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."
It's a broken record, judging by what she's been posting. :)
If this is real we don'r need an election we need a revolution. No real Republican could support this. A Democrat might (even that's shaky)but a conservative never. Have Aliens taken our Gerorge Bush and replaced him with a clone? Is the DNC controling his mind with Alpha Waves? This has to be the most insain idea to come forward since Hillary tried that Health Care Thingy a few years back.
Nope, but it shore do bark a lot! :)
Here, for all the rovers:
Achieving the Promise: Transforming Mental Health Care in America, the White House's source document
Bush plans to screen whole US population for mental illness, by Jeanne Lenzer, British Medical Journal
Certainly not the only one. But a reporter's personal political leanings should at least be noted when they produce articles as controversial as this one happens to be, as I believe true journalistic objectivity is impossible to achieve. (And sometimes is not even attempted, though I'm not accusing Lenzer of that.)
It's a data point, and should be factored into all the other information thus far posted in this thread. That's all.
And remind me again -- that discredits the actual material exactly how? I mean, you are arguing against the original source material, so I presume there must be a reason.
For your convenience, the original source material:
Achieving the Promise: Transforming Mental Health Care in America, the White House's source document
Bush plans to screen whole US population for mental illness, by Jeanne Lenzer, British Medical Journal
It was enough for me to factor and disregard any info. given with World 'NUT' Daily involved in this article.
That's nothing. You ought to see what the legislatures, courts, and government agencies are packed chock full of.
Somewhere in the 1990's we became the Soviet Union.
Only we have a nicer anthem.
You probably account for about half of the posts on this thread and you sound absolutely ridiculous and off your rocker in need of the very meds being discussed. Give it a rest; Bush is not trying to sedate the nation.
Achieving the Promise: Transforming Mental Health Care in America, the White House's source document
Hint: that is not the document you reference. That is the basis for what underlies the document you referenced.
Since your post indicates that you dislike indirection, I'd urge you to go straight to the ultimate source, linked above.
As I see it, one of the major factors that would turn a commission's recommendation like this into law is the heavy-duty lobbying from companies guaranteed to make money off of it.
There's doubtless an element of that at work here, but I suspect the greatest source of static is the "My president, right or wrong" chorus.
gee, when did you get so cynical? I don't remember you Guess its been a long time since I've read your posts.
Now, now, I'm sure you'll feel much better about it after you've taken your medicine. Sounding, as you do, like an "anti-social anti-government conspiracy theorist", I've no doubt there's an "appropriate treatment" waiting in the wings.
Paging Nurse Ratchett...
And every post I've see you make here support that you support indirection. Thanks for the link. I got mine from the White House. I'll rely on that.
You're talking about "No Child Left Behind", aren't you. Well, brace yourself. There are several posters in this thread who endorse that monstrosity, and, attack anyone who speaks ill of it.
Actually, I do remember you Laz. I erased that I didn't remember you writing like that.
Ever since they banned my assault weapon, took away my right to withhold ID from a cop if he's got no good reason to know it, decided to spend billions of my tax money (under a republican administration), denied my right to fund commercials for a political cause 60 days before an election, decided it was okay to seize my property whether or not a drug crime was committed with it, and decided to force-screen me and my countrymen for mental illness.
Right about then.
That's all.
I hate "No Child Left Behind" but that doesn't mean that I still think your sane on this thread.
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