You Don't Have to Be a Scientologist
...to see that the drugging of our children is leading to behavior problems and dependency. Whenever possible we should be listening to kids and helping them cope with the pressures they are facing.
Unfortunately, the U.S. Government is backing a plan to "suicide screen" every child in Florida and the rest of the United States before they graduate from high school. Massive pharmaceutical backing for this plan will result in even more kids dependent on psychiatric drugs.
Learn more here.
Fight such a plan here.
Parents - try parenting first.
h/t Lisa
posted by kate @ 12:06 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
Sadly, there are TeenScreen locations all over the Country.
They push them through in small communities or where people are still sleeping at the wheel. (how can that BE?) They point to a sudden increase in suicides and use the fear factor ... I bet Pennsylvania is one of the first places that pushed this through. I say this without any research and ready to take it back if necessary but in a place called grey's harper ferry they suddenly had a rash of suicides (probably the water or some tricky sicko who found his way into the community and talked a bunch of vulnerable teens into it) With this and with alcohol testing kids at random after the weekend (already here in Tampa and a blog subject if I ever find the time) they have taken over the control of the entire family through the school child. These tests are very questionable and just like any other drug test, alcohol tests can have false positives. Parents are going to need help taking their rights back after this regime has had it's run at the civil rights of everyone. Recently they set it up so now they have precedence to arrest tiny children of five and seven. Between this and Busch Gardens and Disney they'll have everyone's fingerprints or iris scan before the next 20 years is out. This is definitely a WRONG direction and I thank you for calling attention to it.
Kate-I am very sad to see you jumping on the far left/far right bandwagon on this one. The Surgeon General's panel and report on this are far from the handiwork of the pharmaceutical companies. See http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/topics/cmh/childreport.htm
for what is really being recommended rather than what the alarmists say is being recommended.
Here's an excerpt for those who don't want to read the full report.
There are eight goals, with my comments parenthetically
1.Promote public awareness of children's mental health issues and reduce stigma associated with mental illness. (too often kids end up on meds because problems that could have been easily addressed by more effective parenting were not caught early. Parents and providers are too reluctant to consider a mental or emotional disorder, perhaps because they wrongly think drugs are the only option.)
2. Continue to develop, disseminate, and implement scientifically-proven prevention and treatment services in the field of children's mental health. (Back primarily to parenting, and eliminating conditions in schools that can contribute to/cause mental illness. Sometimes when parents say "my child is never a problem at home" they are telling the truth. A disorganized, unsafe, school environment can worsen or even cause mental/emotioanl disorders)
3. Improve the assessment of and recognition of mental health needs in children. (You can't find 'em before they shoot up a school, or shoot up at school, if you don't screen them. Screening could just be training people who have regular contact with children to recognize signs of trouble, much like child abuse reporting training. In fact without a major overhaul of the entire healthcare system I'd say that's where we are headed.)
4. Eliminate racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in access to mental healthcare services. (Middle class white boys get ADHD meds, poor black boys get a ride to jail. Neither fate is supportable by people who really care about kids.)
5. Improve the infrastructure for children's mental health services, including support for scientifically-proven interventions across professions. (This is where people think the pharma companies are like the proverbial camel with a nose under the tent. "Scientifically-proven" does not mean proven through drug trials only. It does mean we won't be wrapping children with autism in wet blankets to simulate the birth experience until there is enough research to prove its efficacy and safety. There are many non-chemical interventions that are scientifically proven. I would like to see a major push toward having coaching/instruction on these interventions paid for by health insurers in lieu of medication)
6. Increase access to and coordination of quality mental healthcare services. (If you "don't believe" in mental illness this is a hard sell, I guess everyone should convert to Scientology)
7. Train frontline providers to recognize and manage mental health issues, and educate mental healthcare providers about scientifically-proven prevention and treatment services. (See my comments on 3 above, this will probably be pushed towards schools because everyone seems to think that's a good place to serve kids. Me too, except I think you need to extend the school day for the kids to do all the things that it makes sense to do in a place where they are easily served, and have someone besides teachers doing it.)
8. Monitor the access to and coordination of quality mental healthcare services. (Amen. Including determining the causes of false positives -diagnosing too many kids with good insurance with diseases that are then treated with expensive drugs. Also taking a look at false negatives-where kids aren't diagnosed and end up fighting an entirely treatable mental/emotional disorder.
As always, thanks for the education PT. There is a lot there that is good. And needed.
However, at the risk of sounding like a bandwagon-er, I am against the idea of screening teens in such a way that labels them, lets ineffective parents off the hook, and sets them up for drug dependency.
Kate-sadly most of the bandwagoners are getting all their info on mental health screening of kids, whether for suicide or otherwise, from these talking head microbursts on the local news.
I was recently screened for spouse abuse/mental health, as was my daughter for child abuse/teen mental health (including depression and suicide), as part of our annual well woman appointments at the MacDill hospital. For reasons that I think are pretty well known at this point, the military is concerned that families of service members are at greater risk of these problems. Go figure, could be all that PTSD stuff. In the hands of a well trained person such screening is unobtrusive, and doesn't cause either suicidal ideation or use of the prescription pad-except as needed, and I mean really needed. That screening causes suicide and/or automatic medication is more the stuff of urban legend than fact.
Having said all that-this shouldn't be a school issue. It is a health care delivery issue and it should be a basic right of all children in the most powerful nation on earth to have access to quality health care, including mental health care, no matter how inept their parents.
I'd support all that being part of a well child/woman/teenager/man checkup.
Just enough with the schools and putting, once again, the pressure on them to make up for parenting problems.
You are spot on the money, girl. All of the drugs they are using on these kids after screening are not FDA approved for kids and have shown to have side effects. They become neurologically damaged and emotionally stunted as they are not feeling their emotions and therefore don't grow up experiencing life as it should be. No way to gain the valuable life experiences you need to grow and mature. We already know what psych drugs do to the elderly and they damage they cause. Add that with the KNOWN suicidal and HOMICIDAL thoughts and behaviors and you have more Columbine incidents and INCREASED Suicides in this age category. Then the psychs ask for more money for more screening and you and I pay for a drugged future society. Keep fighting the good fight here and visit my web blog for more info if needed:
www.nurses4humanrights.org
Thanks, Ken Thomas, RN
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