Teen Screen: Normal Kids Labeled Mentally Ill

[AtomicAnt]

I always read and hear about stuff and forget where I read it. I read lots of stuff. But one article was about teens and sleep. The article stated the typical school hour were great for the natural sleep cycles of a third grader. It explained that a hormone called melatonin increases in kids of that age at the right time to get them to bed and have them fall asleep so that they wake up naturally 9 or 10 hours later and can go to school.
 
Teenagers also need 9 to 10 hours sleep, but the study showed that the melatonin does not increase in until later in the evening. You can put the kid to bed, but they won't fall asleep any earlier. Thus when morning comes and they must wake up, they are difficult to get out of bed. Worse, they are missing out on the REM sleep cycles that are most important for learning and memory. Of course, they are tired and cranky.

They told about a school that experimented with later high school hours and discovered that grades went up, discipline problems went down, and truancy was almost non-existent.

Now I remember where I heard all this. It was a show on the Discovery Channel. They did two shows actually. One was about boys and one about girls. It was called Teen Species: Boys.

http://vcuhvlibrary.uhv.edu/libraryinfo ... fall05.htm

I remember a quote from a psychologist on the show: "Show me a boy who does not get into trouble prior to age 18, and I will show you someone who is NOT the epitome of mental health."

She was talking about puberty, testosterone, and risk taking behavior in teenage boys; and how normal this is.

These were excellent shows depicting the real development of real kids that they followed for two years through the onset of puberty.

[Anonymous]

You mean like I like to fuck goats, but most people I know say that's normal...?

[Anonymous]

No, should I???

[Oz girl]

I remember a quote from a psychologist on the show: "Show me a boy who does not get into trouble prior to age 18, and I will show you someone who is NOT the epitome of mental health."

She was talking about puberty, testosterone, and risk taking behavior in teenage boys; and how normal this is.

These were excellent shows depicting the real development of real kids that they followed for two years through the onset of puberty.

This is why I think the idea of wilderness programmes & team sports  can be such a great thing for some teenage boys (not the for profit style nature prisons that have sprung up) Get them doing exciting risk taking things like rock climing and white water rafting or skiing! have them bash into each other on a football field. This has to be a healthier outlet for a boy and it does not punish anyone for a normal biological stage!

[AtomicAnt]

What qualifies a kid as normal though?

Seems way to objective, and not nearly subjective enough.

Damn psychological check lists.

Exactly, what is normal? Is ADHD a 'disorder', or is it a case of trying to force the kids to fit the classroom instead of the other way around?

I believe that what is called 'normal' has become more and more narrowly defined; causing more and more people to fall off the edges of the binomial curve.

Hide your goats.

[Anonymous]

Hide your goats.

Or better yet, crate them & send them to me!

[Deborah]

Theresa Rhoades Speaks Out Against Teen Screen and tells what happened to her daughter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6AFRhVe8aE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3T2rRpx ... ed&search=

[Deborah]

Student's Suicide Confession Lands Her In Mental Clinic
February 27, 2007

APOPKA, Fla. -- An Orange County father is furious after school
officials sent his daughter to a mental health clinic.

Jenny Helmick, a student at Wolf Lake Middle School, went to a guidance
counselor and ended up spending the night at Lakeside Alternatives, WESH
2 News reported.

Her father, Paul Helmick, said the situation started with a movie about
suicide prevention. The movie is part of a district-wide program that
teaches students to ACT; Acknowledge, Care and Tell if they or a friend
shows warning signs of depression or suicide.

Helmick said he believes the school's student resource officer acted way
out of line by invoking the Baker Act, which allows law enforcement to
take someone in for emergency evaluation.

Although she can forget her troubles when riding her go-cart around the
family farm, Helmick said she'll always remember how she ended up at
Lakeside Alternatives, by admitting she had once thought about suicide.

"I was pretty honest and I guess honesty can get you to a good place and
get you in a bad place and at this point I think it's really messed my
life up at this point so far," Helmick said.

Helmick made her confession to Latasha Hanna, the SAFE coordinator at
the middle school, who said she was just taking precautions.
"I never want to gamble with their lives. So when a student comes to
talk to me, I take everything that they say very seriously and try to
get them help if I can," Hanna said.

Helmick's father said it didn't help when the resource officer
considered her a threat to herself and had her admitted to Lakeside.
"If my daughter did say she wanted to kill herself, the right thing for
them should have been to make sure that they held on to that child until
a parent was brought in to that school to meet with them," he said.

Helmick believes the Baker Act that allowed the student resource officer
to take his daughter to Lakeside gives police too much power.
"Keep in mind, a police officer does not have medical experience on
telling me whether my daughter is crazy or not," He said.

Helmick said the movie encouraged her to seek out the SAFE cooridinator
because she felt depressed about problems with bullies. School officials
said they are looking into those problems.

Administrators said there have been four students taken to Lakeside from Wolf Lake Middle School this year.
+++

On the video- The "student resource officers/SAFE coordinators" work for law enforcement and the number of kids sent to a mental health facility is not tracked.

VIDEO HERE: http://www.wesh.com/news/11123803/detail.html

Screening for Mental Health, Inc. out of Massachusetts, has a program
called "Signs of Suicide" which has been implemented in many public
schools across the country. They receive millions in pharmaceutical
funding. Tax records here: http://www.signsofsuicide.org They are also
the ones that came up with the annual National Depression Screening Day.

Please write to the below Orange County, Florida school board chairman
and bcc the school board members and a few legislators who sponsored
the SOS bill in Florida last year and may be filing the same bill this
year (e-mail addresses provided below) and let them have a piece of
your mind - politely - and add that you saw the video in the news and
that you don't want Signs of Suicide in schools.

The suicide movie is part of the SOS program. You can see the reference
to: "Acknowledge, Care and Tell" right on their website here:
http://www.mentalhealthscreening.org/ch ... oWest.aspx (last
paragraph)

School board chairman, Karen Ardaman martinj7@ocps.net, cadlej@ocps.net,
roachr@ocps.k12.fl.us, webster.daniel.web@flsenate.gov, fasano.mike.web@flsenate.gov, frank.attkisson@myfloridahouse.gov

[Deborah]

http://www.truthnews.net/world/2006100395.htm

Congressional Control of Health Care is Dangerous for Children

Ron Paul, September 30, 2007

This week Congress is again grasping for more control over the health of American children with the expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Parents who think federally subsidized health care might be a good idea should be careful what they wish for.

Despite political rhetoric about a War on Drugs, federally-funded programs result in far more teenage drug use than the most successful pill pusher on the playground. These pills are given out as a result of dubious universal mental health screening programs for school children, supposedly directed toward finding mental disorders or suicidal tendencies. The use of antipsychotic medication in children has increased fivefold between 1995 and 2002. More than 2.5 million children are now taking these medications, and many children are taking multiple drugs at one time.

With universal mental health screening being implemented in schools, pharmaceutical companies stand to increase their customer base even more, and many parents are rightfully concerned. Opponents of one such program called TeenScreen, claim it wrongly diagnoses children as much as 84% of the time, often incorrectly labeling them, resulting in the assigning of medications that can be very damaging. While we are still awaiting evidence that there are benefits to mental health screening programs, evidence that these drugs actually cause violent psychotic episodes is mounting.

Many parents have very valid concerns about the drugs to which a child labeled as "suicidal" or "depressed," or even ADHD, could be subjected. Of further concern is the subjectivity of diagnosis of mental health disorders. The symptoms of ADHD are strikingly similar to indications that a child is gifted, and bored in an unchallenging classroom. In fact, these programs, and many of the syndromes they attempt to screen for, are highly questionable. Parents are wise to question them.

As it stands now, parental consent is required for these screening programs, but in some cases mere passive consent is legal. Passive consent is obtained when a parent receives a consent form and fails to object to the screening. In other words, failure to reply is considered affirmative consent. In fact, TeenScreen advocates incorporating their program into the curriculum as a way to by-pass any consent requirement. These universal, or mandatory, screening programs being called for by TeenScreen and the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health should be resisted.

Kinda like incorporating "Emotional Growth" into the curriculum to avoid regulations.

Consent must be express, written, voluntary and informed. Programs that refuse to give parents this amount of respect, should not receive federal funding. Moreover, parents should not be pressured into screening or drugging their children with the threat that not doing so constitutes child abuse or neglect. My bill, The Parental Consent Act of 2007 is aimed at stopping federal funding of these programs.

We don't need a village, a bureaucrat, or the pharmaceutical industry raising our children. That's what parents need to be doing.

Congressman Ron Paul, a Republican, represents the 14th Congressional District of Texas, which encompasses the Gulf Coast region south and west of Houston.

[Anonymous]

julie mentioned earlier that ADD/ADHD is the only LD treated with medication. i must disagree, many doctors perscribe medication "off-label". i know of many people who were put on anything from ritalin to provigil, straterra, ambien, neurontin, even xanax in one case for "learning disabilities", or some unknown school-related disorder. e.g someone very close to me had trouble falling asleep without weed before 4am, only giving her 3hrs of sleep on school nights. so she was falling asleep in class, and the concerta she was on wasnt helping to keep her up (although that was the original cause of her insomnia), so the doc stuck her on provigil, a narcolepsy drug used by primarily by millitary pilots and truck drivers. she was feeling a "comedown"  from the concerta, so the doc put her on neurontin to ease the comedown. the provigil and concerta, although they were keeping her up, exacerbated her sleep problem, so she was put on ambien. before she even knew it she was on a whole cocktail of drugs just to keep her functioning. lately, all the drugs have been giving her anger issues - the concerta (ritalin - an amphetamine), caused anger issues, (methamphetamine and cocaine are known to do), and now the doc gave her a bottle of xanax to carry around with her to school, and told her to pop one whenever she gets angry or irratible.

of course, this is not very common, but it happens. some special ed school/teachers actually do some good. but other schools, even ones dedicated to helping kids, would rather drug you than give you a little extra care and attention; because they have an X number of other kids to deal with too.

it doesnt matter if it's a public or private school, it's all about location. in my area, (a major metro area), private school are simply a place where middle to upper class white people send their kids, so they can be with other middle to upper class kids, so that they will be able to make freinds and wont be harrased by the largely minority public school population. the private school education is really not much better, the classes are smaller but the general attitude is all the same, all the same drugs and violence is still there. it's just nice, clean, sanitary, and "white".  there are plenty of public schools in the city where if you excel in a particular subject, you can apply there and they are a very exlusive, high-end school, strictly for the best and the brightest. also, if you go out to the suburbs you'll notice something. the domanantly white areas have very, very good public schools, with great special ed programs. but the black and mexican areas, all have horrible schools. the goverment simply doesnt want to educate the lower class, and put all their energy in the upper class. and then problems arise when neighborhoods become gentriified and white people start sending their kids to minority schools.

it's my personal opinion that LD diagnoses are O.K, as long as medication is only used in the worst of the worst of the worst, and even then it has to be strictly monitored and "off-label" usage has to have much stricter controls. i think psychologists, psychiatrists, and psychotherapists should all get at least 5 years of experience as a teacher, or working with kids outside of their field before they ever start giving out meds and helping kids. i think private schools should be abolished, and that parents must pay a per-kid school tax if you are in the upper brackets; and cities must keep all schools, regardless of the neighborhood, diverse and equal. the only thing that i think should be allowed is charter public schools and specialty schools, e.g if you're way ahead of your classmates in every subject, and particularly excel in say, science, you can apply to a public school which specializes in science.