Who Needs the Brothers Grimm When We Have Teen Screen?

Once upon a time, not so very long ago, there was a town called Edendale that had many little children. The children were very happy. They liked to run and play and giggle and tell stories, much like children have always done.

The parents of Edendale were very busy people. They had jobs to go to, and houses to run, and bills to pay, for the King demanded many taxes and the parents wanted a good life for their happy children.

Then one day a stranger came to town. He was dressed in a white coat, but his heart was black. He said that he was a new kind of doctor from the big University. He said that he was an expert in children's development and had come to examine all the children of Edendale.

At first the parents of Edendale were skeptical about the stranger in the white coat. Their children were doing fine, they said. Look how happy and active they are. Their cheeks glow, their hair is shiny, they all read and write. They are normal children.

Oh no, said the stranger. I have observed your children. They gaze out the window during lessons. They lose their pencils and they run and skip far too much for their own good. They love their parents and they prefer to sing and dance rather than sit still. They have sick brains and sick minds. Every child must be tested! Immediately!

The stranger threatened the Head Master that he would lose his job if the children were not tested. A new Head Master from the capital could be found. So the Head Master told the parents that the children would not be allowed to attend school unless they had the tests.

The stranger brought in a group of testers who also wore white coats. One by one the children were interviewed. "Do you ever feel that other children don't like you?" was one question. "Do you feel nervous about getting up and speaking in front of a group?" was another. "Do your parents ever have arguments at home?" "Have you ever felt sad?"

Many of the children answered yes to some of these questions. When their friends moved away or their pets died, they sometimes did feel sad. And sometimes they did get nervous in front of a group. And, even in Edendale, sometimes the parents had arguments. The tester marked with a big red pen and one by one the children who answered yes were taken to a little office. You are mentally ill, the stranger in the white coat said. You must be put in a special hospital. I want to see my mother and father, each child said. All in good time, when you are better, said the stranger in the white coat.

And many of the brightest and most dynamic children were taken away, locked up in a hospital far away from Edendale.

When the children did not come home from school, their parents went to find them. They asked the Head Master where are the children? The Head Master had no answer. The children had been taken by the man in the white coat.

The parents drove to the hospital. "Why have you taken our children?" they asked the stranger in the white coat. "Your children have an illness in their brains," he told them. You must pay for their drugs and treatment and we will tell you when they are well enough to go home.

"We have never heard of brain illness before," said the parents. How do you know our children have it? "We are doctors, so we know," said the stranger in the white coat. He did not tell them that the only diagnosis was the way the children had answered their test questions.

In the days that followed it was very quiet in Edendale. There was no more laughter heard in the schoolyard, or in the neighborhoods. The children did not run and call to each other to come and play games. The children were afraid to make too much noise, or they might be taken away, too.

The stranger in the white coat stood once again outside the school and observed the children wandering listlessly at recess, or sitting, alone, on the benches. And for the first time he smiled, a very tiny smile.

***

A fairytale? Like the ones the Brothers Grimm gathered in Europe in the 1800's that formed the basis for Western children's literature? After all, we have rights and we would be protected from doctors who would diagnose psychiatric disorders from a questionnaire. But this is exactly what has happened to many kids and teenagers. The test is called TeenScreen, and it is part of a "mental health initiative" called The New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, established by President George Bush in 2002. Its mission -- to test all American school children. In one school in New York, 50% of the kids were found by this test to be "at risk." The treatment? Psychotropic drugs that carry the all too real risks of suicide, suicidal ideation, homicide and homicidal ideation. Ideation means forming thoughts and ideas about it. And some American kids, after being tested, have been taken straight from school, without their parents' knowledge or consent, to psychiatric facilities for treatment. If you think this could not happen here, please see http://www.ahrp.org/cms/content/view/453/52/
For more information, go to www.ablechild.org and http://www.teenscreentruth.com/.

If you think you are safe because you are past high school, read all about the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. The real goal is to test everyone, from cradle to nursing home. Call it a Brave New World.

Comments

[venusvictrix]

It's not a fairytale: it's a nightmare come true. I am shocked and horrified to learn in the news just today that some " U.S. Preventive Services Task Force" (which I've never heard of) is recommending all teens be screened for depression.

Our government is wedging itself into the family unit at a frightening pace. It won't be long before they manage to have every child either medicated or locked up in a "behavioral treatment center", or both.

For a very real and chilling illustration of this growing problem, read Maia Szalavitz's book: Help at Any Cost, which details the horrible abuse in a growing industry of residential treatment centers for supposedly troubled teens. Consider also the recent revelations about two Pennsylvania judges taking kickbacks for referring youths to private detention centers for very minor offenses, or the teen girls threatened with porn charges over a risqué cell phone picture, unless they agreed to attend some course on porn, sexual violance, and gender roles, according to media reports.

Anne, you are spot on with this article. Thanks for speaking out, and keep on it. People need to know about this issue.

[jchen]

What an excellent article. Teen Screen is a sham. Unfortunately, it's a highly destructive sham.

Psychiatry has been on a crusade for quite a few years now, quite intentionally, to subvert the educational system, religion and the family unit, with the end product of a "controllable" society. If you are skeptical, look for yourself at their own publication, "The Psychiatry of Enduring Peace and Social Progress, the William Alanson White Memorial Lectures, by G.B. Chisholm", which was excerpted from "Psychiatry -- Journal of the Biology and the Pathology of Interpersonal Relations", Volume 9, Number 1, February 1946. It lays out their long-range plan which includes dumbing down America, getting us hooked on drugs, creating an environment where there is no such thing as "good/bad" or responsibility, and so on. It is VERY SPECIFIC. It is shocking.

[JFG3rd]

It is interesting that when someone who appears to be in favor of the labeling of our future leaders the writer or speaker who supports the mental health industry trys to make their points by giving their opinions, the action of the mental health industry. Picture the man in the white coat that came to Edenville in the parody written by Dr. Dunev saying (as he strokes his goatee,) "In my profession opinion...­".

Such is the foundation upon which the psychiatric profession has built its house of cards, opinion with no substance that is backed up by clinical tests that can prove such a thing as a mental illness. There is no urine test, no blood test, no x-ray nor a CAT Scan that prove one single mental illness exists.

They now openly own up to their inability to help anyone. Yet they continue to write "script" and play at being doctors. And we who care about our children's futures are being continually bombarded by their false doctrines about "mental Illness". Their billing bible, (the Diagnostic and Staistical Manual,) on page xxi of the introduction states: "...althou­gh this manual provides a classification of mental disorders, it must be admitted that no definition adequtely specifies preise boundaries for the concept of "mental disorder".

The parody of Edenville is just a parody. Hats off to Dr. Dunev for such delightful writing and stating the facts and giving reference links to sites that present the truth not opinion.

[Anne Dunev - Huffpost Blogger]

I stand by what I wrote. The "consent" for parents is a passive consent. Parents are told they don't need to do anything before the testing and parents are not informed that treatment is ALWAYS psychotropic drugs. Kids do get labeled off the 10 minute questionnaire and that label may become a part of their school record and follow them for the rest of their lives. If parents refuse treatment Child Services may be called and the child may be taken away. Several parent groups at local and state levels are now fighting Teen Screen. See http://www.teenscreenfacts.com/
LA Times Tuesday, 31 October 2006
"Researchers and clinicians, meanwhile, say they are far from having developed accurate predictors of a child developing depression­... The psychiatric establishment is scrambling to rationalize and downplay the spiraling documented increase in the number of children being prescribed highly toxic
psychotropic drugs by blaming the media for reporting the scientific findings which pull the rug from current prescribing practice:
See: Psychiatric Drugs for Kids: How Many Is Too Many? By Michael Jonathan Grinfeld, Psychiatric Times October
2006, Vol. XXIII, No. 11
http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=193400943
Psychotropic drugs--in particular psychostimulants, SSRI antidepressants and the new neuroleptics--are being irresponsibly prescribed for children without any scientific evidence that (a) the children are mentally ill, and (b) the children will be helped rather than harmed by these toxic chemical interventions that wreak havoc in adults for whom they are approved.

[FactsAboutCheckups]

There are several facts in the above blog that are inaccurate. First, TeenScreen does not diagnose. Young people who are found to be at possible risk of mental health problems after completing an evidence-based screening questionnaire and an interview with a qualified mental health professional are referred for a complete evaluation by the provider of the family’s choice. Treatment decisions, if any, are always left to parents.

TeenScreen is an independently run program supported by foundations, individuals, and organizations committed to early identification of mental illness and youth and prevention of youth suicide. The President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health cited TeenScreen as a model program and does not actually endorse or promote required mental health screening. The report can be accessed at http://www.mentalhealthcommission.gov/.

The TeenScreen Schools and Communities program is voluntary and requires parent consent as well as teen assent for participation. All local TeenScreen school and community-based programs must obtain parent permission before offering screening to youth.

Research has shown that asking about suicide does not encourage teens to attempt suicide. The Journal of the American Medical Association (Gould et al., 2005) reports that screening and asking youth directly if they are thinking about suicide or have made a prior suicide attempt does not cause them to become suicidal.

Several federal agencies and 30 national organizations support the work of the TeenScreen National Center for Mental Health Checkups at Columbia University. Visit its official Web site at www.teenscreen.org.