Posted on 09/16/2002 11:10:48 PM PDT by Utah Girl
Just thought I would start a new thread.
By James Thalman
Deseret News staff writer
A group of lawmakers barely hesitated Thursday to endorse a bill that would outlaw so-called holding therapy in Utah. The move follows the death of one child and the targeting of an Orem clinic by the Attorney General's Office.
The Child Welfare Legislative Oversight Panel unanimously approved the proposed legislation the same day that state business licensing officials announced they were targeting an Orem clinic linked to the therapy and to the June death of a 4-year-old Springville girl.
The state accused the Cascade Center for Family Growth in Orem of placing children in both physical and emotional danger by practicing coercive or holding therapy without obtaining adequate parental consent.
On Monday, child-abuse homicide and child-abuse charges were filed against the girl's adoptive Springville parents, Richard and Jennete Killpack, accusing them of forcing water down the girl's throat as punishment for taking a sibling's soft drink. The couple says it was taught the therapy by personnel at the Orem clinic.
The legislation doesn't include penalties for practicing the restraint therapy, which can involve treatments ranging from holding a child like an infant to pinning the child down to inflict pain, all in an effort to force the child to release pent up aggression and bond with adults in the process.
Sponsor Mike Thompson, R-Orem, said the Springville death is just the most recent tragic example that coercing and restraining children in the name of therapy is "deadly quackery."
He said if similar legislation he proposed during the last legislative session had been passed, the death would have been averted. That legislation, which would have prohibited licensed therapists from doing holding therapy, passed the House but was never voted on in the Senate.
The Cascade Center for Family Growth is accused by the state of practicing a physically and emotionally dangerous form of child and massage therapy. The center directors say they are being used as a scapegoat by Thompson to further his political agenda.
Thompson said his only political agenda is to keep children from being hurt under the guise of therapy. "I'm trying to protect children and parents from totally unapproved therapies. This is voodoo therapy. This is child abuse."
Although coercive therapy has never been included in traditional mental health therapies, support for it and anecdotes of miraculous recoveries abound. Therapy supporters had been invited to Thursday's meeting but none attended.
That's typical because those who offer it or participate in it always operate outside public scrutiny, said Christopher Barden, a nationally known psychiatrist and widely quoted critic of coercive therapy.
He told lawmakers the treatment shouldn't even be called therapy because labeling it as such implies it has been shown to be therapeutic.
The only evidence that it works is the worst kind — anecdotal — and it has never stood up to any kind of basic scientific review, Barden said. He likened the fervor of its supporters to those who also believed in bloodletting and leeching as a cure for physical illness, noting that George Washington died after bleeding out a quart of blood in a single day on the advice of his physician.
"I don't think these people are trying to injure, but they are shockingly ignorant and are applying that ignorance to children with terrible results," he said.
Not only does the therapy not meet even the most basic scientific criteria, it amounts to human experimentation and fraud, he added.
There are those who say they got better because of it, Barden said. "But just because an outcome and a treatment appear related doesn't mean cause and effect. That is like believing that eating dinner is what makes the sun go down in the evening."
Source --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And so what if the Smarts went on vacation? First you complain that Ed Smart is saturating the airwaves, then you say that he is throwing red herrings out to keep his face and name out of the public eye. Well, which is it?
Please, don't let the door hit you on the way out.
All I know is that it is not normal to go on vacation when your daughter has been missing less than four months. A vacation to me means to forget your cares and enjoy yourself. It would be the last thing on my mind.
If you think it is normal with your "get a grip comment", fine, Obviously, we disagree.
God gives us a special duty as parents to care and nuture our children and I can't comprehend going on vacation during the time a child is missing. Money can be spent on detectives to help find Elizabeth. If Ed and Lois asked the other children rather they would want the money spent on a vacation or on helping to find Elizabeth, I wonder what they would say.
Local authorities are denying rumors reported on television that placed 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart in Yuma County, Ariz.
According to the rumor, an individual approached the Salt Lake Police Department saying "Elizabeth is living in Arizona and is pregnant," Salt Lake Police Sgt. Fred Louis said. "There is no validity to that statement."
According to the FBI, Salt Lake police told them the rumor was false.
"The only thing we've been told is someone sent a photo up to the police department asking if that matched the description of Elizabeth Smart and they ruled it out as any possibility," FBI special agent George Dougherty said.
Salt Lake police have been going back over early clues in the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping, and they interviewed Elizabeth's mother last week. They have been going back through a list of people the family knew in hopes of finding new clues in the 3 1/2-month-old kidnapping.
As part of their plan to go back to square one and re-examine the disappearance of 14-year-old Elizabeth, police have returned to the Federal Heights neighborhood looking for more clues, said Elizabeth's father, Ed Smart.
Smart family spokesman Chris Thomas said that within the past few weeks, police have conducted separate interviews with both of Elizabeth's parents. Lois' interview last week lasted two to three hours and was meant to help police review the family's extensive list of friends, associates and workers who knew the family or had access to their million-dollar residence.
Also, what tv show was talking about this? Source please.
Did the tv station document it? How was it presented?
UG...calm down! I asked politely a ligitimate question, did I not? I did NOT say you made it up, did I ?
Remember when you left the board some time back? Remember how you felt? Did I write a very nice letter to you to encourage you? Now you come out with gloves on because I ask you a question about something you posted, and you are insinuating that I was saying you made it up???
I try to source everything. I want to read it for myself, and save it. I don't like to post anything that isn't sourced. It is the right thing to do.
And UG, if something is going to happen with this case, it is going to happen regardless if YOU or I OR ANYONE including the DESERET NEWS want it to or not.
The reason I asked about the tv station, is because it is not reported nationally, and I wondered if it was a local station. Isn't that a fair question?
Maybe you read it in the local paper. How did I know?
Try not to take offense so quickly. I have no desire to offend anyone. I really don't have much of a desire to post much anymore for this very reason. Very sad.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.