October 1, 2007 - By True Patriot and Congressman
Ron
Paul
This week Congress is again grasping for more control over
the health of American children with the expansion of the
State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
Parents who think federally subsidized health care might
be a good idea should be careful what they wish for.
Despite political rhetoric about a War on Drugs, federally-funded
programs result in far more teenage drug use than the most
successful pill pusher on the playground. These pills are given
out as a result of dubious universal mental health screening
programs for school children, supposedly directed toward finding
mental disorders or suicidal tendencies. The use of antipsychotic
medication in children has increased fivefold between 1995
and 2002. More than 2.5 million children are now taking these
medications, and many children are taking multiple drugs at
one time.
With universal mental health screening being implemented in
schools, pharmaceutical companies stand to increase their customer
base even more, and many parents are rightfully concerned.
Opponents of one such program called TeenScreen, claim it wrongly
diagnoses children as much as 84% of the time, often incorrectly
labeling them, resulting in the assigning of medications that
can be very damaging. While we are still awaiting evidence
that there are benefits to mental health screening programs,
evidence that these drugs actually cause violent psychotic
episodes is mounting.
Many parents have very valid concerns about the drugs to which
a child labeled as “suicidal” or “depressed,” or
even ADHD, could be subjected. Of further concern is the subjectivity
of diagnosis of mental health disorders. The symptoms of ADHD
are strikingly similar to indications that a child is gifted,
and bored in an unchallenging classroom. In fact, these programs,
and many of the syndromes they attempt to screen for, are highly
questionable. Parents are wise to question them.
As it stands now, parental consent is required for these screening
programs, but in some cases mere passive consent is legal.
Passive consent is obtained when a parent receives a consent
form and fails to object to the screening. In other words,
failure to reply is considered affirmative consent. In fact,
TeenScreen advocates incorporating their program into the curriculum
as a way to by-pass any consent requirement. These universal,
or mandatory, screening programs being called for by TeenScreen
and the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health should be resisted.
Consent must be express, written, voluntary and informed.
Programs that refuse to give parents this amount of respect,
should not receive federal funding. Moreover, parents should
not be pressured into screening or drugging their children
with the threat that not doing so constitutes child abuse or
neglect. My bill, The Parental Consent Act of 2007 is aimed
at stopping federal funding of these programs.
We don’t need a village, a bureaucrat, or the pharmaceutical
industry raising our children. That’s what parents need
to be doing.
Read more Articles by Ron Paul at http://www.house.gov/paul/legis.shtml
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