Paying to Drug Kids Taxpayer Funds Promote Child Screening & Drugging By Dr. Karen Effrem

"The Abramoff scandal pales in comparison to the stench of the mental health establishment’s influence over government, causing our children to be labeled in infancy and creating a never-ending market for psychiatric drugs."

Sadly, here is another case where the rhetoric of government officials and agencies bears no resemblance to reality and the truth. This time it involves our children being labeled mentally ill in infancy by vague and politically motivated criteria and becoming lifelong dependents on ineffective and dangerous medications. The cost of these deceptions to our children, our freedoms of conscience and religion, our parental authority, and our treasure will be incalculable.

During the October 17th, 2005 meeting with Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administrator (SAMHSA) administrator Charles Curie, Mr. Curie made some significant statements. The statements were made to EdWatch, AHRP, and other members of the coalition of national groups opposing universal mental health screening and psychiatric drugging that are recommended in the New Freedom Commission (NFC) report. The recommendations are being implemented and funded by the federal government, state laws, and private and government grants.

Curie admitted the lack of scientific validity of the Texas Medication Algorithm Project (TMAP) psychiatric drug program. He also stated that TeenScreen is no longer a model program. The facts are, however, that both TMAP and TeenScreen are still present and/or receiving federal funding. His other statements in the October meeting included:

• “The New Freedom Commission report is not official Bush Administration policy, but rather the unofficial recommendations of an appointed commission.”
• The state incentive transformation grants (SITG), funded at $26 million in the FY 2006 appropriations bill, are merely for infrastructure for states to set up their individual transformation plans for a “recovery oriented system.”

The Federal Mental Health Action Agenda (FMHAA or “Action Agenda”) is “not really a blueprint or road map for implementing the NFC report.”

Children's Mental Health in…Congress:
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
By Dr. Karen Effrem

The Department of Education is spending $5 million on “Mental Health Integration in Schools” that we are still investigating, as well as $1 million for Senator Kennedy’s disastrous early childhood mental health program called Foundations for Learning. (See our update.)
THE UGLY: The ugliest parts of this situation are:

• The apparent complete capitulation of the administration and the Senate leadership to the pharmaceutical industry and mental health bureaucracy to the point that they cannot even support the basic right of parental consent. These screening programs will subjectively label a child with a vague and dubious mental diagnoses based on political and/ or religious beliefs that will follow them for the rest of their lives. They will lead to increased drugging with ineffective and dangerous medications that can cause suicide, violence, cognitive toxicity, and diabetes.

• That the White House would even consider former Food and Drug Administration chief Mark McClellan as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS will administer the grants to implement the New Freedom Commission recommendations of universal screening and drugging. The FDA has completely failed in its mission to protect the public from ineffective and dangerous medications. The two most recent disasters are the antidepressants in children and Vioxx in adults. Physicians and the public are completely unable to make informed decisions about pharmaceuticals, because for years, the FDA has allowed the industry to cover up evidence of dangerous side effects. Only positive studies of drug effectiveness have been published. There is no evidence that the cozy relationship with the pharmaceutical industry will end with someone from the FDA in charge at HHS, especially since the pharmaceutical industry is already profiting enormously from the New Freedom treatment recommendations. McClellan, and anyone else from the FDA, should be sent packing in disgrace, not considered for a promotion.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? – to find out…
Read the rest of the article HERE

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