Posted on 07/04/2004 6:39:03 PM PDT by SkyRat
the Brief Symptom Inventory, a short version of the SCL-90, is in wide use for screening adults. it takes 8-10 minutes to fill out. it is reasonably valid for adults. i don't know if there is a version for kids yet, but you could probably do a ten minute interview version using minimally trained technicians.
the technical part is the easy part. the only thing to stop this would be popular opposition.
Well yes, there are a number of brief questionnaires and inventories for use with children to spot issues such as depressed mood and potential for drug abuse ("The Children's Depression Inventory" and the "Personal Experience Inventory", as examples), but most are used as part of an individualized assessment battery - to try to apply them for screening en masse to the "entire" population of US children, no matter what validity and reliability they boast in a facility setting, would most probably result in literally millions of misclassified "emotionally disturbed", especially if evaluation and follow-up are provided by "technicians" trained to whatever minimal standards the government wants - to do the technical part at a level I would want for my kid is impossible, but public opinion will put a stop to the program once the populace finds out what a farce it is......
i hope it gets stopped before it gets very far. it is very hard for anyone to DISPROVE that he/she or his/her child is mentally ill.
and why should the federal government be pushing this? it seems that this should fall within a state's jurisdiction.
i am against the idea, for all sorts of reasons. the problem is, it could be done very easily, but not necessarily very accurately.
If he loses, who will tell him?
Much less make sure that 300 milion people take their pill every day.
So what.
No dictatorship can ever implement all of its programs compltely. Hell, no dictatorship can ever implement any of its programs completely.
That doesn't stop 'em from trying.
Is Cuba a "no worry here, mate" scenario simply because Castro cannot silence or jail all of his critics?
I think that if you think about it you'll conclude that the ability to completely meet an expressed goal is meaningless, once the state in question decides to go about implementing its agenda.
The USSR didn't "help" all of its dissidents. It couldn't. It was logistically impossible. They just didn't have enough psychologists and psychiatrists.
I'm sure we'll be more efficient, but still fall short.
Somehow, I don't find the thought comforting.
And on that thought, I leave you(all) with two more thoughts.
I'm still making my way through this thread, but I haven't yet seen a reference to the other thread on this topic, which resulted in a knock-down, drag-out 1000+ post thread, Bush to screen population for mental illness, started on June 22. (I don't recall seeing a reference to this thread in that one either, but I may have missed it.)
Finally -- and I don't know if it's been posted to FR at all -- there is already an active agitprop campaign for this travesty.
As all agitprop campaigns, it is indirect, and aims below the belt.
In this article -- U.S. senator, sobbing for son, pleas for suicide bill -- you need to go all the way to the last paragraph if you want to see the connection to the atrocity under discussion in this thread.
Welcome to Newmerica. Roll up your sleeve and obey your "helper," OK? Don't make waves. Go with the flow. Enjoy!
bump
bump
Better have the fainting couch ready. I would hate to be in that room.
My initial impulse was to reply, "How much have you got?" but then I recalled a line from an old -- a very old -- song, by a very obscure group, with what turns out to be a very chilling name.
The band's name was, "The United States of America"
The line from the song goes, "and price is right, the cost of one admission is your mind."
I think the reason why that thread went so long because this proposition is wrapped up with a lot of sensitive issues. Taxes and more importantly the most cherished and invaluable forms of rights and that is private and property rights of one's mental situation. Think about it. Once the government invades the privacy of one's mental state, then what else is there?
I don't see anything in the Constitution authorizing anything like this activity. Oh, wait. What Constitution?
Either 'mental illness' OR 'hate speech.'
One way or another, the fascist left needs to silence the truth -- led by those infamous arbiters of "normal" -- the psychiatric industry.
Happytalk Slogantime(tm)!
"Computer-based, so you know it's good!"
Welcome to the future.
Man, it really sucks here.
PS: gotta love that "with parental consent" part, eh? (Do you really want to know what will happen if you don't consent?)
No thank you President Bush. Keep your lousy stinking globalist government away from my brain.
It sounded an awful lot like the old Soviet system?
I disagree. It doesn't sound "an awful lot" like it. It sounds identical to the centrally planned state-controlled socialist "planned economy."
Do you see that as a problem?
What do you propose to do with those citizens who do not want the government probing into their minds?
Does "privacy" have no meaning other than "the right to abort"?
And, most likely, parents who resist will be flagged as troublemakers -- and, made examples of.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.