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Diagnostic "Screening" Process is a Con-Game To Troll For New Patients

According to the British Medical Journal, a sweeping U.S. mental health initiative will be unveiled in July which proposes to screen every man, woman and child in America for mental "illness." The initiative was prompted by a March 2004 progress report by The New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. President George W. Bush appointed the commission to advise him on ways of improving the mental health system. However, psychiatric advice has grossly misled the President and the American people.

The progress report, entitled the New Freedom Initiative, has failed to advise the President on the real crisis in mental health - the fraudulent premise for screening for "mental illness" and the psychiatric drugging of millions of Americans. Under the recommendations psychiatrists and psychologists are seeking government-sanctioned power to "screen" every child for "mental illness" through public schools, and every adult during general medical examinations. The "screening" criteria is based on the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM), a diagnostic manual that international mental health experts voted in 2000 to be one of the worst psychiatric texts in the last millennium.

Additionally, such screening is being recommended at a time when there is broad public concern that many of the antidepressants being prescribed for conditions in the DSM are under federal investigation for causing suicidal reactions. The Commission's campaign for national mental health "screening"—which will result in millions more Americans being prescribed these psychiatric drugs—is very alarming and merits close inspection as to its motives.

Here are the facts:

• 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.

• The Commission based its entire findings on the definition of mental illness as defined by psychiatry's billing bible, the DSM. 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.

• To give an example of this so-called science, consider the following mental "disorder" taken directly out of the DSM:

Billing Code Number 313.9
"Disorder of Infancy, Childhood, or Adolescents, Not Otherwise Specified"

(The entire diagnostic criteria listed in the DSM for this category is as follows)

"This category is a residual category for disorders with onset in infancy, childhood, or adolescents that do not meet criteria for any specific disorder in the Classification."

• The methods of mental health "screening" recommended by the New Freedom Commission are lists of arbitrary questions based on this DSM. If "sweeping mental health initiative" is implemented, millions more Americans will certainly be diagnosed and drugged given the subjective diagnoses.

• Antidepressants are currently under federal investigation for causing suicidal reactions in patients. Between 1995 and 1999, the use of antidepressants for 7-to 12-year-olds increased 151% and 580% for children under six, with some as young as five committing suicide.

• 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.

• A parent being coerced through public schools to drug their child 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 parents to drug their child as a condition of attending school.

• 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.

• A recent report by Allen Jones, a former investigator in the Pennsylvania Office of Inspector General (OIG), Bureau of Special Investigations, condemns the New Freedom Commission (NFC). The report 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."

The proposed model for a psychiatric "treatment" plan recommended by the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health to be implemented on a nationwide basis is the "Texas Medical Algorithm Project" (TMAP).

In an extensive report (http://psychrights.org/Drugs/AllenJonesTMAPJanuary20.pdf)
Allen Jones reports that TMAP was funded by many of the manufacturers of the same antidepressant drugs that are currently under federal investigation. Coincidentally, these drugs are also the recommended "treatment." Also, some members of the New Freedom Commission have served on advisory boards for these same pharmaceutical companies, while other members have direct ties to TMAP.

In describing TMAP, Jones states, "The industry needed to create an aura of legitimacy and a body of favorable data to advance its marketing aims."

"TMAP arose during a period of decreased Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversight and vastly increased sophistication in pharmaceutical industry marketing practices. These practices aggressively pursued favorable public and professional 'opinion' through media promotion, and biased reporting of drug trial results."

Jones estimates that if TMAP were implemented nationwide, the annual costs to the Medicaid programs would be approximately 3.7 billion dollars per year to treat one psychiatric disorder alone. That is over ten million dollars per day just in Medicaid expenditures.

Summary:

The vested interests of psychiatrists, psychologists and others involved in the President's New Freedom Commission has resulted in a biased report to the President, aimed solely at increasing their own reach into society, and to support an existing multi billion dollar mental health industry. Of the 22 members of the Commission, 13 are either on or have been on mental health boards or associations which set mental health policy at the state or federal level, 11 were associated in some way with the implementation of the Texas Medical Algorithm Program (TMAP) in their states, four are psychiatrists and three are psychologists.

The U.S. Government must not support mandatory mental health screenings, or the increase of subjective psychiatric diagnosis of Americans that then demand their taking dangerous psychiatric drugs or undergoing other harmful treatments.

In the 1950s, on the heels of the McCarthy era, psychiatric vested interests introduced a federal bill (H.R. 6376), which called for psychiatric facilities to be built in Alaska. It would have empowered any peace officer to involuntarily commit any individual, anywhere in America, to this Alaskan psychiatric institution—all without recourse. The person would then be shipped off to Alaska for mandatory confinement and "treatment." It was dubbed "The Siberia Bill" because if its far reaching totalitarian powers.

The bill had already passed the House of Representatives before the grassroots efforts of thousands of alarmed citizens helped to defeat the bill in the Senate.

Now Americans must again act to protect their rights. Before it's too late. If this "sweeping mental health initiative" occurs, it will be the first step towards A Brave New World, where ultimate control would belong to the mental health industry. Anyone could be diagnosed as "mentally ill." Given the fact that there is no medical or scientific proof needed to make a diagnosis, how will anyone be able to prove that they aren't "mentally ill" and don't need or want to be drugged?

The first step towards this Brave New World is mandatory mental health screenings.

Once all Americans are "screened" it won't be long before psychiatry demands mandatory drugging for all their new "patients."

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights is a mental health watchdog established by the Church of Scientology in 1969 to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights.

For more information contact the Citizens Commission on Human Rights at 800-869-2247.

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