"Getting the kids to buy in," she said, "is such an essential thing because for the most part, you're distributing the consent forms to the kids to bring home to their parents and bring them back."
"So you have to get their buy in," Ms McGuire told NAMI members, "you have to get them interested in it."
To that end, TeenScreen offers "incentives" to entice the cooperation of students, such as fast food coupons or movie rentals in exchange for filling out the survey. Additional perks might include $5 in cash, gift certificates, or a pizza party for those students who return the signed consent forms within a specified period of time.
NAMI members are also recruited to help "loop" the kids into a mental health provider after the screening, and told of the importance of getting kids to their first appointment.
Sometimes, members were advised, helping might entail calling an insurance company to get the information on where to go and find out what services were is covered, and sometimes it would even mean picking the kids up and driving them to the first appointment. Activists refer to the process above as a "NAMI assembly line" from start to finish.
An Indiana couple, Teresa and Michael Rhoades, have a teenage daughter named Chelsea, who they describe as a "normal, happy and active student who gets good grades and helps mentor a girl at school."
But apparently Chelsea's parent's missed some signals because in December 2004, she came home one day and informed her parents that she had been diagnosed with two mental illnesses after taking the TeenScreen test at school.
Chelsea explained to her parents that when she arrived at her homeroom that day, the teacher directed all students who did not have an "opt-out slip" to go to another classroom. Only a few students had slips and the rest of the students, who had no idea what the teacher was talking about, were divided into groups of 10-15, and shuffled into other classrooms and placed in front of computers.
An "opt-out slip" is used by schools that utilize "passive consent" and indicates the parents signed a form saying they would not allow the screening.
Chelsea, who was busy helping a friend in a wheelchair get settled at a computer, barely noticed what she was signing when a form was placed in front of her with no explanation. All she knew was that she was about to take a test.
After completing the survey, Chelsea and her fellow students were instructed to wait outside in the hall and that's where an employee from a mental health center found Chelsea, and informed her that according to the test, she was suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder and social anxiety disorder.
The OCD diagnosis reportedly arose because she answered "yes," that she did find herself repeatedly doing something she had little or no control over, which according to Chelsea meant cleaning her room and doing her chores.
Chelsea was diagnosed with social anxiety disorder supposedly because she said she felt cut off from friends.
She was given no opportunity to say why she felt this way which was because she wasn't allowed to go out with her friends on school nights. Her parents explain that they don't believe children should be out every night and so they limit Chelsea's social occasions to keep her out of trouble.
Advocacy groups say people need to realize how much money is being made off students like Chelsea. According to medical experts, the drugs likely to be prescribed to Chelsea would be an SSRI or atypical antipsychotic for the obsessive compulsive disorder, and Valium or Xanax for the social anxiety disorder.
After coupling the prescription costs with a 15 minute prescribing appointment with a doctor every month, they say Chelsea's parents could easily be looking at a monthly tab of about $700 for their newly diagnosed mentally ill daughter.
I took zyprexa starting in 1996 the year the FDA approved it, which was ineffective for my condition and gave me diabetes.
Zyprexa is the product name for Olanzapine,it is Lilly's top selling drug.It was approved by the FDA in 1996 ,an 'atypical' antipsychotic a newer class of drugs without the motor side effects of the older Thorazine.Zyprexa has been linked to causing diabetes and pancreatitis.
Zyprexa, which is used for the treatment of psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, accounted for 32% of Eli Lilly's $14.6 billion revenue last year.
Did you know that Lilly made nearly $3 billion last year on diabetic meds, Actos,Humulin and Byetta?
Yes! They sell a drug that can cause diabetes and then turn a profit on the drugs that treat the condition that they may have caused in the first place!
I was prescribed Zyprexa from 1996 until 2000.
In early 2000 i was shocked to have an A1C test result of 13.9 (normal is 4-6) I have no history of diabetes in my family.
All the psychiatrist I've interviewed and the information on line presents zyprexa as a worse offender than the other Atypicals such as seroquel.My doctor has stopped prescribing zyprexa altogether.
The PDR classifies zyprexa as 'severe' for causing weight gain and diabetes and seroquel as 'moderate'.
Of course the 50 year old Thorazine didn't cause diabetes and is many times cheaper but it could cause tardive dyskinesia.
Where Eli Lilly's negligence comes in,is their KNOWING and not informing consumers (black box warning) until the FDA demanded it.
Lilly's incentive not to readily disclose is they had billions coming in from state medicaid scripts.
----
Daniel Haszard http://www.zyprexa-victims.com
by
Danny Haszard (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 50 comments)
on Friday, July 21, 2006 at 2:48:03 PM
It is sad that there is NO grassroots movement to get these drugs recalled.
Even though Zyprexa's makers claimed zyprexa was superior, and was PROVEN wrong -- and assessed with a 690 million dollar to those who gained weight, got diabetes or pancreatitis, Eli Lilly continues on its merry HUGE profits way.
Some states have passed laws that doctors must show a specific reason for the new atypical antipsychotics to be prescibed - yet the government continues to allow zyprexa to be on the market. There is no proof that the drug makes any difference to achieving health -- or even alleviating symptoms. The toll continues to mount with "side effects" -- and even death -- resulting from taking these so-called medications.
While those prescibed these drugs can use the courts to get minimal satisfaction in financial terms, a movement to recall the drugs requires political ACTION. It must be done with a campaign to alert the FDA and the heads of health committees of each state or province.
My son has been prescribed zyprexa .. and I am an ACTIVIST against these drugs. I have brought it to the attention of medical schools and a provincial hospital facility. This was no easy task. But at least some of the medical professionals and hospital adminstrators are on alert now.
However, the professionals continue in the main to close ranks and protect each other. In the case of Ontario's largest mental hospital, I had to threaten to sue them if they did not see me before the doctor would even meet with me!! Later a consultant was brought in who agreed with me in toto. The doctor was just plain wrong. No questions were asked about my son's family medical history regarding diabetes. No blood sugara level test was administered before dosage was begun. The hospital couldn't even be bothered to read the magazines about the zyprexa lawsuit. (The case is still pending here in Canada.)
Meanwhile, those who have been victimized by taking zyprexa languish in pain without seeing their payout in the US!!
The onset of diabetes and pancreatitis is swift and not many signs show up right away as the pancreas is falling apart. And this leads to death ...
I have fought long and hard to keep my son off perscription drugs. He went through special ed as the ONLY child not on ridilin and other ADD drugs in his classes. These drugs are a set up for lifelong addiction as they get used to having the feeling of "rushing". Now I am told to stay quiet while zyprexa eats away at his body. Not bloody likely. This prescribing of very dangerous drugs affects the families, too!! The anxiety and the price one pays to fight back sometimes seem hardly worth the effort it takes.
Drug professionals in addiction centres do not have the education to fight these prescription drug dependencies and addictions. Plus most addiction centres are for PROFIT. Their boards of directors are driven by the need for PROFIT. So don't count on them for ADVOCACY for those damaged by ridiculous labels or whose bodies give out. Since the government and corporations are refusing to deal with this severe societal problem, we are all going to have to do our job to fight the trend to "somatize" everyone.
What is particularly abhorrant is the need to give these drugs to youth who cannot advocate for themselves.
I post Evelyn's articles and everything I can find related to this issue on my blog. It's become a "mission" for me. I called up every lawyer involved in the zyprexa lawsuit I could find .. and got told by them all .. they cannot get this drug (and others like it) recalled. WE MUST DO THAT.
Please, if you have five minutes write a letter to someone involved in this issue .. like the FDA or your state's health authority. Let them know, we are onto this sick, sick overdispensing racket and that it's time for these drugs to be RECALLED.
If the drug companies (and there are precious few of those) don't make the billions per year off these drugs, they might actually do the research to find compounds that don't damage the human body!! They might invest in real therapy for damaged children. In a six month hospital stay for paranoid schizophrenia, my son saw his psychiatrist a grand total of none for therapy -- his only visits with his psychiatrist were directly related to re-prescribing. They had him on 3 antipsychotics in 9 weeks!!Yet it was costing the Province over $1,000 a day for his bed. He left with no discharge plan, no real psychiatric testing (he also has post traumatic stress disorder) and no help with his drug problem. What are the taxpayers getting for their money for these treatments? Nothing at all.
The NYT's continues to post articles about diabetes among mentally ill populations, but says nothing about the direct connection to antipsychotics -- or that the medications to treat it are made by the same drug companies. They give no hint on how to fight back. They instead demonize the victims of a huge conspiracy, as if they were to blame for their poor health care and their feelings of being defeated.
It is a welcome relief to see the TRUTH printed here and in the other venues that publish Evelyn's fine work.
by
ladybroadoak (37 articles, 20 quicklinks, 12 diaries, 386 comments)
on Sunday, July 23, 2006 at 6:35:52 PM
