Bush wants to be your shrink

Now Bush wants to test every American for mental illness--including you! And guess who will create the tests?

By Jordanne Graham [2004]

Next month, President Bush plans to unveil a broad new mental health plan called the "New Freedom Initiative." Never mind that it couldn't have less to do with freedom; if you're a thinking American, this initiative should scare the hell out of you.

The New Freedom Initiative proposes to screen every American, including you, for mental illness. To this end, the president established a New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, to study the nation's mental health delivery service and make a report. It's interesting to note that many on the staff appointed to the Commission have served on the advisory boards of some of the nation's largest drug companies.

The commission reported that "despite their prevalence, mental disorders often go undiagnosed," so it recommended comprehensive mental health screening for "consumers of all ages," including preschool children because "each year, young children are expelled from preschools and childcare facilities for severely disruptive behaviors and emotional disorders."

Children and school personnel will be the first to be screened. The panel concluded that schools are in "key positions" to screen the 52 million students and six million adults who work at the schools. By doing this, the commission expects to flush out another six million persons not now receiving treatment. But who will decide the screening criteria? Bush and his people? The drug companies? What are their qualifications?

One recommendation of the commission was that the screening be linked with "treatment and supports," using "specific medications for specific conditions." It is no coincidence that the treatments recommended for specific conditions are the newest state-of-the-art treatments that will bring in the most revenues for the drug companies. One of these emerging treatments is a capsule implanted within the body that delivers doses of medication without the patient having to swallow pills or take injections. If a government wanted to exert control of its citizens, think of the implications of using this device.

The Texas Medication Algorithm Project, or TMAP, was named by the commission as a "model" medication treatment plan that "illustrates an evidence-based practice that results in better consumer outcomes." Medical algorithms are a decision-tree approach to treatment. If symptoms A, B, and C are evident, use treatment X. In 1995, TMAP began as an alliance of individuals from the University of Texas, the pharmaceutical industry, and the mental health and corrections systems of Texas. This plan was trumpeted by the American Psychiatric Association even as it asked for increased funding to implement TMAP. When an employee of the Inspector General's office revealed that state officials with influence over the plan had received money and perks from drug companies who stood to gain from it, the plan came under severe criticism.

Allen Jones, an employee of the Pennsylvania Office of the Inspector General, wrote a whistleblower report in which he stated that behind the recommendations of the New Freedom Commission was the "political/pharmaceutical alliance" that developed the Texas project, which promotes the use of newer, more expensive antipsychotics and antidepressants. He further claimed that this unholy alliance was "poised to consolidate the TMAP effort into a comprehensive national policy to treat mental illness with expensive, patented medications of questionable benefit and deadly side effects, and to force private insurers to pick up more of the tab."

In an article in the British Medical Journal, Jones shows that many companies who helped launch TMAP are also major contributors to Bush's re-election funds. For example, Eli Lilly manufactures olanzapine. This is one of the drugs recommended in the New Freedom plan. Lilly has numerous ties to the Bush administration according to the British Medical Journal. It says George Herbert Walker Bush was once a member of Lilly's board of directors. Our current President Bush appointed Lilly's chief executive officer, Sidney Taurel, as a member of the Homeland Security Council. Eighty-two percent of Lilly's $1.6 million in political contributions in 2000 went to Bush and the Republican Party.

Now don't get me wrong. The medical algorithm approach used in Texas shows promise as a treatment tool for mental health and other illnesses. But make no mistake; this initiative is not really about treatment tools. Masquerading in the lamb's fleece of providing mental health treatment to needy folk is the greedy wolf called Big Pharma. Helping out Big Pharma in the form of the TMAP has nearly bankrupted Texas. So why would our president want to do that to the rest of the nation?

To understand this, one must look at the big picture.

At the recent Inequality Matters Conference, Bill Moyers illuminated listeners on the front of a new class war being waged against us by the wealthy leviathan corporations. "Their stated and open aim is to change how America is governed, to strip from government all its functions except those that reward their rich and privileged benefactors…. Their leading strategist in Washington, the same Grover Norquist, has famously said he wants to shrink the government down to the size that it could be drowned in a bathtub. More recently, in commenting on the fiscal crisis in the states and its affect on schools and poor people, Norquist said, 'I hope one of them'--one of the states--'goes bankrupt.' So much for compassionate conservatism…. The White House pursues the same homicidal dream without saying so. Instead of shrinking down the government, they're filling the bathtub with so much debt that it floods the house, water-logs the economy, and washes away services for decades that have lifted millions of Americans out of destitution and into the middle-class. And what happens once the public's property has been flooded? Privatize it. Sell it at a discounted rate to the corporations."

On a website describing the Take Back America conference in June of 2003, Moyers is paraphrased: "[The Bush Administration] would privatize public services in order to enrich the corporate interests that fund campaigns and provide golden parachutes to pliable politicians. If unchecked, the result of these machinations will be the dismantling of every last brick of the social contract…. I think this is a deliberate, intentional destruction of the United States of America."

The destruction of America is evident in many ways. Do not be fooled; the Bushites intend to control all they can, and if that can include your brain, they will do it. If Big Pharma benefits, all the better. The New Freedom Initiative is an early step toward both, and $20 million has already been set aside to implement the initiative.

Work now to maintain your grip on your first great freedom, the power to control your own thoughts. Work now to maintain your grip on your secondary freedom of being able to control the approval for your own medical treatments. Ask your congressmen and senators today to put an end to the New Freedom Initiative.

Find your congressional representatives and senators here!

Jordanne Graham is a writer and researcher in the Midwest. She is doing all she can to protect the country and the environment.

Posted Sunday, August 8, 2004