Tax dollars are being used to fuel the American epidemic of mental illness by promoting the preemptive drugging of persons supposedly at risk of developing mental disorders, to the great benefit of the pharmaceutical industry.
In March 2010, the US Department of Health & Human Services Substance Abuse & Mental Health Service Administration Center for Mental Health Services announced $16.5 million in funding for "Mental Health Transformation Grants," one of SAMHSA's services grant programs.
An evidence-based practice, or EBP, refers to approaches to prevention or treatment that are validated by some form of documented research evidence. As an example of a practice that could be implemented, SAMHSA listed under "Prevention and Wellness: Early Intervention," the "Early Detection and Intervention for the Prevention of Psychosis Program (EDIPPP)," along with a link to its website http://www.changemymind.org/.
EDIPPP is a national program replicating the "Portland Identification and Early Referral," or "PIER," a treatment research program at the Main Medical Center, in Portland, Maine.
On a webpage for PIER on the Center's Website, under "Project Overview," it states: "The goals are to improve outcomes and prevent the onset of the psychotic phase of illnesses like Bipolar Disorder, Major Depression, and Schizophrenia."
"This is the first program in the United States to identify the entire population of at risk young persons and offer them treatment," PIER said in a September 26, 2005 press release.
EDIPPP was funded through a $14.4 million million grant for the "National Demonstration of Early Detection, Intervention and Prevention of Psychosis in Adolescents and Young Adults," from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and is "designed to prevent psychosis in teens and young adults," according to an April 10, 2007, announcement on RWJF's launch of the program.
"The national program is expanding PIER's success during the past seven years in identifying and treating young people experiencing subtle and early symptoms that herald the onset of serious mental illness," a November 2007 report in Behavioral Healthcare, by Dr James Maier, a research psychiatrist with PIER, notes.
EDIPPP works with people between the ages of 12 and 25, with an average age of persons entering the program between 15 and 16.
"Widespread dissemination of this early intervention model throughout the United States offers tremendous hope and optimism for combating some of the most devastating and costly illnesses that can afflict young people and their families," Maier claims.
The RWJF grant set up additional EDIPPP sites in Sacramento, California; Salem, Oregon; Ypsilanti, Michigan; and Glen Oaks, New York. A site in Albuquerque, New Mexico was added in 2008.
RWJF also funds a booklet for professionals, on how to prevent mental illness with early detection titled, "Recognizing and Helping Young People at Risk for Psychosis: A Professional's Guide," which can be downloaded free off the internet.
From the start, PIER has always been primarily funded by RWJF, according to its website. However, on October 13, 2003, Mental Health Weekly reported that the program had received a $3.9 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, and a parallel $2 million grant from the Center for Mental Health Services intended for a related program in early identification of non-psychotic disabilities.
In Portland, young people typically are referred to PIER by high school guidance counselors, pediatricians, or other clinicians who attended presentations about PIER's work, visited the PIER Website (http://www.preventmentalillness.org), and are familiar with the early warning symptoms that suggest the onset of a psychotic illness, according to the report in Behavioral Healthcare.
Mental Illness According to PIER
In a fact sheet posted to "Dispel the Myths," the PIER website claims that, "Mental disorders are as easy to diagnose as asthma, diabetes, and cancer."
