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Bush's Mental Illness Screening Squad On the Move

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Message Evelyn Pringle
Although all of the TMPA medications are only approved by the FDA for treatment of a limited number of mental illnesses like schizophrenia or major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder, in specific age groups, and with specific dosages, drug makers have doctors prescribing the medications off-label for unapproved uses to persons of all ages for just about any ache and pain, and especially with patients being screened for mental illness by the government backed programs.

To accomplish this mass screening of the nation's 52 million school children, the NFC recommends that the TeenScreen program, billed as a suicide prevention survey, be set up in public school system nationwide. In May 2004, Illinois passed a resolution approving the implementation of TeenScreen in all public schools in that state.

TeenScreen is also an invention of Big Pharma developed and promoted through back door funneling of money through front groups that bill themselves as advocates for the mentally ill and promoting suicide prevention.

By far, TeenScreen has become the most controversial of all screening programs, and critics are quick to point out a number of reasons. According to the June 16, 2006, Washington Post, there were only 1,737 suicides by children and adolescents in the US during 2003, the last year for which national statistics are available.

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, in 2003, for every 100,000 children the rate of suicide for boys was 11.6 and the rate for girls was 2.7, which amounts to less than 2 boys in every 10,000 kids, and the number of suicides by girls in every 10,000 children, is too low to even calculate.

In perhaps one of their best arguments against TeenScreen, critics are asking how such a low suicide rate, when measured against the total student population, can possibly justify subjecting 52 million children to mental health screening and the distinct probability that a high number of children will end up on psychiatric drugs with side effects that cause many more deaths each year than the number of child suicides.

In fact, overall, the statistics for people injured or killed each year due to prescription medications are extremely high. According to a study published by Adverse Drug Reactions, more than 1.5 million people are hospitalized each year and more than 100,000 die from largely preventable adverse reactions to drugs that should not have been prescribed in the first place.

Advocacy groups against TeenScreen have posted a petition online with plans to send it to state and federal lawmakers. Persons interested in signing the petition can click on the following link: http://www.petitiononline.com/tscreen/petition.html

Ken Kramer, a records research specialist from Florida, who has been investigating the TeenScreen program for several years, says the petition is an excellent way to educate people because it conveys many of the facts about mental health screening and can be printed off and presented to school board members or legislators.

In 2004, Illinois became the first state to implement mental health screening programs. Its plan calls for both children and adults to be screened during their routine physical exams. To that end, the state legislature passed the Illinois Children's Mental Health Act (ICMHP), which is expected to become a model for other states.

The final report by the ICMHP Task Force calls for a comprehensive, coordinated children's mental health system comprised of prevention, early intervention, and treatment for children ages 0-18, along with a statewide data-reporting system to track information on each person.

It requires social-emotional development screens with all mandated school exams (K, 4th, and 9th), and says to: "Start early, beginning prenatally and at birth, and continue throughout adolescence, including efforts to support adolescents in making the transition to young adulthood," and includes a plan to screen all pregnant women

Critics of the Illinois plan say they are especially curious about what might be in store for the infants screened prenatally and at birth, at the ripe old age of 0.

The Illinois task force stressed the need to (1) improve Medicaid reimbursement for prevention, intervention and treatment services; (2) recognize diagnoses for young children described in DC:0-3 and pay for mental health services for children with any of these diagnoses; and (3) clarify for providers the diagnoses that create eligibility for children to obtain Medicaid services.

According to former medical services billing analyst, Chris Kelly, in plain language, this means to make sure and have doctors diagnosis patients with specifically coded mental illnesses for which Medicaid will pay the costs of the prescription drugs for treatment.

And studies reveal that talk therapy is a thing of the past because pushing pills is by far more profitable. A 2003 study by the American Psychiatric Association, on "financial disincentives" for psychotherapy, found doctors could earn about $263 an hour for doing three 15-minute "medication management" sessions, verses about $156 for a single 45- to 50-minute therapy session. Thus, conducting therapy verses medication management would represents an hourly pay cut of 41%, the APA study said.

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Evelyn Pringle is a columnist for OpEd News and investigative journalist focused on exposing corruption in government and corporate America.
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