Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #108429

Vera Sharav, MLS, Alliance for Human Research Protection, 142 West End Ave, 28P, New York, NY 10023, 2125958974, veracare@ahrp.org

The President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health recommended that the federal government should screen the entire US population for mental illness –children first. A public health policy that calls for screening for mental illness is highly suspect. In no other democratic country has the government adopted a policy to screen the entire population for presumed, undetected, mental illness which, if implemented, will stigmatize and ostracize children who may have a bad day, and test positive. According to the British Medical Journal, President Bush instructed more than 25 federal agencies to develop an implementation plan to begin screening America's 52 million school children and 6 million school personnel. There is nothing in the directive to ensure that mental health screening  is voluntary. The rationale behind this mind-boggling, Orwellian initiative is (in part) evidence of America's abiding faith in science and technology to provide solutions for complex human and societal problems. The impetus to screen for mental and behavioral abnormalities is a legacy from the discredited “pseudo-science” of eugenics.  And like the eugenics interventions, those in psychiatry's armamentarium, will most likely cause harm.  Another factor behind the national initiative is that it is an outgrowth of a similar program in Texas which was promoted by drug companies, who expected to increase the market for psychotropic medications. Big pharma would have even more to gain from a national program.

Learning Objectives:

• The listener will learn about the existence and content of this new national initiaive which has received little press, but is already being put into practice in some areas. Participants will be able to assess the motivations behind this program, ie the desire to attribute societal problems to illness in individuals and the desire to increase the market for psychiatric drugs. Participants will be equiped to follow the legislative progress of this proposal, ascertain if it is being put into practice in their area, and understand why it is being promoted at this time.

Keywords: Mental Health System,

Related Web page: www.ahrp.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation