Bush's Mental health screening program: New Freedom Commission [View All]

[BornagainDUer]

...
On April 29, 2002, Bush kicked off the whole mental health screening scheme when he announced the establishment of the New Freedom Commission (NFC) during a speech in in New Mexico where he told the audience that mental health centers and hospitals, homeless shelters, and the justice and school systems, have contact with individuals suffering from mental disorders but that too many Americans are falling through the cracks, and so he created the NFC to ensure "that the cracks are closed."


A little over a year after Bush announced the formation of the NFC, on July 22, 2003, government report was released that called for redesigning the mental health systems in all 50 states.....

.....The NFC recommends TMAP as the model program for "specific medications" to be used in all 50 states. The "specific medications" are the most expensive drugs on the market and include drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors antidepressants (SSRIs), like Paxil, Prozac, Zoloft, and Effexor, and the atypical antipsychotics, that include Zyprexa, Risperdal, Geodon, Seroquel, Clozaril, and Abilify.

Other "specific medications" include the ADHD drugs, fondly known as "speed" to street addicts, such as Adderall, Dexedrine, Concerta, Ritalin and Strattera, and a garden variety of "downers," like Valium, Xanax, Librium and sleeping pills.

Critics have constantly attacked Big Pharma's involvement in choosing the drugs on the lists. As far back as January 1999, Peter Weiden MD, one of the "experts" on the original Texas panel, openly criticized the approval process in the Journal of Practice in Psychiatry and Behavioural Health, because so drug company money was involved.

For instance, he said, the guidelines for the atypical antipsychotics were funded by Janssen, the maker of Risperdal, and most of the guidelines' authors also had received financial support of one kind or another from the drug companies with atypical drugs on the list. "This potential conflict of interest may create credibility problems," he wrote, "especially concerning any recommendations supporting the use of atypical antipsychotics."

The way the NFC scheme is set up, tax dollars not only fund the implementation of the screening programs, but also a large portion of the costs for "specific medications" that are prescribed to patients to treat mental disorders detected by the screenings through government health care programs like Medicaid.

The fact is, when Bush took office, he owed Big Pharma a lot favors in return for all the money he raked in from the industry and the mental health screening scheme represents a major part of his efforts to cover those debts.......


:scared:

more here
http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/articles/pharma_business.html