Posted on 06/21/2004 10:19:15 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
President Bush plans to unveil next month a sweeping mental health initiative that recommends screening for every citizen and promotes the use of expensive antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs favored by supporters of the administration.
The New Freedom Initiative, according to a progress report, seeks to integrate mentally ill patients fully into the community by providing "services in the community, rather than institutions," the British Medical Journal reported.
Critics say the plan protects the profits of drug companies at the expense of the public.
The initiative began with Bush's launch in April 2002 of the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, which conducted a "comprehensive study of the United States mental health service delivery system."
The panel found that "despite their prevalence, mental disorders often go undiagnosed" and recommended comprehensive mental health screening for "consumers of all ages," including preschool children.
The commission said, "Each year, young children are expelled from preschools and childcare facilities for severely disruptive behaviors and emotional disorders."
Schools, the panel concluded, are in a "key position" to screen the 52 million students and 6 million adults who work at the schools.
The commission recommended that the screening be linked with "treatment and supports," including "state-of-the-art treatments" using "specific medications for specific conditions."
The Texas Medication Algorithm Project, or TMAP, was held up by the panel as a "model" medication treatment plan that "illustrates an evidence-based practice that results in better consumer outcomes."
The TMAP -- started in 1995 as an alliance of individuals from the pharmaceutical industry, the University of Texas and the mental health and corrections systems of Texas -- also was praised by the American Psychiatric Association, which called for increased funding to implement the overall plan.
But the Texas project sparked controversy when a Pennsylvania government employee revealed state officials with influence over the plan had received money and perks from drug companies who stand to gain from it.
Allen Jones, an employee of the Pennsylvania Office of the Inspector General says in his whistleblower report the "political/pharmaceutical alliance" that developed the Texas project, which promotes the use of newer, more expensive antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs, was behind the recommendations of the New Freedom Commission, which were "poised to consolidate the TMAP effort into a comprehensive national policy to treat mental illness with expensive, patented medications of questionable benefit and deadly side effects, and to force private insurers to pick up more of the tab."
Jones points out, according to the British Medical Journal, companies that helped start the Texas project are major contributors to Bush's election funds. Also, some members of the New Freedom Commission have served on advisory boards for these same companies, while others have direct ties to TMAP.
Eli Lilly, manufacturer of olanzapine, one of the drugs recommended in the plan, has multiple ties to the Bush administration, BMJ says. The elder President Bush was a member of Lilly's board of directors and President Bush appointed Lilly's chief executive officer, Sidney Taurel, to the Homeland Security Council.
Of Lilly's $1.6 million in political contributions in 2000, 82 percent went to Bush and the Republican Party.
Another critic, Robert Whitaker, journalist and author of "Mad in America," told the British Medical Journal that while increased screening "may seem defensible," it could also be seen as "fishing for customers."
Exorbitant spending on new drugs "robs from other forms of care such as job training and shelter program," he said.
However, a developer of the Texas project, Dr. Graham Emslie, defends screening.
"There are good data showing that if you identify kids at an earlier age who are aggressive, you can intervene ... and change their trajectory."
The hell it doesn't.
Next time, try READING it before popping off on it, OK?
Regards, Ivan
Right. And what better way to help them, than to FIND them, and offer them help? (Voluntary, at first, of course.)
And how can you possibly hope to find them unless you screen everyone?
Hence, The Program.
Isn't it beautiful when a plan comes together?
Now, you were saying about how you felt about your mother when you were growing up?
IRONY_FLAG
It's in there. Read Achieving the Promise: Transforming Mental Health Care in America.
Yes, by all means, read it: Achieving the Promise: Transforming Mental Health Care in America.
Oops, guess what? It is in there after all.
Golly!
Dang. Sure, I could make that fit on a bumper sticker, but I'd get rear-ended every time someone tried to read it.
I noticed you attempted to spin this from its topic -- a draconian soviet-style mental "health" system -- to a rant about plagiarism. Interesting.
Then keep reading. It's in there. I gave the link two or three times already in this thread.
Sure, why not. Here, I'll give it a shot.
If you don't like The Program, that's evidence of... a disorder. And once you're screened, and "treated", you will like the program.
It's like Catch 22, but even nicer!
Do you feel better yet?
how about screening the "conservative" who came up with this idea?
Once someone is "diagnosed" with a "mental illness", you can NO LONGER purchase a firearm (or in some cases, never be allowed to own one) because that question is on the form you have to fill out to purchase one.
Falsifying info needed on the form?=JAIL....FELONY .....Get charged with a FELONY??...NO FIREARM PURCHASES OR OWNERSHIP !!
. . .
By golly, you're right!
This could really be good for the country -- and, for the RKBA, too!
With enough people listed with some disorder or other, there'll be no reason to continue with all those restrictive firearm regulations!
Just think! No more draconian restrictions on the Second Amendment! No reason to renew the AWB! Etc! Etc! Etc!
Ooops... I just did the math.
Oh, well. At least we'll all be happy. (They did say free drugs, didn't they?)
Oh, please.
You're trying to discredit the article, by reframing the discussion.
Riiiight.
This program merely serves to codify that idea. :)
I really like that graphic and it is most appropriate on this thread.
Ah, I see that you're guessing. "Probably", eh? Tsk tsk. If you don't know, then don't say.
Do you ALWAYS accept things that you read at face value?
Do you ALWAYS chide people for failing to yield to your guesses?
Bush cannot be serious... this is just crazy.
Care to back that up with some evidence?
I can't read his articles.
Oops, I guess not.
Hmm.. I'd have to agree "routine and comprehensive" screening certainly does seem to indicate that you're right. What's gonna happen if this gets implemented is there's gonna be a lot of unnecessary medicating. I would bet on it..
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