Mental Health Screening for Kids- Part II

Last week I wrote about a presidential initiative called the “New Freedom Commission on Mental Health,” which issued a report calling for the mandatory mental health screening of American schoolchildren. This new proposal threatens to force millions of kids to undergo psychiatric screening, whether their parents consent or not. At issue is the fundamental right of parents to decide what medical treatment is appropriate for their children.

I introduced an amendment to eliminate any funding for the proposal in a Department of Education and Department of Health and Human Services spending bill. Although the amendment failed, the response to my office has been overwhelming and highly supportive. The notion of federal bureaucrats ordering potentially millions of youngsters to take psychotropic drugs like Ritalin strikes an emotional chord with American parents, who are sick of relinquishing more and more parental control to government.

Some members of Congress objected to my amendment on the grounds that the federal screening program does not yet exist, so it’s premature to oppose it. But the whole point was to prevent the proposal from being implemented in the first place. Once created, federal programs are nearly impossible to eliminate. Congress had a rare opportunity to stop a bad idea in its tracks, before it becomes entrenched. Every member who opposes the idea of forcing kids to undergo mental health screening should have sent a strong statement by voting for my amendment. They will have another chance to kill the initiative when I introduce a stand-alone bill later this year.

Furthermore, it’s not true that no money has been allocated for the proposal. The Appropriations committee, which distributes your tax dollars to the various federal agencies, specifically allotted $20 million in the HHS/Education bill for state programs in support of the New Freedom commission report. These federally-funded state programs will be the precursors of the broader federal program recommended by the commission.

Anyone who understands bureaucracies knows they assume more and more power incrementally. A few scattered state programs over time will be replaced by a federal program implemented in a few select cities. Once the limited federal program is accepted, it will be expanded nationwide. Once in place throughout the country, the screening program will become mandatory. This is why we can never trust new bureaucratic programs: no matter how benevolent their proponents claim them to be, most programs morph into something much larger than originally foreseen. Those who view my concerns as alarmism fail to understand the inevitable nature of bureaucratic growth.

Soviet communists attempted to paint all opposition to the state as mental illness. It now seems our own federal government wants to create a therapeutic nanny state, beginning with schoolchildren. It’s not hard to imagine a time 20 or 30 years from now when government psychiatrists stigmatize children whose religious, social, or political values do not comport with those of the politically correct, secular state.

American parents must do everything they can to remain responsible for their children’s well-being. If we allow government to become intimately involved with our children’s minds and bodies, we will have lost the final vestiges of parental authority. Strong families are the last line of defense against an overreaching bureaucratic state.

Government requires all sorts of mandatory health screenings and tests before a child can attend public school. What's the difference with mental health screening?

Because the psychiatric/psychologic industry has become hugely politicized of late, in case you haven't noticed. They want to 'normalize' pedophilia, homosexuality, people wanting sex changes, etcetera. Consider what has been done to boys across this nation who act like boys....they recommend doping for ADD, ODD, ADHD, and a host of other 'kid' behaviors that have all of a sudden become 'disorders' needing 'treatment'.

I predict that the pharmaceutical industry is behind this. After everyone gets diagnosed with something, Compassionate Conservatism will be right there to pay for the meds.

Shouldn't we contact President Bush who started this Nonsense? Our mental health system is fine and it should be left up to the states as to what to do with their citizens.

President Says U.S. Must Make Commitment to Mental Health Care
View the President's Remarks
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Mailing Address The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500
Phone Numbers Comments: 202-456-1111 Switchboard: 202-456-1414 FAX: 202-456-2461	TTY/TDD Comments: 202-456-6213 Visitors Office: 202-456-2121

E-Mail

President George W. Bush: president@whitehouse.gov
Vice President Richard Cheney: vice.president@whitehouse.gov

Psychiatry and the State (Excerpt)
by Dennis Behreandt

The federal government plans a new role in delivering mental health care. Historically, however, governments have used psychiatric techniques for harm rather than good.

On April 29, 2002, President George W. Bush issued an executive order creating a new commission charged with finding ways to “improve America’s mental health service delivery system.” One year later, the Orwellian-sounding New Freedom Commission on Mental Health released its findings. Its final report recommended mental health screening for all Americans and, in a proposal that should alarm parents everywhere, recommended that the nation’s schools be used to assess the mental health of all schoolchildren.

President George W. Bush wants to have American citizens, beginning with all school age children, examined by psychiatrists.

"The New Freedom Initiative is a plan to screen the entire U.S. population for mental illness and to provide a cradle-to-grave continuum of services for those identified as either mentally ill or at risk of becoming so. Under the plan, schools would become hubs of the screening process, not only for children, but for their parents and teachers. There are even components aimed at senior citizens, pregnant women, and new mothers.

"In April 2002, President Bush established the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health to conduct a 'comprehensive study of the United States mental health service delivery system.' The commission issued its recommendations in July 2003, chief among them being that schools are in a 'key position' to screen the 52 million students and 6 million adults who work at educational facilities."

This Draconian federal program began in Texas while G.W. Bush was Governor. It was called the Texas Medication Algorithm Project as an alliance between the pharmaceutical industry, the University of Texas, and the mental health and corrections systems of Texas. Now that Bush is President, he has begun implementing the program at the national level.

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