TeenScreen - Controversial and Unscientific

Petition here: http://www.petitiononline.com/TScreen...

National Public Radio: "This is a program that has some very vocal critics. They say Teenscreen usurps parental authority, sends kids to therapy who might not need it and they say the program encourages families to put adolescents on antidepressant drugs."

THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
January 22, 2007
Local public schools have resisted TeenScreen. San Francisco Unified School District, for example, passed on TeenScreen because it can generate false positives and drain counseling resources, said spokeswoman Gentle Blythe.

The Washington Post
June 16, 2006
"There is weak evidence that screening can distinguish people who will commit suicide from those who will not...And screening inevitably leads to treating some people who do not need it.".
—Ned Calonge
Chairman, U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, Chief Medical Officer,
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment

The National Journal
May 20, 2006
"We are still very much groping in the dark, but we know more than we did 25 years ago."
—Laurie Flynn
Executive Director
TeenScreen

The Washington Post
June 16, 2006
"By and large, brief diagnostic tests -- especially doing broad screening in children -- are not well validated, and one has to be concerned about missing real illness or, conversely, interpreting transient life troubles as a mental illness requiring intervention... if your instrument is poor, or you don't know how to intervene to prevent a condition like suicide, there is actually a risk of harm. Besides cost and intrusiveness, there is a risk of harm in terms of stigmatization, but also interventions that backfire."
—Steven E. Hyman
Provost at Harvard University,
Former director of the National Institute of Mental Health

The Minnesota Daily
February 2, 2006
"Moreover, the test has a disorder label for the most ordinary of behaviors, having technical terms for simple laziness and arguing with parents, both qualities that most children and young adults have experienced at some point."
—Editorial

The Philadelphia Inquirer
February 9, 2006
"We're going to screen these kids, slap a label on them, and then what?"
—Joseph Rogers
President of the Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania

Indianapolis Star
September 18, 2005
A history of giving the test to some students without parental permission, has put TeenScreen in the hot seat. Friday, a lawsuit outlining these complaints was filed in federal court in the Northern District of Indiana in South Bend by a Northern Indiana couple and their 16-year-old daughter. They charge that the test violates parental and child rights at federal and Indiana levels and invades privacy.

• Category

  News & Politics

[caustic128]

I was denied a federal job because I went to a Psychiatrist once when I was young and depressed, the doctor got me to admit to "suicidal ideation" and now this is on my record forever.

[dvdpro]

HELLOOOOOOO....another wake up call.

Sign the teen screen petition or your kid WILL BE THE NEXT ROBOT MADE BY LABELS WIHICH ARE LIES AND DRUGS WHICH LINE THE POCKETS OF "BIG" PHARMA.

[luckyman71]

Does anyone know is a study has been done to determine the percent increase in children placed on medication after the teen screen program compared to before the program?

[shounenbat510]

Go Ron Paul! There is NO mental illness in the DSM that has been found. Not schizophrenia, bipolar, ADHD, OCD, nothing. Why treat what we clearly don't understand? In fact, many people with "serious mental illness" get better if they're kept off of supressing medications, designed to keep you a patient for life.

[phoenix1861]

An amazingly invasive, unconstitutional and wrong-headed approach to mental health. I am especially concerned that political correctness will creep into these tests, a prospect that should be of particular concern to religious families. I believe the purpose here is two-fold: 1) to aid in the establishment of a thought-police that will ensure that Americans think "correctly", and 2) to line the pockets of the big pharmaceutical companies and their political allies.

[intrepidxxx]

Bush should be screened, drugged, imprisoned, sterilized, and shot along with the goons who are into this crap.

[DanielleSaiki23]

FUCK THEM! Get them out of your house NOW!!

[Acirema1973]

I'm gonna sign the petition because I'm sick of these type of assholes!!! I'm well aware of how they label children in this country!!! I've been through this shit before there was a Teenscreen program!!! Once a child is in the system,they are never out of the system. They don't let you go!!! I'm 34 years old and have been trying to fight these pricks since I was old enough to know what went wrong.

[rforbes1]

I invented Parent Screen which will soon be on You Tube. It is fool proof for diagnosing hypomania and manic depression because it diagnoses posterior pituitary gland deficiency. The deficiency is treated with a glandular supplement and not a psychotropic drug. It is critical that teens be diagnosed for manic depression but Teen Screen is not the answer.

[terryeo]

Big Pharma should be SHOT for thinking of this. Then the someone who attempted to CONTROL the whole USA teen population should be .. ummm .. lemme think for a minute.