Mental health screening of teens creates a "crisis" where none exists
Tuesday, October 25, 2011 by: Paula Rothstein(NaturalNews) Depression in adolescents appears to be a serious and growing problem in this country, but is mental health screening the answer? Or does the appropriation of a label merely serve to drop a possibly troubled kid into psychiatry's default position of "let's fix this problem with a pill"?
Mental health screening of adolescents was conceived under the guise of a program, first launched during the Bush administration, called "TeenScreen." This program has now found itself a home in approximately 600 locations across the U.S., including school health classes, school-based health clinics and community agencies.
According to a recent report released by the CDC, 1 in 25 adolescents (aged 12 to 17) are now prescribed drugs for depression. There is every reason to suspect this number is increasing under TeenScreen, and that it will continue to rise.
Mental health screening's very foundation is deeply flawed
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No individual behind the development of TeenScreen has come forward with evidence to demonstrate that the "assessment" made of these students is even the least bit effective. Thus far, the statistics show one-third of the subjects being flagged as "positive" for having mental health problems; and 50% of those so flagged were recommended for mental health treatment. If this system, which already appears to be woefully inaccurate, is set loose on the more than 50 million public school students in the U.S., it would mean affixing a label to more than 17 million American children and putting 8 million-plus into the hands of the psychiatric/drug industry.
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Learn more:http://www.naturalnews.com/033969_mental_health_screening_teens.html#ixzz1c0BxrTlo
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