Interesting e-mail from NAMI

[Droopy]

Mental Health Screening Will Save Lives

Our nation simply cannot afford to continue to fail our
youth with mental disorders who need treatment. The tragic
consequences of our failure to identify youth through early
assessment and to intervene with appropriate mental health
treatment and services are well documented. The facts
speak for themselves:

- About 3,000 youth die every year from suicide (CDC);
- Suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death for 15 to 24
year olds and the 4th leading cause of death in children as
young as 10 years old (CDC);
- 90% of those who commit suicide have a diagnosable and
treatable mental disorder (Surgeon General, 1999);
- Approximately 10% of children and adolescents live with a
mental illness and yet, only about 20% of them are
identified and in treatment (Surgeon General, 1999);
- Youth with mental illnesses have the highest school
dropout and failure rates of any disability group (U.S.
Dept. of Education);
- An alarming 65% of boys and 75% of girls locked in our
nation’s jails and detention centers have one or more
psychiatric disorders (Teplin, L. Archives of General
Psychiatry, 2002).

Screening for the health and well being of children is a
well-established practice in the United States. We screen
for vision, lead poisoning, hearing, scoliosis,
tuberculosis, appropriate developmental progress and more.
Mental health screening is essential to address the gross
under-identification of youth with mental illnesses and the
tragic consequences that often follow. Research shows that
early identification and intervention leads to improved
outcomes and may lessen long-term disability. Many NAMI
families also recount that it promises to avoid years of
unnecessary suffering and lost opportunities.

NAMI calls on federal, state and local leaders to
immediately take affirmative steps to implement mental
health screening for children and adolescents. This
position is consistent with the recommendations included in
President Bush's New Freedom Commission report on mental
health that calls for mental health screening in child-
serving settings.

Campaigns of misinformation, stigma and fear must not stand
in the way of progress on this vital public health issue.
Screening must be done with proper protections and
guidelines in place. The most important of which are that
screening is voluntary and only done with parental
consent. To learn more about our position on mental health
screening and the protection and guidelines that families
are calling for, please review our recently adopted
position statement on mental health screening:

http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=Youth&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=20227&MicrositeID=0&FusePreview=True.

Representative Ron Paul of Texas has introduced
legislation, the Parental Consent Act of 2005 (H.R. 181)
that would prohibit the use of federal funds for mental
health screening. NAMI strongly opposes this legislation
and urges Congressional members not to support the bill and
any similar measures. The bill would stifle efforts to
support state and local programs designed to identify youth
struggling with mental illnesses and initiatives designed
to help reduce the existing youth suicide crisis in this
country.

Screening cannot be viewed in isolation. NAMI calls on
national leaders to build a comprehensive mental health
system of care for the millions of children who require
mental health treatment and services. These children and
families deserve nothing less.

Action Required:

Advocates are strongly encouraged to contact their members
of Congress to oppose H.R. 181 and other anti-screening
legislation. Advocates are also encouraged to share their
personal family stories with Congressional members about
how early detection of a child's mental illness made a
dramatic difference in their child's life or how the
failure to identify a child's mental disorder early
resulted in unnecessary suffering.

Congressional members are being regularly contacted by anti-
psychiatry groups who make false claims and distortions
about screening, including the claim that the President's
New Freedom Commission calls for mandatory screening
without parental consent. It is time to set the record
straight and to report on the experiences of countless
families from across the country. You may also send a
letter to your federal and state legislators and leaders on
mental health screening:

http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=Issues_Spotlights&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=20233&MicrositeID=0&FusePreview=True

All House and Senate offices can be reached through the
Capital switchboard at 202-224-3121 (please note that this
is not a toll-free call). Senators and House members can
also be reached at their local offices that are listed in
the Blue Pages of your local phone directory.

Me: What do you make of this? Would such legislation possibly open the door for civil rights violations? It seems innocent enough. The mental health screeners would have to have parental consent to check out children. But one thing that bothers me about this is that many mental illnesses do not start showing symptoms until early adulthood. However it is not uncommon for a child to be suffering from depression. Could such legislation cause more misdiagnosises? I know that mental illness can be very tough to diagnose. I was misdiagnosed two times before they got it right. Something to think about.

[undergroundpanther]

1. Goddammit Nami are really that stupid..

Nami..I am agast are they so guilty,so wanting of control, and so scared of being blamed or shamed for thier kids mental illnesses they will usher in fascism?
Dang ,they need to understand what living in a totaly controlled envionment IS like personally.As long as they can assume hospitals are always safe places,and all staff care and are compassionate,all doctors never have thier own psych issues that can mess a patient up,(countertransference) AS long as Nami mammies can be permitted to believe they are normal,while we are sick,they can be in a position of dominance. Nami doesen't want to look at ther reality hospitals don't always treat people with dignity ,sometimes they DO abuse patients,and as long as nami can feel good as someone else takes the drugs that makes everything tidy and convienent for the parents and caretakers,they can go on not knowing what they do.

Nami in general as an organization is so self centered, guilt and control motivated ,so Big Pharma funded..they freaking scare me with thier ignorance,powergames and thier willingness to take away my human rights because I am"crazy" and don't act"normal" and go along with thier plans...or take my medicine....We all know the FDA/Big pharma cozy backroom dealers do not give two shits about people's health when there is so many kickbacks and so much money to be made selling a drug,and lying about it's effects.Just let the bodies pile up,they'll act when lawyers bang down the door.Toss the victims some peanuts and make more poison to be marketed to stressed out,overworked,scared,sad hurting people, sold as "miracle drugs".


Bush and that bitch Sally Satel, has got Nami supporting this agenda now.
http://www.unknownnews.net/040712a-upits.html

[DemExpat]

2. This does not at all look innocent to me

and I hope that the plan is blocked.

Never would I want the government, especially the US government as it is now, having this kind of power...Never!

This really is to have more power over those growing numbers of people in our society that do not fit in, or are miserably unhappy playing the game of the "American Way"...I think it is proposed not out of real concern for people's mental health and well-being, but more out of trying to control them with drugs to prevent higher costs for the society (crime, welfare benefits, etc.) that the government wants to keep as is.....imho.



Of course I support finding ways to help young people in their suffering, but not necessarily in cohorts with pharmaceuticals, and not by government decree...
Tackling the real problems of our society - which this government denies - would be the best long-term approach, while offering kids good counselling via schools, churches, or clubs would hopefully help them short term.

I don't trust this at all.


:thumbsdown:

DemEx

[baba]

3. Interesting to see the responses here.

I have been flamed several times for supporting the idea of screenings over in the GD. I truly believe it is a step in the right direction. I understand that there are those that disagree.

What really concerns me, however, is that many of those GD posts showed an ignorance of mental health. Several of the posters made statements indicating their beliefs that "mental illness" doesn't exist and that these disorders are somehow "invented" for the purposes of power and control. While I can understand mistrusting initiatives supported by this government, I am alarmed by the attitudes towards mental illness espoused by supposed liberals on DU. I have heard statements that seem to invalidate the experience of people with mental health issues. Anybody else noticed this?

[DemExpat]

4. I have always known that if someone has never experienced long-term,

acute mental dis-ease and suffering, they cannot understand it - no matter how hard they try to.

Even the most sympathetic people in my life are honest enough to admit they cannot imagine what a panic attack feels like, and what repeated attacks along with deep depression do to one's self-esteem/experience of the world.

Self-mutilation, suicide attempts too....impossible to understand the force from within driving people to do the "abnormal" things that they do.

I fully accept this.

I also believe that society is "producing" more and more mentally unstable and unhappy people, and that the culture of going to a doctor to "fix it" is also rampant in mental health issues, and what is easier to take than a pill?

I went through the mental illness factory for several years with mixed results - positive results from insights from therapy and support, years of medications with lousy side-effects, horrible addictions, and withdrawals.

Looking back I would have much preferred my shrink offering and prescribing me MUCH less medication.

For not until I decided myself to get rid of it ALL did I start to climb out of the hole and get better - better enough to raise 2 children who seem to be well enough balanced. :-) (They are now 20 and 23 years old)

I ain't no picture of perfect mental health, but I feel good, strong, I feel myself and not some drugged, tweaked version, I feel intense joy as well as pain, and am grateful for my life.

So, in a way I meet those who say that disorders are over-rated and over-diagnosed half way because in a sense I agree with them - labels of mental illness are slapped on many people who are suffering and out of balance to a degree which I am not happy with.

(As an aside, but related, almost every family member and friend of mine in the US has received a diagnosis of some obscure "syndrome" - a disease that covers some of these people's health problem symptoms. To my husband and me this borders on the ludicrous, and the problems some of these people have all aging 50ers probably have. If you look long enough under a microscope you'll find some disease lurking in anybody who has lived about half a century imo.....
So everybody I know in the States gets to say that they have "this" syndrome, or "that" syndrome.....:crazy:)

Labelling as ill anchors it into the person's self-image, which is not a good thing imo - and can render him powerless to those experts who say they have the treatment.

I prefer more empowerment approaches to many mental and physical health problems!

Mental illness labelling and medicating can lead to situations of power and control imo.

If this screening would become mandatory, what effect/repurcussions would that have on someone who refuses treatment (meds, for example) in their education/work/health insurance opportunities?

Sorry I rambled a bit on this....:-)

DemEx

[baba]

5. Very well said.

I think you addressed the dilemma of labels quite well.

On one hand we want to get away from labels and diagnosis because it may reinforce stigma. Society still stigmatizes these labels-I wish it were not so. The idea of a wellness approach or a strengths approach is really catching on, especially with kids.

On the other hand, we want increased education and awareness of mental health, which requires acknowledgment of the labels to a certain degree. For instance, mental health parity legislation is gaining momentum because people are beginning to acknowledge that mental health should be treated as important as physical health is. To a certain extent, the parity movement has had to "medicalize" mental health and illness even more in order to gain wider acceptance.

[Kashka-Kat]

6. What's the difference? Let me tell you......

The NAMI post asks, "whats the difference betw screening for mental illness VS screening for lead poisoning, tuberculosis, hearing, vision & ETC???"

Aint it obvious???? There are no blood tests for mental illness, there is no concrete physical evidence or markers that determine the diagnosis. Its all conjecture and interpretation of behaviors, and there is no due process like in a court of law.

Scares the cr*p out of me. Not Bush (I expect him to be fascistic in his thinking) but NAMI--people who are supposed to be advocates... That it is "mandatory" is what takes it from conceivably helpful--you know, like the blood pressure screenings at the neighborhood shopping mall--into the realm of the fascistic.

What's the consequence of "noncompliance"? What if a parent has reason to believe the medications are harmful and wants to take the kid off?

The soviets used to throw dissidents into gulags using a similar mechanism, using behavioral criteria to define "illness" and determine "treatment" ie imprisonment. By definition, the dissent was the "illness." Not saying we Americans would necessarily slide right down that slippery slope, but the point is, some things you just don't want in place bc the consequences of this kind of power being abused is just too horrendous.

Already there are people who claim that "political paranoia" is a mental illness! They would, Im sure, see this post as evidence of my supposed "illness" LOL. So that's another question. WHO exactly do we allow to determine the criteria of what is "illness" and what is "health."