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."
I dunno about that. Legal, goobermint approved and payed for and Doctor prescribed feelgoods for everybody? It'll probably go over very well. It's for the best doncha know?
Let me lay out some other canned responses:
"The original source is Laura Bush. She doesn't know what her husband is doing."
"The original source is President Bush. Great strategery! I love this guy!"
The speech Sabertooth linked is proof enough for anyone willing to look at the facts.
Uh, cyber six million dollar man, your knee jerkedness is from you taking a WND article as the God's honest truth.
Nothing has been proposed, all is speculation from a commission, yet farah ran with the ball and ran in the wrong direction, IMO.
I can easily forsee a day in the near future in which our health insurers will mandate "routine screening" as a condition of continued coverage -- and, and automatic "referral" for anyone "irrational" enough to refuse such a reasonable requirement, at the cost of losing their coverage.
Oh, dear. That is so scary to me.
The doctor I went to where I recently moved is incompetent and lacks diagnostic skills. When he could not figure out what was causing the pain in my leg, he recommended that I go to the Mental Health Clinic for Treatment.
That is a flash-back to the days when women's ills were often treated as "hypochrondia". With this new system, too many medical problems will be treated as "Prozac necessary". Just so doctors can cover up their incompetency and drug companies can make money?
Oh, Sweet Jesus, come quickly. I don't like this Brave New World.
Go ahead and believe your Carl Rove talking points.
LOL.....
Weak, very weak.
Don't worry, when the BushBots are standing in line waiting to be screened by the Federal Department of Mental Health and Medications they will devise a rationalization of why this is the greatest idea ever proposed by an American president.
I missed this one last night due to computer problems and it over 500 posts now
Do you have a summary available??
I'm a Bush supporter, but I'm not about to excuse every foolish policy (or potential policy) the administration dreams up. Nor should you.
JMO, that's better than your tin foil WND talking points.
Riiiiiight whatever... as long as its President Bush proposing the idea. If it was democrat, people like you would be the first ones screaming. Fine. That makes me a WND tinfoil nutter.
Final diagnosis one year later? Multiple Sclerosis. A central nervous system disease. You see, he was right and wrong... it WAS all in my head! ;)
Let me get this straight. You think that Pres. Bush posts crazy proposals that he gets on the WH website so that he can get feedback from crazy people and you consider that a courageous thing to do?
I'm a Bush supporter, but I'm not about to excuse every foolish policy (or potential policy) the administration dreams up. Nor should you
Yet you excuse, Joe Farah, the British medical Journal.
Oh that's right they are the press and not the elected Executive branch of the govt.
So they are automatically excused from any scrunity in your book.
The second paragraph.
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.
<----Stepping back slowly....
Sure. I feel great now.
Actually what was posted on FR was Joe Farah's of WND's account.
The blood boiled by many, and there has been much discussion.
To be succinct, I will trust GW Bush over Joe Farah, every day of the week.
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