Posted on 07/23/2004 4:26:02 PM PDT by Reaganwuzthebest
CHICAGO -- This week, a series of public forums on a program requiring all pregnant women and children through age 18 years to be tested for mental health needs is being held this week in five different locations statewide.
One group of parents learned about the state's plans to proceed with this program and on Monday issued an alarm asking for parents and citizens concerned about the new program to voice their opinions at the forums.
"We're moving toward social training over academic training with this program," Larry Trainor, a Mt. Prospect parent of four children and a contact for Citizens Commission on Human Rights, based in Los Angeles, said today.
"Since psychiatric involvement in education, SAT scores have gone down for the past few decades. Evaluating mental conditions is not based on scientific evidence, it's subjective," he said.
The $10 million plan for the setup of the Children's Mental Health Act of 2003 is being considered at this week's public forums starting Monday, July 18 in Champaign.
Signed into law, the bill passed the Illinois General Assembly last spring, sponsored in the House by State Representatives Julie Hamos (D-Evanston) and Patricia Bellock (R-Westmont). State Senator Maggie Crotty (D-Oak Forest) and Susan Garrett (D-Highwood) shepherded the legislation through the Senate.
The legislation passed the House with a 107 to 5 vote, and the Senate unanimously.
"What if they find a student has a math disorder, a reading disorder. Would that be a mental health disorder, one that would cause the parents to put their children with a drug for a condition they may or may not have?" Trainor asked.
The mental health program will develop a mental health system for "all children ages 0-18 years," provide for screening to "ensure appropriate and culturally relevant assessment of young children's social and emotional development with the use of standardized tools."
Also, all pregnant women will be screened for depression and thereafter following her baby's birth, up to one year. Follow-up treatment services will also be provided.
Trainor said that he is trying to get parents and citizens out to voice their opinion about the new program.
Apparently, children's mental health will be assessed along with their academic standards in the new proposed testing. The Illinois State Board of Education has been given the responsibility to develop the appropriate tests, according to last year's legislation.
The Task Force hosting the public forums this week are to send a recommendation to Governor Blagojevich by the end of the summer, according to the Act (HB 2900).
Developing story . . .
I'm unclear on this -- is it all pregnant women, or pregnant women up to age 18?
Sounds like a brilliant plan to reduce prenatal care, if you ask me. I have a 2-1/2 yr old, a 1 yr old, and I'm due in less than 3 weeks with #3. I wonder if I'd pass their "mental health" tests??? LOL
Ok... they've gone over the line. Its time to start bunker building again. I absolutely cannot believe that this is going on.
You'll get to take a mass shower with the rest of the non-conformists. Only you'll never walk out.
If you refuse? That's a no brainer. They take your kids away and they make them wards of the state.
Well wishes for your upcoming delivery. Just had my 3rd at the end of May--beautiful baby boy. Godspeed.
Don't tell me... Illinois is one of those "red" states?
BTTT
It's always for the children, that's how these legislators push through such fascist laws.
If any kid or mother now is deemed "mentally ill" in Illinois by a so-called professional who may need help himself he or she will be stigmatized for life. It doesn't matter if the diagnosis was bull, they may never be allowed the right to own a gun and who knows what other rights could be denied. Time for these legislators to get a grip and remind them what country they live in.
It's things like this that make me glad I moved to FL....
Ping......
Of course, it really depends on the details. We already have all sorts of public health policies, like immunizations and check for certain diseases.
If this is a program that will provide early identification of postpartum depression and psychosis or children at risk of major mental illness, like depression, psychosis, etc., then I think it is a good thing. However, how are they going to pay for it?
Life becomes so simple, we are led to believe; all we have to do is take the correct pill and choose from the menu.
Don't forget to take the pill that helps you forget how many pills you must take and how few are your choices on the menu.
I can feel a pill malfunction coming on ...
Required immunizations in certain circumstances I can understand because of the potential for the spread of diseases within the general public. The problem with this law is that it goes against past Supreme Court decisions that have ruled the parents are responsible for their kids health, education, and welfare. That is unless a court deems the parents unfit.
The best way to fight something like this is to teach the pregnant women and children the "proper" responses to insure they won't be ensnared by the system. The "evaluations" will likely consist of little more than a few questions about how you feeeeeeeel, so just spread the word on how to ensure your kids tell their teachers they feeeeeeel just fine. Find out what the tests will be like, and run off copies of the "Correct" responses and plaster them all over telephone poles, supermarket bulletin boards, etc.
The movement away from God has finally drawn in 'the state' as a replacement - whereas 'control' used to be from within by mastery over one's impulses, now the 'state' proposes a cure from without - no doubt via the use of prescribed drugs for observed 'problems' ...
I agree. The parents should have the final say on their children's well-being.
However, if the children are found to have major mental illnesses or substance abuse problems, can the state force the parents to get the children to treatment?
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