Almost 50% of teens Screened Referred for Psychiatric Intervention
The Video National Public Radio: “This is a program that has some very vocal critics. They say Teenscreen usurps parental authority, sends kids to therapy who might not need it and they say the program encourages families to put adolescents on antidepressant drugs.”
The following evidence confirms the validity to our concerns about TeenScreen serving as a dragnet for the pharmaceutical and mental illness industry, confirming the identity of the stakeholders who promote TeenScreen and label children as mentally ill.
A news report from Plattsburgh, NY indicates that: a pilot screening is a project of the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI)–a pharmaceutical front organization that receives millions of dollars from drug companies. (The article indicates many other agencies are also involved, but none are named). Consent forms authorizing children’s screeing were mailed to parents of 185 sophomores. However, only 92 forms were returned–of these, 47 parents chose not to give consent.
Out of 46 teenagers who were screened using the Columbia University-TeenScreen mental-health questionnaire at school, 20 were deemed to be mentally ill and “were referred for intervention of some kind.” That means that almost 50% of teens screened were “identified” as mentally ill and in need of “intervention.”
Video :
10 minute Video: “TeenScreen: A National Fraud”
Before screening, Mary Anne Cox who coordinated the TeenScreen project for NAMI, notes: “only seven of those Plattsburgh High School sophomores had seen professionals” for mental health issues. After screening, 20 previously undiagnosed teenagers were deemed to require psychiatric “interventions.”
To try the test for yourself, see the actual screening questionnaires at Liberty Coalition:
http://www.libertycoalition.net/sites/libertycoalition.net/files/chs.pdf
http://www.libertycoalition.net/sites/libertycoalition.net/files/DPS.pdf
The San Francisco Chronicle reports: “Local public schools have resisted TeenScreen. San Francisco Unified School District, for example, passed on TeenScreen because it can generate false positives and drain counseling resources. Other critics worry TeenScreen could send kids unnecessarily into treatment and land too many on psychiatric drugs.” See: Parents reflect, schools mobilize to curb suicide – Ilene Lelchuk, Erin Allday, Monday, January 22, 2007 http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/01/22/MNGDANML2R1.DTL&type=printable
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
1. Read the questions and decide whether they are suggestive, manipulative, and dangerously tampering with the self-image of impressionable adolescents. You be the judge:
“would you want your child labeled for life as mentally ill on the basis of this screening test?”
2. See the video: “TeenScreen: A National Fraud” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfU9puZQKBY
3. Sign the petition to Stop TeenScreen’s Unscientific and Experimental “Mental Health Screening” of American School Children:
http://www.petitiononline.com/TScreen/petition.html
4. Pass the video on to all your friends and tell them to sign the petition!
By Vera Hassner Sharav : http://www.ahrp.org
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