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."
Barbra Streisand and Alec Baldwin need to go first.
You're freakin hilarious! LOL
The problem is, they already are.
LOL!
What about Michael Moore?
Thanks, will heed the warning.
I'm outta here.
This is f-ed up bigtime. Does Bush want to keep every freedom-loving voter home on election day?
oops, forgot.
dittos
He signed the Swimmers Bill. Then the Medical Pills Bill. Two HUGE pork-filled entitlement programs. And now this?
I will say again that I'd F most of the domestic programs, starting with the DOE and goe down to the end of the alphabet. I'd skip "M" - military; the only piece of the Fed. gov't worth a sh!t./rant. And y'all know, I sent W a nicely worded, profession, executive written interpretation of my feeling spelled out above.
How often are articles on WND not atributed to an author of some sort?
??????
WTF????
Is this for real? It's hard to believe.
I know Farah hates Bush, but could this have a grain of truth to it?
If they actually annouce this, they are absolutely nuts.
This is the kind of thing that could drive what little conservative support Bush still had right into the third parties for years to come.
Good Lord, I thought this was satire until I neared the end. What in hell is this Administration thinking? The Soviets and Cubans used mental hospitals as a means of controlling political dissidents and it looks like we're heading the same scary way. I'm beginning to have serious doubts about this President's judgment.
This reminds me of the Soviet Union or Communist China, where simply disagreeing with the government was enough to have you labeled "mentally ill" and shipped to a gulag. Sure their intentions may be good, but as with all laws, it depends who's in power.
This has got to be one of the most hare-brained things the Bush Administration has come up with so far.
How about that? Anyone know how the USSR used programs like this to keep objectors down? If you didn't like the communist way of life you were mentally ill and sent away.
Sorry, but starting this in schools makes it even worse. Started under Bush, and then when the democrats get control all the republicans/conservatives are called nutter and locked up.
This is a terrible idea during an election year. No doubt the Lenos and Lettermans would turn this on its ear as a sign that Bush is crazy.
Trot out something like this *after* the election when folks will have time to take it seriously instead of as an election ploy.
Olanzapine? That's Zyprexa - used for treating schizophrenia and severe bipolarity. How many of those do they expect to find that our currently undiagnosed? Also, they won't likely be finding them in the grade schools...
Not many.
I'm with Judith Anne. I don't believe this.
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