20 million to screen all Americans for Mental Illness? Is this for real?

[loftycity]

Has anyone heard of this? I just got this from friends in Canada.
Loftycity



The House Appropriations Committee Funds President’s


New Freedom Commission Initiative That Includes Plan To


Screen All U.S. Citizens For Mental Illness –





Tell Congress and the White House NO MENTAL SCREENINGS FOR AMERICANS AND NO FUNDING FOR THIS PLAN!





Yesterday, the House Appropriations Committee approved $20 million in new federal dollars to begin implementation of the plans set forth by the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health (NFC) to get every man, woman and child in America “screened” for “mental illness.”





Amidst broad public concern that many of the antidepressants being prescribed to Americans are under federal investigation for causing suicidal reactions, the New Freedom on Mental Health Commission’s campaign for national mental health “screening” – will result in millions more Americans being diagnosed with fraudulent and unscientific mental disorders, and prescribed dangerous and deadly psychiatric drugs.





Now, $20 million has been approved by the House Appropriations Committee for “State Incentive Transformation Grants,” in order to begin nationwide implementation of the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health’s plan. It’s the beginning of a “Brave New World” should the Senate fund this.





The Commission based its entire findings on the definition of mental illness as defined by psychiatry’s billing bible, the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The methods of mental health “screening” recommended by the New Freedom Commission are lists of arbitrary questions based on this DSM. If this “sweeping mental health initiative” is implemented, millions more American’s will certainly be diagnosed and drugged given the subjective diagnoses.





FACTS:


Ø The New Freedom Commission on Mental Health’s report states that
“mental illnesses are shockingly common,” but neglects to address or even mention the fact that there is no medical or scientific means by which to diagnose mental “illnesses.” Psychiatrists and mental health proponents promote psychiatric “disorders” as a disease, or an illness that can be diagnosed in the same manner as real physical illness. This is a fraud. There are no blood tests, brain scans or chemical imbalance tests to validate any mental disorder as an illness or “disease.” With no scientific/medical criteria to substantiate these claims, anyone could be diagnosed as mentally ill based solely on a checklist of behaviors.


Ø The DSM contains hundreds of psychiatric mental “disorders” which
are
a list of behavioral symptoms that are literally voted into existence and inserted into the DSM. Such diagnoses include “Caffeine-Related Disorder,” “Mathematics Disorder,” “Disorder of Written Expression,” and the all-encompassing “Phase of Life Problem.” These “disorders” are simply a classification of symptoms that are drastically different from, and foreign to, anything in medicine.


Ø The New Freedom Commission is blatantly promoting the coercive
and
manipulative tactics that have led to millions of children being falsely
labeled with mental disorders in our public schools. Schools have
become
mental health clinics where children are diagnosed based on subjective questionnaires, instead of given proven educational solutions. This fact was substantiated by a report from the President’s Commission on Excellence in Special Education, which found that 2.4 million children had been diagnosed with mental “disorders” and placed in Special Education, when in fact these children had simply not been taught to read.


Ø The issue of coerced child drugging in public schools has become
so
prevalent that the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Child Medication Safety Act in May 2003, to prevent schools from forcing a parent to drug their child as a condition of attending school.


Ø Due to psychiatric influence, parents have been reported to Child
Protective Services and charged with medical neglect for refusing to give their child a psychiatric drug, such as those currently under investigation for causing suicidal reactions. Parents have been charged with “medical neglect” for refusing psychiatric treatment – despite the fact that there is no scientific proof that there is anything medically wrong with the child.


Ø In a recent report by Allen Jones, a former investigator in the
Pennsylvania Office of Inspector General (OIG), Bureau of Special Investigations, condemning the New Freedom Commission (NFC), he states, “Despite a nearly 500% increase in American children being prescribed mental health drugs during the past 6 years, the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health found that not enough adolescents are benefiting from mental health treatment. The NFC recommendations prominently call for mandatory mental health screening for all high school students, with follow-up ‘treatment’ as required – this means more kids on mind-altering and potentially lethal psychiatric drugs.”






WHAT TO DO:



1) Oppose any federal, state, or local plans for universal mental health screening. Contact the White House (202-456-1111), the Speaker of the House (Rep. Hastert at 202-225-2976) and the Senate Leader (Senator Frist at 202-224-3344), your own Members of Congress (go to www.congress.org), the House Education and Workforce Committee Chairman John Boehner at 202-225-6205, and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman Judd Gregg at 202-224-3324 and tell them to STOP funding this New Freedom Commission on Mental Health plan in the Labor/HHS appropriations bill. Alert your state legislators and oppose school board initiatives to add psychiatric screening programs.





2) Support the Child Medication Act (S. 1390) currently stalled in the Senate by Senator Edward Kennedy - This legislation prohibits schools from coercing parents to place their children on psychiatric medications that are on the controlled substances list. Senator Kennedy, with large support from pharmaceutical companies, has not let this very modest proposal even receive a hearing, saying that it needs more study. Senator Kennedy
(202-224-4543)
as well as Senator Gregg (202-224-3324) the Committee chairman, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (202-224-3344) need to hear from the public.





3) Check to see if your state has a provision in state special education law that prohibits a school district from overriding parental refusal to submit their child to a special education or mental health evaluation. If yes, alert other parents, and if not, work for one.


Peter Dockx


Government Affairs


CCHR International
For Health Freedom,
John C. Hammell, President
International Advocates for Health Freedom
556 Boundary Bay Road
Point Roberts, WA 98281-8702 USA
http://www.iahf.com
[e-mail]
800-333-2553 N.America
360-945-0352 World

[redqueen]

1. Contact Congress Toll Free at 1-800-839-5276

:kick:

Call call call! Call your Senators too and warn them about this ridiculous nonsense!

I like issues like this because even my reich-wing reps will be hard-pressed to defend it to their supporters - this is something that we can all unite against! :)

[elehhhhna]

3. They want to start by screening school-children!

Brave New World here we come.

Didn't the old USSR put people away in asylums this way?

This is a giveaway for the prozac manufacturers, etc.

[redqueen]

6. This should be easy to put the smack-down on

They might try to sneak it in an unrelated bill, but both left AND right should have no problem opposing this BS.

[Walt Starr]

2. I suppose "liberality" will become a new mental disorder

I, for one, will refuse to undergo screening.

[tekriter]

4. Need more tinfoil!!

This sounds like it's on the same level as the stuff (that my sister believes) about how Aspartame gives you brain damage, tumors, insanity, webbed feet, etc.

Does anyone really think Ted Kennedy is in the pocket of the pharmaceutical companies?

[Norquist Nemesis]

5. It's for real!

It's pretty scary, huh? Not to mention that Republican pundits and polemicists have been spewing the meme that liberalism is a mental illness and we're all crazy. Step right up liberals! The adults are in charge! :scared:

[notadmblnd]

7. if this happens,

the screening needs to start with the people at the top not at the bottom of their lifecycles.

If the pResident is first in line followed by his cronies and corporate greed monsters, I just might buy into the screening process.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

8. The DSM -- what a total joke.

Psychiatry is not a science, it's guesswork.

[donsu]

9. for real - info posted at DU a week or more ago

they want to chip us too.

[maggrwaggr]

10. I'll get screened when I see GW Bush first in line

when they figure out he's a total psychopath, I'll let them screen me

[donsu]

11. the pharms are for this - if you are found mental, just pop their pills

I'm not kidding. read it. they will check for mental illness and proscribe pills and/or treatment. nowadays mental hospitals are PRIVATE owned.

two and two does make four.

[BiggJawn]

12. Save the money, I AM "Mentally Ill"

Clinical Depression since 1-20-01...
Feelings of despair.
Disturbed sleep patterns.
Waking up in the middle of the night gasping "Real and Credible Information! Duct Tape! CHATTER!!!"

We're ALL sick.

We have "Dubya Fatigue Syndrome"
We're all sick of Dubya.

[loftycity]

13. This link is interesting...Eugenics

http://www.tarpley.net/bush3.htm

[opihimoimoi]

14. They can start with Bush and his Crew.......Those guys are Fucking Sicko

in the Head.... its almost as if they were victims of a Midnight Lobotomy by Hannible Lector....

[loftycity]

16. They find 20 million to test all Americans and zero to test cattle....

Us plain folks are thought of so highly...I don't know if I can take all the empathy that this cabal exudes...on to us.

[redqueen]

17. Zing! Time to call them all again!

Thanks for the excuse! :D

[loftycity]

20. Redqueen you are great..you are the Hotline!

[opihimoimoi]

19. Actually, this Nation does possess confirming signs of being nuts

We got a big one in the Oval Office....

[NoPasaran]

15. Save money----

Just screen people with Bush-Cheney stickers!

[AntiCoup2K4]

18. Ironic that this organization would be based in Point Roberts WA

For those not familiar with our local geography, Point Roberts is a part of Washington state by the accidental fact that it happens to sit below the 49th parallel which serves as the US-Canada border. It's not connected to the rest of the state by land at all. Seems like a convenient place to live for someone who plans on being vocally opposed to the Bush Criminal Empire's future attempts to have anyone who opposes them declared "insane". If any part of America secedes from the empire to join Canada, I couldn't think of a more likely place than Point Roberts.