening people at

the Eugene Celebration for " normality. "

 

The street theater this weekend is

inspired by President Bush's announced

plans for nationwide mental health

screenings for all adults and children.

 

" More than 1,000 people were screened at

this year's Oregon Country Fair with no

normality detected, " says MindFreedom David Oaks. " Every rumor of

normality has thankfully always been a

false alarm. "

 

Watch for clowns in white coats and red

noses screening the public with rubber

chicken wands to try to spot any

normality, says Oaks, " which has still

not been discovered. "

 

Regarding the White House screening plan,

Oaks says, " Watching for troubled people

sounds good. But the public should know

these plans are heavily influenced and

promoted by the psychiatric drug

industry. We want better advocacy and

alternatives first, before mental health

corporations use schools to recruit more

customers for psychiatric drugs. "

 

MindFreedom is a U.N.-recognized NGO

promoting human rights for mental health

consumers and psychiatric survivors. For

more information or to help, stop by

booth #55 at the Celebration, call

345-9106, visit

http://www.MindFreedom.org or e-mail

oaks.

 

http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2005/09/29/news.html#2

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

_British Medical Journal_ 1 October 2005

 

US teenager's parents sue school over

depression screening test

 

New York

 

by Jeanne Lenzer

 

The parents of an Indiana teenager have

filed a suit in a federal court in the

state's Northern District, charging that

school officials violated their privacy

rights and parental rights by subjecting

their daughter to a mental health

screening examination without their

permission.

 

The suit is seen as significant because

President Bush has promoted a

controversial plan to encourage

widespread mental health screening for

people " of all ages " in the United States

(BMJ 2004;328;1458). The screening

programme at the centre of the legal

suit, TeenScreen, was endorsed as a

" model " programme by President Bush's New

Freedom Commission on Mental Health.

 

The complaint, filed on 19 September,

charges that in December 2004 Chelsea

Rhoades, then a 15 year old student at

Penn High School, Mishawaka, was told she

had obsessive compulsive disorder and

social anxiety disorder after she took

the TeenScreen examination. Chelsea has

spoken out against the screening and,

with her parents, alleges in the

complaint that " a majority " of the

students " subjected to TeenScreen " with

her were also told they had " some mental

or psychological disorder. "

 

The Rhoades family charges that

TeenScreen test results " are highly

subjective " and that " there is a lack of

evidence that the screening actually

results in a decreased risk of suicide

attempts. "

 

On 21 September, just a few days after

the Rhoades suit was filed, Rabin

Strategic Partners, the public relations

firm for TeenScreen, issued a press

release with TeenScreen announcing that

the Substance Abuse and Mental Health

Services Administration had awarded

grants of more than $9.7m (£5.5m; €8.1m)

to four states to implement " mental

health screenings, using the Columbia

University TeenScreen programme. "

 

The programme is currently in use at 424

sites in 43 states, the press release

says. The money was made available under

the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act, which

President Bush signed into law in October

2004 to promote programmes to prevent

suicide in young people.

 

Columbia University's TeenScreen, which

urges " universal " voluntary screening for

all teenagers, has come under fire for

offering free cinema passes and other

inducements to teenagers in the hope of

encouraging them to return parental

consent forms (BMJ 2005;331:592 (17

Sep)). The programme has also been

criticised by the Rutherford Institute, a

non-profit civil liberties organisation,

for using " passive consent, " in which

only parents who do not want to have

their children screened have to sign a

form and send it in to the school. If the

school does not receive a form, it is

assumed that the parents do not object.

 

Laurie Flynn, national programme director

of TeenScreen, said that only 15% to 20%

of schools use passive screening and that

the choice to require the active consent

of parents was left up to local schools.

" We name active consent a preferred best

practice, we train applicants to use it

and we offer templates to assist them in

doing so. [but] in some school districts

passive consent is the norm for all

student health activities, " she said.

 

Michael Wilkes, professor of medicine and

director of adolescent medicine at the

University of California, Davis, said he

was worried about the widespread use of

mental health screening among

adolescents. " We're way overtreating

depression with medications, " he said.

 

" It's often very hard to distinguish [an

adolescent] who is truly depressed from a

teen who is experiencing developmentally

normal cyclic variations in mood. Affect

in teens can vary greatly from day to

day. A student who didn't get invited to

the prom or who broke up with his

girlfriend could look depressed one day

but not the next. What is needed isn't

just more money for screening but money

to help teens who want help. What's the

point of screening to find a problem if

doctors are either unavailable or unable

to help? "

 

President Bush's plan, Achieving the

Promise: Transforming Mental Health Care

in America, is at

www.mentalhealthcommission.gov/reports/FinalReport/FullReport.htm

 

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/331/7519/714-a/DC1

 

- end articles -

 

ACTIONS:

 

* Please respond to the above article

on the BMJ rapid response web site here:

 

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/eletter-submit/331/7519/714-a

 

* Please forward this alert.

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

1 October 2005

 

MindFreedom International Statement

About Mental Health Screening:

 

President Bush proposes making " mental

health screening " a " common practice " for

adults and children.

 

Here is why MindFreedom International

opposes these " mental health screening "

programs.

 

President Bush and his New Freedom

Commission on Mental Health recommend

screening all Americans for mental health

problems starting with youth through their

schools. This screening has already

started in a number of schools.

 

We call for the immediate halt to these

screening programs. Instead, we call for the

implementation of far better alternatives

for mental and emotional care.

 

Until a broken and dangerous mental

health system is fixed, mental health

screening just adds fuel to the fire.

 

Screening programs threaten to place

hundreds of thousands of American youth

on a conveyor belt type approach toward

psychiatric labeling and drugging.

 

Current mental health screening programs

have specific steps. A screened

individual is evaluated for a diagnosis. A

diagnosed individual is frequently

prescribed psychiatric drugs. For some

the end result has even been forced

drugging over the objections of the

subject and their family (source: Mother

Jones 5/05).

 

The vast majority of Americans want to

ensure that troubled kids and adults

receive humane and safe help. However,

there is ample evidence that the mental

health system in the United States is now

causing a great deal of harm.

 

For example, the mental health system is

based on a diagnostic labeling system

that has been shown to be unscientific.

 

Also, the Food and Drug Administration

has recently acknowledged that

anti-depressants carry serious risks to

children, adolescents, and adults. Other

psychotropic drugs have also been shown

to carry serious risks of harm. This is

of particular concern because of the

skyrocketing rates of prescription of

psychotropic drugs of all kinds for

children and adolescents.

 

Some proponents of screening argue that

they are not calling for " universal " or

" manadatory " screening. But whatever

words are used to describe it, the fact

is that massive and extensive screening

programs heavily influenced by the

psychiatric drug industry are entering

many schools today.

 

When the President of the United States

announces he wants mental health

screening of youth to be a " common

practice " that is a lot of pressure on

schools, kids and families. This is

exactly what President Bush did when he

endorsed his New Freedom Commission's

Goal Four.

 

In order to provide help for people who

need and want it without causing

additional harm, the following safeguards

need to be implemented:

 

(1) STOP CURRENT SCREENING PROGRAMS

IMMEDIATELY.

 

The moment one applies mental health

screening methods such as " TeenScreen "

and " TMAP " on the basis of flawed

diagnostic systems and questionnaires,

one is making the problem worse.

Screening misses some people with serious

emotional problems on the one hand, and,

on the other hand, mistakenly classifies

other people as pathological.

Questionnaires and formal diagnostic

interviews often fail to catch kids who

are going to kill themselves, for example.

 

(2) PAY MORE ATTENTION TO YOUTH IN A

COMMON SENSE WAY.

 

A child ought to have the opportunity to

voluntarily talk with caring adults about

the things that are upsetting them in

whatever setting they are, including

schools. That non-medical, common sense

approach is better because it yields real

life qualitative information, not

simplistic quantitative data like

questionnaires.

 

(3) FULLY INFORM FAMILIES.

 

The public needs to be educated that many

current mental health programs may be

harmful to one's health. The public needs

to hear that psychiatric drug companies

helped create and promote many of these

screening programs to get more customers

for the highest priced drugs.

 

Fully informed consent should always be

required in any kind of mental health

care. Full informed consent means

explaining to children and their parents

or guardians about the full range of

approaches that can be helpful. Families

need to know about the hazards of

psychotropic drugs and the lack of

clinical trials for young subjects.

Today, primarily only two approaches are

recommended almost exclusively: drugs and

traditional types of psychotherapy which

which tend to be rigid and limited.

 

(4) END THE BIAS TOWARD PSYCHIATRIC DRUGS

IN MENTAL HEALTH CARE.

 

For families who do seek mental and

emotional care, there ought to be no

cookie-cutter like " algorithm " or

" protocol " that unfairly favors the use

of psychiatric drugs above all other

options. The psychiatric drug industry

has unfair influence throughout the

mental health system making it unsafe.

Physical, nutritional or environmental

pollutant problems are seldom addressed.

 

(5) PROVIDE HUMANE AND SAFE ALTERNATIVES.

 

A wide range of alternatives to drugs and

traditional psychotherapy must be available

to all who seek them. When there are only

one or two " choices " for those who are

desperate, that is one of the most insidious

and subtle kinds of coercion.

 

(6) ADVOCACY AT ALL LEVELS.

 

Effective advocacy programs, including

peer support when possible, ought to be

widely available to help people gain

access to the employment, educational and

other social services they may choose.

 

Advocates ought to help support the

empowerment of individuals and families

who wish to avoid unethical professionals

and mental health agencies who may exploit

and harm them. Advocates must help our

democracy get more " hands on " with the

mental health system.

 

Making screening " common practice "

threatens the health and human rights of

thousands of Americans. Therefore we call

for an immediate halt to these screening

programs.

 

MindFreedom International

http://www.MindFreedom.org

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

This news alert has been

forwarded as a free public service

by MindFreedom International.

 

You may read more information about

President Bush's plans to make mental

health screening of adults and youth

" common " at http://www.MindFreedom.org.

 

Since 1987 MindFreedom has won victories

for human rights in the mental health

system. MindFreedom unites 100 sponsor

and affiliate groups and thousands of

members.

 

MindFreedom is one of the few totally

independent groups in the mental health

field with no funding from governments,

drug companies, the mental health system

or religions.

 

The MindFreedom mission calls for a

nonviolent revolution in the mental

health system. Are you ready?

 

TO JOIN or RENEW your MindFreedom

membership please go here:

 

http://www.mindfreedom.org/join.shtml

 

For the all-new improved MAD MARKET of books

and products to support human rights campaigns

in mental health go here: http://www.madmarket.org

Featured book: Peter Lehmann's newest handbook,

_Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs_ written by

28 different psychiatric survivors and allies.

 

MindFreedom International

454 Willamette, Suite 216 - POB 11284

Eugene, OR 97440-3484 USA

 

http://www.mindfreedom.org

email: office fax: (541) 345-3737

office phone: (541) 345-9106

USA toll free: 1-877-MAD-PRIDE / 1-877-623-7743

 

MIND YOUR FREEDOM: United Action for Human Rights.

 

Accredited by the United Nations as a

Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) with

Consultative Roster Status.

 

" Human salvation lies in the hands of the

creatively maladjusted. " - Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

 

_____________

 

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