www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News Drugs, politics, and public school children

While I voted for the President I'm a Republican only insofar as they are more pro-life than anti-life. I can't imagine that drugging our children on a massive scale is in any way "pro-life". I think we need to keep an eye on this.

Dan L

The following news article was published by The NewStandard an independent, nonprofit news project that is in need of your support.

In a "Trojan horse" initiative critics say is set up to benefit drug companies, the Bush administration is considering a program to screen pupils for "mental disorders" and prescribe pharmaceutical treatment. [HTML version]

Note:You need to read this, and then you need to write, email or phone the White House. Can you say, "social engineering?"

News Article
White House May Be Planning Nationwide Program to Diagnose, Drug Kids
by Christopher Getzan (bio)


Jun 27 - A new plan by the Bush administration to test the nation's public school population for mental disorders and treat them with controversial drugs has raised an alarm among some medical science watchdogs and members of the mental health community.

The White House is expected to announce a mental health and disability initiative that recommends the screening and treatment of the country�s K-12 students. The plan is based on a Texas program a government whistleblower has called "a Trojan horse" for pharmaceutical companies.

As first reported by bmj.com, the website for the medical news weekly the British Medical Journal, the plan is derived from findings by the President�s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, a committee of doctors and mental health care professionals established in 2002. Published by the New Freedom Initiative (NFI), the report recommends states start testing for and treating mental disorders as early as possible, focusing on students, who can be easily accessed in the public school system.

The mental health component of the plan is based on the Texas Medication Algorithm Project (TMAP), which was engineered during Bush�s tenure as governor. An algorithm is a flow chart that helps psychiatrists identify and medicate a patient�s condition.

The New Freedom Initiative reported that "despite their prevalence, mental disorders often go undiagnosed," and recommended a screening program for "consumers of all ages," including pre-school children. The commission found that schools are in a "key position" to influence the phenomena of young children being "expelled from preschools and childcare facilities for severely disruptive behaviors and emotional disorders." To do so, the NFI said that "state-of-the-art treatments" were in order, and praised TMAP for showing "results in better consumer outcomes."

The American Psychiatric Association, which itself receives some funding from drug companies, has hailed the commission�s conclusions as a sound preventative approach to dealing with mental illness.

Critics of the plan, however, point to strong connections between the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health and the pharmaceutical industry, and they contend that the plan will be a financial boon to drug companies while compromising the mental health of the nation�s children.

Holistic mental health advocate David Oaks, director of MindFreedom, a coalition of groups that campaigns for people diagnosed with psychiatric disabilities, says the issues of child mental health are not only more complicated than just testing for disorders and putting kids on drugs, but also colored by powerful societal pressures and millions of dollars in drug revenues. Oaks says the president�s plan amounts to little more than "No child left undrugged."

"It's very unimaginative. The idea sounds good: get help for the kids," Oaks said. "But the mental health machine tends to label, label, label." The labeling, said Oaks, all too often stigmatizes children as "abnormal."

"We're not happy to say the least," said Patricia Weathers, president of Ablechild: Parents for Label and Drug Free Education. "It's going to increase the drugging of children."

Oaks says he believes the template for the NFI's plan originates in the kind of extreme treatments misdiagnosed patients suffered in "the back wards" of clinics and asylums of the past, like forced drugging or electroshock therapies.

"This [has] been going on for years," said Oaks. "The psychiatric model [of the past] has been mainstreamed. And now, the system's coming for all of us."

Labeling, says Weathers, places a great deal of stress on families to raise a "normal" child. "It's almost like a parent is beaten down. You want [your child] in a mainstream school, not in a special needs school."

Weathers said her own son was dismissed from the public educational system because of her refusal to continue to drug him at the school system's request after school officials diagnosed him as having ADHD.

"Parents are losing their children" to drugging and labeling regimens, she says. "We need to look at the underlying causes, and not be so quick to think a child has mental problems.

"Instead of saying [a child is] having trouble reading, and giving him an educational resource, they say, �oh well, he's ADD�," she said. In the case of her son, Weathers said he had physical conditions, among them anemia, that may have been hindering his educational progress.

Criticism of the NAI plan, or at least the blueprint for it, has not been limited to the grassroots. In 2002 Allen Jones, a former investigator for the Office of the Inspector General in Pennsylvania, had been looking into the propriety of an off-the-books account that originated within the Pennsylvania Department of Mental Health. According to Jones, when he went to the New York Times and bmj.com with accusations that the drug company Janssen may have been attempting to influence the formation of a TMAP-style test and treat plan, he was told to "quit swimming upstream." When he refused to quiet down, he was fired, he added.

In a whistleblower report posted on the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights� website, Jones elaborated on his charges, and explained that during its pilot stage, TMAP was packed with doctors who had strong ties to the drug industry. Jones said that ties to the drug companies gave them a financial incentive to recommend expensive, brand name drugs,
rather than cheaper comparable medicines.

Jones also writes that a number of the New Freedom Initiative for Mental Health Commission members were linked to TMAP's founding or are advocates for the program's expansion in states like Maryland and Ohio.

The NFI plan, said Jones, "doesn't have the Orwellian goal of drugging the populace for a political purpose; it's the Orwellian goal of drugging the populace for an economic purpose."

Nationally, pharmaceutical companies have been generous in doling out campaign contributions to the former Texas governor and his party. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the pharmaceutical industry has given President George W. Bush $764,274 so far this election cycle, making the president the number one recipient of campaign donations of either party from the pharmaceutical industry.

Number two and three respectively are New Jersey Congressman Mike Ferguson and North Carolina Senator John Burr, each of whom are situated on the Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittees on Health, which oversees mental health and research, biomedical programs, Medicaid, and food and drug policies. Presumptive Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry has also received campaign contributions from the industry, with just over $149,000 in donations.

This mix of money and politics is hardly helpful for members of the mental health issues community and their advocates, said Oaks. Instead, he said, "Imagine the whole environmental movement funded by the oil industry."

As GK Chesterton has Fr. Brown say "I have never studied psychiatry but I have studied psychiatrists."

This is subjective, and far to many children have been falsely labelled, thus detracting from children with legitimate special needs.

Gaudior, who thinks the answer in most cases is fewer drugs, and more attention.

In the 1980s and 1990s we lived in Rockford, Illinois. One of the new businesses (I always figured it was more of a scam than anything) was a children's psychiatric clinic. Children with the newly discovered (invented?) desease of ADA or ADHA and a whole bunch of real and pseudo diagnoses were given housing for days even months and given drugs. The fees were outrageously high. I suppose they might have seemed low in Manhatten or SF but for a lower middle-middle class city like Rockford the fees were enormous. We realized that some children did need some kind of intervention but this seemed like apply a sledge hammer in order to kill a fly. It also seemed like a way for some drug pushers to make money, to impoverish families, and to make far too many children dependent upon drugs when what they really needed was more loving care.

Dan L

I'm checking with Snopes about this. I've seen another article about this which supports this report but I'm just double checking. There is one possible discrepancy. We will see.

Dan L

Dan

I've been trying to tell this to people for years. Psychiatry in large part is a Godless profession that attempts to rationalize sin and turn everyone into a victim who just needs to be medicated.

I want absolutely nothing to do with the Church of Scientology as a religious body, but in all honesty they put out some excellent information on the deadly long term effects of various medications prescribed by psychiatrists. You'd be surprised to see how many murderers in the United States were on legally prescribed psychotropic drugs at the time of there crimes.

How did our parents and grandparents ever survive the Spanish Inluenza epidemic of 1918, the Great Depression and WW2 without Prozac, Paxil, Ritalin, Depakote etc ?

Lawrence,

I have no doubt that you are correct. Snopes has acknowledged my request for info, but they have nothing on it.

The North Carolina senator they list as one source of info. is not yet a senator and wasn't elected as such by the date of the article June, 2004. Although he may have been a state senator. Still checking.

I agree that more drugs are the last thing we need. But our society is so messed up with divorces and boys not really appreciated especially by female teachers and the like that I think we are driving our kids nuts.

Christian love would be of immense help but how is it to be found in the Public Schools. Our society is going crazy. We need another Athanasius who will at least remind people that God has seen this dilemma and He has addressed it.

Dan L

Actually a lot of our ancestors didn't survive without psychiatric drugs. People have always suffered from mental illness which was largely untreated until recent times. Without Prozac, etc., people suffered in silence. They died earlier than they should have. They had messed up lives.

So in short they didn't "survive" very well at all.

Psychiatric medication is a blessing from God that allows countless numbers of people to lead happy, healthy lives.

Here's a bill brought before congress on the matter from my favorite elected official in the country, Independent congressman Ron Paul of Texas. http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2004/cr100604.htm

One more thing, one could ask how our ancestors survived without beta blockers and antibiotics.

That this is even a discussion indicates a prejudice against people with mental illness. People take beta blockers because their heart doesn't work right. People take anti-depressants because their brain doesn't work right.

Some of this makes me so angry. (pause to find an emoticon!!!)
Like so many, I was wrongly diagnosed as being" mentally ill" when in fact I have a serious physical illness; like so many I "lost" 30 years of my life and 30 years of being a Nun, to wrongly prescribed prescription "junk" . It was also highly addictive; I got off all with only the help of God. and am deeply thankful to be alive and safe. And am very careful what I put into my body now.Psycho active drugs are dangerous; "chemical strait jackets". Prozac is banned in the UK: too many links with violence and suicide.Ritalin is now being thought the same. Another US anti-depressant was recently also banned because of suicides...Giving children with immature systems these drugs is..... Jennifer; they rarely do long term trials before launching these drugs; all they see is $$$$$$.Remember thalidomide? No life more "messed up" than one permanently drugged. It might look "calm", but the hell within... A very , very few with depression have chemical imbalances. Most need care and prayer, better diets, not drugs.
Sorry; but.. I am going to pray now! Need it!!

For this sanity and wisdom, Jesus bless you!It is so true.... so shockingly true.


I've been trying to tell this to people for years. Psychiatry in large part is a Godless profession that attempts to rationalize sin and turn everyone into a victim who just needs to be medicated.

I want absolutely nothing to do with the Church of Scientology as a religious body, but in all honesty they put out some excellent information on the deadly long term effects of various medications prescribed by psychiatrists. You'd be surprised to see how many murderers in the United States were on legally prescribed psychotropic drugs at the time of there crimes.

I'm sorry but that's absolutely absurd! And it's that kind of attitude that prevents people from getting the help they need.

What evidence do you have that most people with depression do not have chemical imbalances? And how is it that you're the only one with this information?

I know people whose lives have been saved by psychiatric medications. I thank God that they got the help they needed.

The latest research on depression has found that most effective treatment is anti-depressants coupled with behavioral therapy.

About the hysteria over suicides resulting from anti-depressants. The fault lies more with insufficient monitoring of the patient. Many people diagnosesd with depression actually have manic depression. Anti-depressants cause people with manic-depression to become manic which can lead to suicide. Also anti-depressants take several weeks to work (fix the chemical imbalance) but provide an immediate energy boost. So in the first few weeks of treatment you have a lethal combination, a depressed person with energy. Lack of energy is often what keeps a depressed person from taking their life. Give then energy and they might act on their depression.

But this can be fixed with proper monitoring of the patient.

Peace, Jennifer, peace. Be still. There is abundant proof of what I and others here say. Read all the posts please? Ask Google for voluntary patient support groups? Look up any of the drugs you mention, and not just the drug company literature. But do so in peace and prayer and with an open heart.I have no axe to grind; simply I have experienced all this at first hand and have seen so much avoidable suffering in others. ALL drugs have side -effects. ALL. Prozac has been withdrawn in the UK; also in the US another "popular" anti-depressant. Bless you this night in His peace.

I have witnessed much suffering from depression and know very well what a dreadful disease it is and how it destroys lives. I have also witnessed people whose lives have been turned around due to psychiatric drugs.

I don't deny that there are side effects but the side effects are not as bad as the disease.