APA and Media Suppress Coverage of Bush Mental Health Testing Plan
According to a recent release of MindFreedom News, the American Psychiatric Association Says the Bush Administration is "Appreciative" of APA Efforts to Suppress Mass Media Coverage of Facts and Stories Raised by the British Medical Journal Series, exposing plans to screen pregnant mothers and children up to 18 years for "mental illness" so as to provide treatment, which means prescription of psychiatric drugs. The controversial Bush plan was developed in his home state Texas and is, according to whistleblower Allen Jones, being exported to other states all over the US.
To be sure, Illinois has plans to introduce compulsory testing of pregnant women and all children. Other states are sure to follow. Meanwhile, the Bush administration has indicated its appreciation of APA efforts to cool the story. Don't want to wake the sleeping giant, do we?
Never mind that often psychiatric drug treatment which is already common in American schools leads to suicide and worse - uncontrollable violence. School shootings do not just happen. They are committed by kids under the influence of psychiatric drugs. Bush's plan is set to greatly expand the drugging of America.
Read the update from MindFreedom...
Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2004 12:36:53 -0700
From: "www.MindFreedom.org - Office"Subject: UPDATE: Bush Mental Health Screening of All Americans Resisted - Mass Media Silent
MindFreedom International UPDATE - 19 August 2004
http://www.MindFreedom.orgNEWS: BUSH PLAN TO "SHRINK" THE USA IS OPPOSED.
DR. PATCH ADAMS OFFERS TO SCREEN THE PRESIDENT.
*UPDATE*: The American Psychiatric Association brags that the Bush "administration is appreciative" of how APA kept this story out of the mass media!
President Bush announced that every man, woman and child in the USA will be screened for "mental illness" in a plan that was created by the psychiatric drug industry, said the internationally prestigious British Medical Journal.
MindFreedom International, a coalition of 100 groups working for human rights in mental health, opposes the Bush plan. They ask that President Bush be screened first. The famous physician Patch Adams says, "I'll screen him for free. He needs a lot of help."
MINDFREEDOM STARTS NEW "WEB NODE" TO RESIST THE BUSH PLAN with the latest news, media articles, updates and reports about the growing controversy.
Go to http://www.MindFreedom.org to find this news:
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*** UPDATE: The American Psychiatric Association is caught boasting in their member newsletter that they helped suppress mass media coverage of the scandal exposed by the British Medical Journal series! The APA brags the Bush "administration is appreciative." APA blames the mess on "a psychiatric survivor group."
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*** CORPORATE MEDIA MAY TAKE ITS ORDERS FROM THE AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION, but when *every* person in the USA is being signed up for a new psychiatric program, MindFreedom News feels *you* have the right to know!
A MindFreedom News Release calls for a symbolic screening of President Bush first by Patch Adams.
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*** UPDATED "Frequently Asked Questions" page explains...
- The role of the psychiatric drug corporations in creating the "Texas Medication Algorithm Project" which is to be applied to all residents of the USA...
- How whistleblowers Allen Jones and psychiatrist Stefan Kruszewski broke the silence, lost their jobs and are suing government officials...
- In case you thought you could "just say no," Bush appointee psychiatrist Sally Satel plus the huge corporate think tank American Enterprise Institute that Satel works for is pushing for a massive increase in court-ordered *outpatient* psychiatric drugging...
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*** Read the stories USA corporate media are suppressing! View the hard hitting British Medical Journal series by Jeanne Lenzer that concisely exposes how Bush is obeying drug company orders to "screen" every single American.
Plus links to alternative media articles, background & more:
~~~~~~~~~~ACT NOW: Please forward the link to this news alert to your friends.
Ask your elected leaders to investigate psychiatric drug company corruption inside your government.
WHAT ABOUT YOU AND YOUR FAMILY? RESIST!
What will do you if or when it's time for *you* and *your* loved ones to be "screened"?
If Bush plans to screen the entire population for mental health problems.... Don't you think it's time you joined MindFreedom International? All for one and one for all.
MindFreedom International is creating a "MindFreedom Shield" program to help defend members from threats of coercive psychiatry by issuing alerts. Watch for more news soon.
JOIN AND DONATE TO MINDFREEDOM NOW! ALL ARE INVITED!
MindFreedom is totally independent, and not connected to any government, mental health provider, church or drug company.
The majority of MindFreedom members have personally experienced coerced psychiatric procedures, but membership is open to everyone who supports human rights in mental health and includes advocates, professionals and family members.
KEEP YOUR MIND FREE!
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To be added to this MindFreedom DENDRITE human rights public announcement list, e-mail: office@mindfreedom.org
Update 16 November 2004:
Medicine and politics are inseparable, both in psychiatry as in general medicine - Stefan P. Kruszewski M.D. Addiction Psychiatrist, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
The Inseparability of Medicine and PoliticsMedicine and politics are obligatory companions, as inseparable as tea and biscuits. Although academic reactionaries and purists may argue that medicine should not be tainted by political agendas, rarely has this been, or is it, reality. (1)
Medicine - as practiced in times and regions as diverse as pre- Christian Hippocrates, Freud's Vienna or Massachusetts's Back Bay - invokes relationships, all of them illustrating a political connectedness to governing authorities.
When I hear fellow Pennsylvania physicians speak of politics in medicine, the substance often reflects those controversies that attract media scrutiny and hefty emotional responses: Fee-for-service vs. managed care reimbursements, Darwinian evolution vs. creationism, stem cell research vs. right-to-life arguments, clean needles for IV drug users vs. moral objections, and/or financial support for AIDS prevention and treatment vs. financial resources allocated elsewhere. However riveting are those arguments, it is the day-to-day interrelationship of politics and medicine - those that border on the mundane - that cement the relationship. The existence of that bond makes the case, at least for me, that our relationships to, and with, governing bodies are fundamental to medicine and therefore critical to medical reporting. (2)
In psychiatric medicine, the evolution of this interrelationship, particularly as it pertains to 19th and 20th century U.S. federal and state policies, is highlighted by involuntary commitment, deinstitutionalization, Federal, State and private sector funding sources, psychiatric epidemiology and pharmacoepidemiology(3).
As is true of both psychiatric and non-psychiatric medicine, our profession in Pennsylvania is licensed by authorization of the Department of State. The Secretary of State is an official appointment of the elected Governor. The regulatory oversight and management of conduct for practitioners of the healing arts (including medicine, dentistry, veterinary, podiatry, nursing, etc) is defined by Pennsylvania Code (applicable laws of Pennsylvania) as well as federal and local/community standards. Similar laws and standards define the compensation for our services from federal programs (Medicare), federally-subsidized state programs (Medicaid) and from private insurers who are under State and Federal licensing and regulation.
Medical practitioners prescribe within the directives and guidelines of the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and, where applicable, individual state agencies that monitor controlled substances. (Not all US states have separate registries for controlled substances; Pennsylvania is one that does not.)
Like its counterparts in the UK (MHRA, NPSA; others), our pharmaceutical and therapeutic prescribing habits have Federal watchdogs, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, multiple collateral advisory committees and Federally-funded programs that assist the process of research and information dissemination (National Institute of Health/National Institute of Mental Health/Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration: NIH/NIMH/SAMHSA; others.)
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) and its collaborative organizations devote a prodigious effort to legislative and political agenda. The current APA website's Homepage highlights three "front and center" advocacy items: Endorsement of recent Congressional passage of an $83 million dollar 'Suicide Prevention Bill', and two subsequent links to the APA Advocacy Action Center and APAPAC, both sites that promote lobbying efforts on behalf of APA's constituency. (4)
Oversight regulation, advocacy and legislative agendas, investigatory and legal mandates underscore medicine's inseparable coexistence with politics. With issues of medical record confidentiality, academic research freedoms, parity, tort reform, the involuntary commitment of individuals, the duty to warn, the continued evolution of Lyndon Johnson's Community Mental Health Act of 1965 or George W. Bush's New Freedom Commission's recommendation to screen American's youth for psychiatric disease, psychiatry is as much about legal and political agendas as it is about mental illness and mental health.
Whether the issues pertain to psychiatry or non-psychiatric medicine, it is crucial for journals to discuss political trends and counter-trends in medicine - just as it is expected that they deliberate the epidemiology and pathophysiology of heart disease, cancer or schizophrenia. Medical journals and physicians would be well served, I believe, by confronting - not denying - the issues and the political forces that shape them.
REFERENCES:
1. Krakauer, E. Yale J Biol Med. 1992 May-June; 65(3):243-9.2. Abbasi, K. Should journals mix medicine and politics?BMJ 2004; 329: 0-g
3. Center for Mental Health Services, Mental Health, United States 2000. Manderscheid, R.W. and Henderson, M.J., eds. DHHS Pub No. (SMA) 01-3537. Washington, DC: Supt. of Docs., US Govt. print. Off., 2001)
4. American Psychiatric Association Homepage, (Accessed 11.05.04)
See also related:
TeenScreen - Angel of Mercy or Pill-Pusher
by Evelyn Pringle
The question is what is TeenScreen, an Angel of Mercy for suicidal teens, or a pill-pushing front group for Pharma? After investigating the program, I'd have to say the latter.MIRACLES STILL HAPPEN!
"Sit down, folks! What you are going to hear is going to astound you. At least it did me. This is the only really good news we have ever had regarding the protection of parental and pupil rights. This new information will strike at the heart of many destructive values- changing federal education programs, but especially at the heart of President Bush's plans to require mandatory mental health screening of our children in the government schools. (New Freedom Commission on Mental Health). Yesterday, I did an Internet search...."Psycho Feds Target Children
Lewrockwell.com - By Rep. Ron Paul, MD
Every parent in America should be made aware of a presidential initiative called the "New Freedom Commission on Mental Health." This commission issued a report last year calling for the mandatory mental health screening of American schoolchildren, meaning millions of kids will be forced to undergo psychiatric screening whether their parents consent or not. At issue is the fundamental right of parents to decide what medical treatment is appropriate for their children.Association of American Physicians and Surgeons - TELL SENATE TO "JUST SAY NO!" TO UNIVERSAL PSYCHIATRIC SCREENING AND DRUGGING CHILDREN
Illinois, eye of national mental health storm - Rhonda Robinson - Illinois Leade
Bush - Labeling Kids Mentally Ill For Profit
By: Evelyn Pringle - Independent Media TV
Citing recommendations by the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, Bush wants to launch a nationwide mental illness screening program in government institutions, including the public school system, for all students from kindergarten up to the 12th grade. ... The truth is, this is nothing but another Bush profiteering scheme to implement a drug treatment program for use in the public institutions that will generate high volume sales of the relatively new, but inadequately tested, high- priced psychiatric drugs. If all goes as planned, the scheme will generate millions of new customers for the drug companies.Investigator Exposes Pharma Corruption - Loses Job
Bush To Impose Psychiatric Drug Regime
Links resource: Antipsychiatry on the Web
Bush-Backed Drug Marketing Schemes
Poll tries to gauge mental health
Schools, critics argue value of TeenScreen in preventing suicide
posted by Sepp Hasslberger on Friday August 20 2004
updated on Tuesday December 7 2010URL of this article:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2004/08/20/apa_and_media_suppress_coverage_of_bush_mental_health_testing_plan.htm
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