Mental-health screening of children

[Guest guest]

mnowik"The Liberty Committee" <kentsnyderMental-health screening of childrenACTION ALERTSeptember 7, 2004The American tradition of parents deciding what is best for their childrenis, yet again, under attack. The pharmaceutical industry has convincedPresident Bush to support mandatory mental-health screening for every childin America, including preschool children, and the industry is now working toconvince Congress as well. But mandatory screening alone is not what thepharmaceutical industry wants. The real payoff for the drug companies isthe forced drugging of children that will result -- as we learned tragicallywith Ritalin -- even when parents refuse.Congressman Ron Paul, an OB/GYN physician for over 30 years, is desperatelytrying to keep the drug companies, politicians and federal bureaucrats frombecoming parents to your children. Dr. Paul will introduce on Wednesdayafternoon or Thursday morning (whenever the floor schedule allows) anamendment to the Labor, HHS, and Education Appropriations Act for FY 2005that will withhold funds for this new federal mental-health-screeningprogram. He will urge his congressional colleagues to support his effort ina letter to be distributed tomorrow morning.Dr. Paul's letter says in part: "As you know, psychotropic drugs areincreasingly prescribed for children who show nothing more than children'stypical rambunctious behavior. Many children have suffered harmful effectsfrom these drugs. Yet some parents have even been charged with child abusefor refusing to drug their children. The federal government should notpromote national mental health screening programs that will force the use ofthese 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 MedicationAlgorithm 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 2003which will provide screening for "all children ages 0-18" and "ensureappropriate and culturally relevant assessment of your children's social andemotional development with the use of standardized tools." In addition, allpregnant women in Illinois are to be screened for depression.Dr. Karen R. Effrem, another physician and leading opponent of mandatoryscreening recently stated, "Universal mental health screening and thedrugging of children, as recommended by the New Freedom Commission[presidential commission], needs to be stopped so that many thousands if notmillions of children will be saved from receiving stigmatizing diagnosesthat would follow them for the rest of their lives. America's schoolchildren should not be medicated by expensive, ineffective, and dangerousmedications based on vague and dubious diagnoses."Dr. Effrem warns of the following:1. Parental rights are unclear or non-existent under these screeningprograms.2. Parents are already being coerced to put their children on psychiatricmedications 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" asadmitted 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 theimpropriety, is abundantly clear in two important aspects of this issue.8. Merging screening with the academic standards required by No Child LeftBehind, as is happening in Illinois, will lead to diagnosis for politicalreasons. School mental health and violence prevention programs funded byNCLB and government counterterrorism operations are already using suchcriteria as "homophobia" and "defenders of the US Constitution againstfederal government and the UN" to label school children and US citizens asmentally unstable and violent.Texas first...Illinois second...and the rest of America to follow if wearen't successful within the next 24 to 36 hours. We'll be calling on Housemembers' offices tomorrow asking for votes in favor of Dr. Paul's amendmentto stop this forced, federal mental-health screening.Join concerned citizens from Eagle Forum, Gun Owners of America, theAssociation of American Physicians and Surgeons, Concerned Women of America,Freedom 21, the Alliance for Human Research Protection, and theInternational Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology to get Dr.Paul's amendment passed.One last note...if mental-health screening for every American child isn'tbad enough, how about mandatory mental-health screening for every Americanadult? Yes, that's coming too. The final report of the President's NewFreedom Commission on Mental Health states, "Both children and adults willbe screened for mental illnesses during their routine physical exams."Please help. Urge your U.S. representative to support the Paul amendmentand ask family and friends to do the same. To send your message, go tohttp://capwiz.com/liberty/issues/alert/?alertid=6333001 & type=COAfter you've sent your message, forward to your family and friends thefollowing page: http://www.thelibertycommittee.org/update09.07.04.htmKent SnyderThe Liberty CommitteeDetails of Dr. Effrem's Points:http://edaction.org/2004/082704.htm"Bush to screen population for mental illness" by WorldNetDaily.comhttp://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39078

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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