Children’s Mental Health in the 108th Congress

Both universal mental health screening and the coercive drugging of
children were hot topics in the after-election “lame duck” session of
Congress, completed just before Thanksgiving. These issues were prominent in
the consideration of both the omnibus budget bill and the reauthorization of
the special education law, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
(IDEA). The following is our analysis of these issues along with
implications for the next session of Congress.
 
THE GOOD:  The good news on these issues comes from the
reauthorization of IDEA. Several hundred of you contacted Congress via the
e-action alert about these special education issues and we thank you.
Education and Workforce Committee Chairman John Boehner and the Committee
staff also deserve kudos and thanks for the following:

• The Senate language to fund grants to screen children “at risk
  for emotional and behavioral difficulties” was struck from the final
  bill.  Given all of the other places that mental health
  screening is rearing its ugly head and being funded by the federal
  government, this is truly good news.
• The House language stating that academic screening does not
  constitute a special education evaluation survived in the final
  bill. Perhaps now the epidemic of reading problems that constitute
  90% of special education referrals will be dealt with by teaching
  systematic phonics before children are mislabeled with a specific
  learning disability and unnecessarily placed in the special
  education system.
• Parents and special education students are protected against
  coercion by the schools to take some of the psychiatric
  medications – those on the Controlled Substances list, meaning drugs
  like Ritalin, Adderall, and Dexedrine, the potent and dangerous
  stimulant drugs used with frightening frequency to treat children
  labeled with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.  The
  language, authored by Congressman Max Burns and passed by the House
  as an amendment to IDEA, also survived the conference committee. 
  This is an important precedent and a very good step in the right
  direction. Contrary to reports by other groups, however, this
  amendment to IDEA does NOT cover any of the antidepressant
  medications that have been the subject of FDA and congressional
  hearings, and which are now required to carry the most serious black
  box warnings due to their tendency to cause suicidal thoughts and
  actions. The amendment also does NOT cover the antipsychotic
  medications used to treat the growing epidemic of children labeled
  bipolar. Side effects of those drugs include obesity, diabetes and
  neurological problems.

THE BAD – Sadly, despite media coverage by Dr. Laura, G. Gordon
Liddy, World Net Daily, News Max, many talk radio interviews across the
country, and thousands of calls and emails to Congress, grants to fund the
New Freedom Commission (NFC)  recommendations, which include universal
mental health screening and treatment with ineffective and dangerous
medications, were not stopped.  $20 million was appropriated for state
grants to implement the NFC recommendations. Physician and  Congressman
Paul’s excellent language that required parental consent for screening
before these programs were funded was not included. Dr. Paul wrote a letter
signed by more than twenty Members urging the parental consent language.
House leadership, including Speaker Hastert, Majority Leader DeLay, and
Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Regula accepted the Paul language. All of these
House Members and those that voted for the original amendment
in
September deserve our thanks. Sadly, that language protecting the basic
right of parental consent was dropped in the Senate.
   

Despite great disappointment at this setback, there were a few silver
linings that this issue has brought.  First, the amount funded ($20
million) was less than half of what was requested ($44 million) by
the Senate and the administration.  Thanks to the excellent work of
Congressman and physician Ron Paul and his staff, and his Liberty Committee
directed by Kent Snyder and their excellent alerts, media coverage, many
other groups and your dedication and response to our e-alert, at least
19,000 people contacted Congress to oppose universal mental health
screening, the dangers, and the loss of parental rights that these programs
entail. Thank you. 
 
Finally, please know that your actions are
still having an impact.
Congressional staff in the offices of Members who support these
freedom-robbing programs are complaining bitterly about Congressman Paul and
the groups that are standing for liberty to protect their children from
labels and drugs, saying that their national screening programs are put in
jeopardy by our work.  We must continue the fight to destroy this
program before it takes full root.
 
In addition to the $20 million for the New Freedom Commission grants,
the omnibus appropriations bill also provides via HHS “$2 million for grants
to local educational systems or non-profit entities to identify and test
evidence-based practices to treat teenagers suffering from mental, emotional
or behavioral disorders,” which will result in more psychiatric drugging. It
also provides $7 million for “grants and cooperative agreements to develop
early intervention and prevention strategies to address the growing problem
of youth suicide” via the Garrett Lee Smith suicide prevention law, which
will also result in more screening and drugging of children and adolescents.  
(See our
July 26th update) 

 
The Department of Education is spending $5 million on “Mental Health
Integration in Schools” that we are still investigating, as well as $1
million for Senator Kennedy’s disastrous early childhood mental health
program called Foundations for Learning.  (See our
update.) 

 
THE UGLY – The ugliest parts of this situation are:

• The apparent complete capitulation of the administration and the
  Senate leadership to the pharmaceutical industry and mental health
  bureaucracy to the point that they cannot even support the basic
  right of parental consent.  These screening programs will
  subjectively label a child with a vague and dubious mental diagnoses
  based on political and/ or religious beliefs that will follow them
  for the rest of their lives. They will lead to increased drugging
  with ineffective and dangerous medications that can cause suicide,
  violence, cognitive toxicity, and diabetes. 
• That the White House would even consider former Food and Drug
  Administration chief Mark McClellan as Secretary of the Department
  of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS will administer the grants
  to implement the New Freedom Commission recommendations of universal
  screening and drugging. The FDA has completely failed in its mission
  to protect the public from ineffective and dangerous medications.
  The  two most recent disasters are the antidepressants in
  children and Vioxx in adults. Physicians and the public are
  completely unable to make informed decisions about pharmaceuticals,
  because for years, the FDA has allowed the industry to cover up
  evidence of dangerous side effects. Only positive studies of drug
  effectiveness have been published. There is no evidence that the
  cozy relationship with the pharmaceutical industry will end with
  someone from the FDA in charge at HHS, especially since the
  pharmaceutical industry is already profiting enormously from the New
  Freedom treatment recommendations. McClellan, and anyone else from
  the FDA, should be sent packing in disgrace, not considered for a
  promotion.  

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? – Protecting children from arbitrary
labeling and drugging while maintaining the right of parental consent and
the protection of parents from coercion to drug their children will require
action on three levels – federal, state, and family.

• In Washington DC, EdWatch will work with other groups to educate
  Congress and other groups about the dangers of mental health
  screening. EdAction will work to pass Dr. Paul’s “Let Parents Raise
  their Kids Act” which requires parental consent for these screening
  programs. EdWatch will also work to educate Congress and other
  groups on the limitations of the Child Medication Safety Act
  amendment passed in IDEA. EdAction will, at the same time, work to
  expand the stand-alone bill. This stand-alone bill contains the same
  language as the IDEA amendment to prevent coercion of parents to
  drug their children with medications on the controlled substances
  list.  The stand-alone bill passed the US House 425-1, but was
  stalled in the Senate by Senator Edward Kennedy.  The goals for
  this legislation in the new Congress are to protect all
  children in school, not just those in special education. It would
  also protect their parents from coercion by schools to take any
  psychiatric medication, not just those covered by the Controlled
  Substances Act. Finally, we will work to decrease or eliminate
  funding for the other mental health screening and labeling programs
  in federal law. These screening programs are based on vague and
  dubious diagnoses and criteria, they do not prevent suicide, and
  they can be based on the student’s worldview.  
• In the states, educating state legislators about the mental
  health screening programs will be very important. States must oppose
  changes in their laws that would accept the federal New Freedom
  Commission grants that Illinois accepted. States would also be wise
  to consider a law similar to New Jersey’s for personal student
  surveys. The New Jersey law strengthens the federal Protection of
  Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) that applies to mental health
  screening. Finally, strengthening the state special education laws
  would be very helpful, so that parental refusal of a special
  education evaluation that includes mental health screening, for
  instance, cannot be overridden by the schools.
• States may already have some protections for parental consent in
  mental health screening in schools, but it is unclear how these
  protections will apply to screening programs funded by HHS grants.
  IDEA requires parental consent before any evaluation or
  re-evaluation, including those done for mental health in special
  education. According to the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment
  (PPRA), active parental consent is required and “no student shall be
  required, as part of any applicable program, to submit to a survey,
  analysis, or evaluation that reveals information concerning…mental
  or psychological problems of the student or the student’s family.”
  PPRA applies to surveys done under Department of Education funds. 
  What is not clear is whether PPRA will also apply to the screening
  New Freedom Commission grants under the Department of Health and
  Human Services.  That is why we strongly supported and continue
  to support Congressman Paul’s attempts to protect parental consent
  in the appropriations process as well as in stand-alone legislation,
  The Let Parents Raise their Kids Act.  While this is being
  sorted out, we recommend that parents use
  this letter drafted by the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights or
  this one from the National Education Consortium to put your
  child’s school on notice that you will not accept any mental health
  screening. 

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Copyright 2004 Karen R. Effrem, M.D.. (Biography)
Posted with permission.

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