mental health screening for children

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Dayton, Sky" <Sky () boingo com>
Date: September 9, 2004 4:46:14 PM EDT
To: "Farber, Dave" <dave () farber net>
Subject: mental health screening for children

Chilling. Sky
 
--
 
http://www.thelibertycommittee.com/

ACTION ALERT:  Mental-health screening of children

September 9, 1:17 p.m.

The vote on the Paul amendment has yet to take place.  There is still 
time to send your
message or call your congressman.  The U.S. Capitol Hill switchboard 
number is
202-224-3121.

***********************

September 7, 2004

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 evening 
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.

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)

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:

1.  Parental rights are unclear or non-existent under these screening 
programs.
2.  Parents are already being coerced to put their children on 
psychiatric medications
and some children are dying because of it.
3.  Mental health screening does not prevent suicide.
4.  Mental health diagnoses are “subjective” and “social constructions” 
as admitted by the authors of the diagnostic manuals themselves.
5.  Most psychiatric medications do not work in children.
6.  The side effects of these medications in children are severe.
7.  The untoward influence by the pharmaceutical industry, or at least 
the impropriety, is
abundantly clear in two important aspects of this issue.
8.  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 EdAction, 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, the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and 
Psychology, and Texans for Safe Education 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.”

Please help.  Urge your U.S. representative to support the Paul 
amendment and ask
family and friends to do the same.  To send your message, go to
http://capwiz.com/liberty/issues/alert/?alertid=6333001&type=CO

After you’ve sent your message, please forward this page to your family 
and friends.

Kent Snyder
The Liberty Committee

Details of Dr. Effrem’s Points
“Bush to screen population for mental illness” WorldNetDaily.com

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