In 2002, President George W. Bush established the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health (NFC) and charged it with the mission of reviewing mental health care in the United States. The following year the NFC released its findings and recommendations. The report called for the establishment of an ambitious, Orwellian plan to screen every American for mental illness, from pre-natal to the elderly. The NFC recommended that screening is to be followed by "treatment" and "support," but these help-oriented euphemisms are a major cover-up for barbaric psychiatric methodologies that include, but are not limited to, powerful, mind-altering drugs to Electro-Convulsive Therapy (ECT) - ultimately proven to create zombies, mass murderers and even death in those subjected to these kinds of "treatments." Sound comforting? So, then, why would anyone want to forward the progress of such a system? The answer is the same for all of the horrific things committed against the people since the beginning of time - money, power and control.
So who stands to gain from widespread screening? To answer this question, one need only to look at these sister programs: the Texas Medication Algorithm Project (TMAP) and Columbia University's TeenScreen - both were recommended in the NFC's final report as "model programs". How did these two make the cut when hundreds of public, private and faith-based programs are available to deal with mental health issues? Finding out who lobbied for their inclusion, we quickly see who stands to gain billions of dollars, reputation and power if these programs are implemented.
What is TeenScreen?
Columbia University is not alone in this desire for TeenScreen's universal acceptance and advance into the schools. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), billed as the voice of the mentally ill, is collaborating on achieving that goal. NAMI is, itself, controversial because of extensive pharmaceutical company funding. While NAMI claims to be a grassroots organization structured to benefit those diagnosed as mentally ill, its critics claim that NAMI's main activity is to spread fraudulent information about what "mental illness" actually is in order to claim more victims to treatment and psychotropic drug prescriptions. There are also strong allegations that NAMI is lobbying on behalf of pharmaceutical companies, which give NAMI millions in funding every year.
At a conference given this year, supported in part by pharmaceutical manufacturer, AstraZeneca, TeenScreen reported that 80% of the teens identified through the use of their screening tool "are not truly at risk." This presentation also included the fact that 24% of the referred students were then prescribed medication.
What is TMAP?
TMAP is a medication protocol for the treatment of mental illness that originated in Texas when George Bush was governor of the state. TMAP set uniform guidelines for treatment of certain psychiatric-deemed "disorders" using the "newer," brand name psychiatric medications and culminating with Electro-Convulsive Therapy (ECT) - better known as "shock treatment"- as the final solution when medications are judged as being ineffective.
No other therapy or treatment of any kind is included in the algorithm (problem-solving procedure) of TMAP; it is strictly medication and ECT. This chart is intended to ensure that in every location, from California to DC, a person with the symptoms of a psychiatric "disorder," which could be anything from schizophrenia and bi-polar disorders to major depressive disorder, will receive the same treatment - namely, a prescribed sequence of brand-name drugs and even shock treatment.
When TMAP was developed, with help from the pharmaceutical industry, the most expensive, newer-generation antipsychotic drugs - called "atypicals" - were the ones to make the list. In TMAP, the older drugs and generic drugs, which are less expensive, have been completely omitted.
Based on TMAP, before a drug can be prescribed by a state physician for someone in the state system, it has to be on the TMAP list. It is then no surprise that states who have implemented TMAP are going broke due to the costs of these high-priced medications. No surprise, either, is that the pharmaceutical company coffers are growing in proportion to the states' increasing financial woes.
Key Players in the NFC, TMAP and TeenScreen
In 2002, Bush appointed Michael F. Hogan, Ph.D., the director of the Ohio Department of Mental Health, to chair his NFC. Hogan has close ties to both TeenScreen, TMAP and with pharmaceutical companies.
Hogan is a member of TeenScreen's Advisory Council and a member-at-large of the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD). Hogan's resume includes his connection to TMAP. He is the past president of both NASMHPD and the NASMHPD Research Institute (NRI), and is currently on the NRI Board of Directors. Both entities are heavily supported by Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly through "educational grants."
Through NASMHPD, the pharmaceutical companies had to influence only fifty key people in order to introduce TMAP to every state in the nation. Allen Jones, a whistleblower in Pennsylvania, had this to say about NASMHPD: "Janssen's influence of state Mental Health Directors was not limited to NASMHPD funded events. Janssen also formed "Advisory Boards" comprised entirely of State Mental Health Directors and regularly treated these "Advisory Board" members to trips and conferences, with all expenses paid by Janssen."
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