[texasflower]

This is going to be a long post and I apologize for that upfront. Most of my comments are going to be directed at others that might be reading this out of concern or fear about what this issue might involve. I know that you understand all of this already.

Your post is excellent. Thank you for posting all of that.

There are so many people in similar situations that would benefit greatly from having comphrensive mental health evaluation and ongoing care.

You pointed out several areas in which some of this screening would be perfectly applied. In the schools if a child is presenting with behavioral or learning problems that has come to the attention of the school diagnostician, school psychologist or school nurse.

In a prison intake and detention services. Discharge planning by prison staff. Later on by probation officers or other referral agencies after discharge.

There are so many areas that this initiative could and should be applied.

Had you or your son had the option, this sort of thing could have changed both of your lives for the better.

I know that as a parent, you would have loved to be able to have help for your son. I suspect your heart was broken watching your child go through so much, and knowing that it was mostly due to a health matter.

As a loving parent, you tried to get him help, but it wasn't available to you, as you said.

This initiative has the potential to improve life for many, many people and the families that love them.

There is also the simple fact that with proper treatment, the vast majority of people are able to continue with their lives and be productive.

So, by providing care early and consistently, most people will actually be less of a tax payer burden, because they will be better able to get and hold a job. Many would then go to private health care through their employer and or be less dependent on things like food stamps, etc.

Many people don't think they would ever be in need of care themselves. You have shown that perfectly normal people in good loving homes may need assistance.

Besides you never know when circumstances might change in a heartbeat and a person may encounter a crisis that causes them to need help.

A prime and desperately real example of this is something that we have seen all too often in this country.

Remember the young paramedic that rescued "Baby Jessica"? The trauma of that event eventually led to his suicide.

The rescuers that went to work on the morning of September 11, 2001.

A couple of hours later, they were confronted with the sights of bodies torn to pieces on the sidewalk from those souls that preferred to jump to their deaths. The sight of a pregnant woman torn open by the impact, with her baby lying dead and torn beside her, still connected by the umbilical cord.

The agony of finding no survivors in the rubble once the towers collapsed. Recovering remains only.

The hundreds of funerals that the police and fire department personnel had to attend. Going back to work and seeing the rows of empty lockers belonging to co-workers that would not be returning.

The families of 9/11. It doesn't take much to see that many of those survivors have taken their grief and projected it into very unhealthy activities. Some of them have turned that into hatred and rage against the very people who have done the most to help them. (911 Commission Families)

The families of those that are now having to cope with the fact that their loved one has been decapitated.

Families of our fallen soldiers.

Wounded soldiers coping with life changing injuries.

Soldiers suffering from PTSD.

Unexpected mental and physical traumas can happen in a heart beat and without warning.

That means every single one of us is at risk for mental health challenges.

Most of these people have seen or will see a grief counselor or chaplain, etc. These people would provide screening simply by virtue of the incident in which they were involved.

Screening generally begins with someone like that, who under this initiative, can then offer additional services to the person. This initiative can make that process specific and streamlined. It is a tremendous alternative to just handing them a card with crisis hotline centers on it and telling them to be sure and tell "someone" if they need help. They will be able to know exactly who to call and how to go about getting help.

Also, "screening" doesn't involve a brooding psychiatrist with ink blots. Screening may be as simple as a grief counselor, pastor or other, who asks gentle and loving questions like "Are you experiencing trouble sleeping, eating, concentrating..." etc. The answers to those questions is often the basis for offering more extensive assistance and care.

For me, I was called to a scene that was supposed to be a routine "sick call".

When I arrived, the patient put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger. I was close enough to him to be covered with his blood and brain tissue.

But, he continued to breathe, even with most of his head gone. As a paramedic, even though I knew he could never survive, by law I was required to treat him aggressively.

So, covered in that mess, I had to work him until I could get a physician on scene to pronounce him dead. I wiped the man's brain out of my eyes, intubated a gaping hole where a face used to be and got to work on him.

When that was over, I went back to the station, showered, changed uniforms and stayed at work.

But later, quite unexpectedly I had a very vivid flashback in which I heard the gunshot, smelled the gunshot and felt all of that blood and tissue on me all over again.

What did my employer do? They paid for me to go to a critical incident stress debriefing and a couple of follow ups. They even paid me for the time I spent there.

I never missed a day of work, I was not stigmatized in any way and a more serious problem was immediately averted.


There are so many on this board that can't see how people can be screened for mental health problems, unless it is forced.

This has been a long way to say that there is no provision in the initiative to force anyone to undergo psychiatric evaluation.

Screening can be as simple as situations like those listed in which a significant risk of psychological trauma exists.

Offering a comprehensive health care initiative can save many minds and many lives.

In this age of terror, something like this is crucial.

But finally let me stress that nothing in any of the documents that have been provided or those that can be researched say ANYTHING about every American being tested.

Only that it should be AVAILABLE to every American that needs help.

[Sabertooth]

You pointed out several areas in which some of this screening would be perfectly applied. In the schools if a child is presenting with behavioral or learning problems that has come to the attention of the school diagnostician, school psychologist or school nurse.

This is not what the President's commision has recommended.

Here is the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health's Final Report.

Here's an excerpt from Goal 4: Early Mental Health Screening, Assessment, and Referral to Services Are Common Practice

"Schools are in a key position to identify mental health problems early and to provide a link to appropriate services. Every day more than 52 million students attend over 114,000 schools in the U.S. When combined with the six million adults working at those schools, almost one-fifth of the population passes through the Nation's schools on any given weekday.¹²² Clearly, strong school mental health programs can attend to the health and behavioral concerns of students, reduce unnecessary pain and suffering, and help ensure academic achievement."

Further down, the commission advocates a particular screening model developed at Columbia University:

All youngsters in a school, with parental consent, are given a computer-based questionnaire that screens them for mental illnesses and suicide risk. At no charge, the Columbia University TeenScreen® Program provides consultation, screening materials, software, training, and technical assistance to qualifying schools and communities. In return, TeenScreen® partners are expected to screen at least 200 youth per year and ensure that a licensed mental health professional is on-site to give immediate counseling and referral services for youth at greatest risk. The Columbia TeenScreen® Program is a not-for-profit organization funded solely by foundations. When the program identifies youth needing treatment, their care is paid for depending on the family's health coverage."

That's "all youngsters" in public schools, with parental consent, who are being targeted for mental screening. This is a mental health dragnet, not a situation where "a child is presenting with behavioral or learning problems that has come to the attention of the school diagnostician, school psychologist or school nurse."

[thoughtomator]

I think you need to understand a couple of things:

1) Drugs are not the answer to the bad things that happen in life.

2) Man should not play God with the brain chemistry of other men.

Shit happens in life. I personally was in the WTC the first time they bombed it, in 1993. You bet your sweet hindquarters it was traumatic. But to have taken that trauma as an excuse to take drugs would have been an abomination. Life is real, even the awful things that happen in life. Drugs are NOT the answer to dealing with these things.

Also, I hope you understand the implications of the nexus between government schools and school staff ordering mental examinations. It's already resulted in 4 million American kids zombified by Ritalin. I will personally tolerate no more of this.

It is long past time we stopped inventing excuses for poor behavior and using drugs as an alternative to correcting that behavior. One thing that particularly outrages me is parents who, having failed to raise their children properly, pretend they have ADHD and drug them into submission. I shudder to think how messed up the lives of these children will be.

If the Brave New World is coming, I will be fighting it tooth and nail every step of the way.

[ApesForEvolution]

I nominate you Queen of the state of victimhood, the highest class in America today.

[HiTech RedNeck]

I am a skeptic about GUMMINT getting involved with this. He who pays the piper calls the tune. Who says where the grate goes in the screen when it comes down to the lowest common denominator? This is the same gummint who won't let foster parents for children in child protection teach these kids, or even their own kids living alongside them, that Christianity is true or that homosexuality is bad.

[texastoo]

I just read your paramedic scenario and find it hard to believe. Do you realize how many times you used the words "I" or "me" in that scenario?

Most paramedics work in pairs. Where was your partner in all of this?

[booann777]

Texasflower; Your post 905 leaves me totally speechless and in awe of your communication skills, as well as your knowledge and prevention regarding these critical and life saving issues.

I want to be you... :)

Thanks for enlightening all of us, every word you said is true. Really, speechless...

Warmest wishes, booann

[bvw]

It is available NOW to every American. Pick out a doctor or therapist and call to make an appointment.

However the Federal Government via the power and authority granted it has NO authority to be involved in these health issues of the general public. Being a law-abiding and respecting person threfore what you are asking for is a Constitutional Amendment that would authorize the Federal Government to "provide for health care to every citizen". . Right?

If not, why then you favor tyranny. A friendly tyrrany -- bua an unaccountable one, restrained by nothing, able to do what it pleases.

[TigersEye]

Apparently your tremendous compassion hits its limit when it encounters situations such as the one I described here which have become very common. I think an 800% increase in Rx's of psychotropic drugs to school age children in a ten year period is a tragedy. There is no possible way that that many children are so severely mentally ill. We don't need to drug more of them.