Teenscreen - if you're not sure ... just label them suicidal

This came in on an email I got about Teenscreen. I hear some others have already adopted the teen screen model in some countries and made it mandatory. It is just like George Orwell's 1984 (yes I know I mentioned that before) - but really. I just don't get it like teenagers are committing suicide and throwing themselves out of the window all over the place? Not really - actually why don't we ask the psychiatric profession to supply the rest of society with helmets to protect themselves from the suicidal teenagers?

Jokes aside (actually if we did that people would see how stupid this program really is) it's like finding one problem and then adjusting the whole population to fit the minute possibility that all others are in the same category.

And in any case anything that checks for problems as a systematic check will eventually drive people nutty. There's got to be some evidence or an indication before the checks move in. The Vacin dillema is just one of the same.

Star Tribune

TEENSCREEN

Risks are too great

Your March 26 editorial made a spurious claim that since "schools screen for eye trouble. Why not for brain disorders?" Screening students to assess whether they are "at risk" for suicide or other mental health disorders is a highly subjective, unscientific and extremely difficult task.

David Shaffer of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention reported that for every 16 students correctly identified by TeenScreen as "at risk," 84 were falsely labeled. Since the most common "treatment" for mental health disorders is drug therapy, TeenScreen leads to unnecessary drugging and the proven risks of serious side effects from these powerful psychotropic drugs.

TeenScreen has no place in the public school system. The risks to the mental and physical health of our students are too great.

BONNIE GASPER, EDEN PRAIRIE

Swisscom for Human Rights

I just heard that Swisscom the Swiss Mobile Phone company are showing the Human Rights Public Service announcements from YouthforHumanRights in their shops.

That's pretty cool - using all those Gadgets for something good!

A more positive note on some issues!

Human Rights in UK?

I picked this up from Engadget, I've posted on it before and it bears more mention.

I'm

If you're a regular reader of Engadget then you don't have to live in the UK to know that they loves 'em some surveillance technology. Last year, their Information Commissioner warned that the UK was running the risk of "sleep-walking into a surveillance society." Today, Jack Straw announced that the Commons' Home Affairs committee would be launching an inquiry into the growing use of surveillance. From the kingdom which gave us George Orwell and CCTV cameras with mics, speakers, and the intelligence to detect violent behavior and see through clothes, we're wondering if the move is already a tad too late. Of course, here in the US we shoot each other for game consoles so pick your poison.

What TeenScreen would prefer you didn't do

I got this in an email from a friend. They got this quote from an email that TeenScreen sent about the people ANTI TeenScreen. Well if they would prefer you don't see it, then I prefer you do.

Below is what TeenScreen does NOT want you to do as they elaborate here: http://dailykenoshan.com/images/news/ts/responding.pdf

Write Letters. To the local school board. To area school principals. To the local paper. To anyone who will listen.

Attend Local Meetings. Express your opinions at local community forums, such as school board meetings or town hall meetings.

Make Web Sites and Blogs. TeenScreen says: "information proliferated by these groups remains on their own Web sites and Web logs, or blogs. It is when members of your community find these sites that the information these groups disseminate becomes problematic."

So you know what to do now...

What part of 1984 did they not understand?

I read this article here on on the US Army wanting to install cameras around the world.

I think Engadget posted on something like this before about the UK having installed PA system to their CCTVs in the city.

Look I really think the people behind this misunderstood the point behind the book 1984. It wasn't an instruction manual for how to run a good government. It was a satire and a view on how bad it can become in the future!

No honestly, I doubt they misunderstood anything. But lest nobody read 1984 it's a great prediction of how sour the "total control government" can go.

Eh - the right to privacy anyone? The Universal Declaration on Human Rights? It was meant help people not to put in a file cabinet in a basement at the bottom of a flight of broken stairs, locked in a disused lavatory with a sign "Beware of the Leopard". [from Douglas Adam's Hitchickers Guide to the Galaxy]

The real Horrors of how Electric Shock (ECT) "Works"

I recently got a little description of this "treatment" and how it is meant to work and cure someone. Or maybe the word cure has been removed from the Psychiatric vocabulary. It's pretty disgusting, if you've got an upset stomach I would suggest you skip this post and go to the next one.

Here's a brief description of the process - don't try this at home (nor in a hospital).

1. The patient is injected with an anesthetic to block out pain and a muscle relaxant to shut down muscular activity and prevent spinal fractures.

2. Electrodes are placed on the temples bilaterally (from one side of the brain to the other) or unilaterally (front to back on one side of the brain).

3. A rubber gag is placed in the mouth to keep teeth from breaking or patients from biting their tongues.

4. Between 180 and 480 volts of electricity are sent searing through the brain.

5. To meet the brain’s demand for oxygen, blood flow to the brain can increase as much as 400%. Blood pressure can increase 200%. Under normal conditions, the brain uses a blood-brain barrier to keep itself healthy against harmful toxins and foreign substances. With electroshock, harmful substances “leak” from blood vessels into the brain tissue, causing swelling. Nerve cells die. Cellular activity is altered. The physiology of the brain is altered.

6. The results are memory loss, confusion, loss of space and time orientation and even death.

7. Most patients are given a total of six to 12 shocks, one a day, three times a week.
Ask the foremost psychiatrists and they have no explanation to justify why or how their “treatment” works. It is literally as scientific as sticking one’s head in a light socket. Do it often enough and you will become disoriented, confused, lose your memory or even die. Same result as ECT.

Someone called Neal Fox did an interesting post on this subject on his blog http://news-from-meat-street.blogspot.com/ - I don't have the exact post title but you'll find it.

And now for something completely different

In a moment of total Pythonian Logic I sat down to blog today about some current event in the news. Something absolutely amazingly important. It was the type of information that would probably have changed the course of earth.

But I got sidetracked today when I saw the blog of John Wood. After seeing this article I decided would scrap all the important things on my agenda and write about a totally unimportant issue.
A fellow blogger has started an encyclopedia of Monty Python things. While I normally blog about Human Rights and the abuses of Psychiatry, the real deal with Global Warming and other issues - but now is the moment for something completely different.

Go to John's blog and then click over to the Wikipeadia!

This will be the end of any serious consideration for the wikipedia.

I am sorry I lost that absolutely important information I had to blog about today - I guess you will never find out about it then.

;-)

Global Warming - no skin off my nose

Someone sent me this little story, when reading this post related Global Warming on a familiar blog (ourearthlyrights.blogspot.com which I linked to earlier) I check out regularly I thought I would publish it and you can make your own decisions. This is a subject that many are writing about these days. I also found it on this site (johnalexwood.blogspot.com - and you should check out his article on Spamalot).

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package. What food might this contain?" The mouse wondered - he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning: There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr.Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it."

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"
The pig sympathized, but said, I am so very sorry, Mr.Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers."

The mouse turned to the cow and said "There is a mousetrap in the house!There is a mousetrap in the house!" The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose."

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house -- like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital, and she returned home with a fever.

Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main
ingredient. But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock.

To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.

The farmer's wife did not get well; she died. So many people came for her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.

The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.

So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't concern you, remember -- when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk. We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage and help one another get along.

So... Global Warming no skin off my nose?

Human Rights - also in the west?

I read this blog called "The dark side of The Sun" on the recent media articles on one celebrity. I sometimes wonder how some of these tabloid papers view things like human rights.

I was thinking it over the other day. And figured out how they get away with this sort of stuff.

Journalist Bob thinks up some story that will be sensational. Bob has two email accounts. He sends himself an email from his Yahoo account under the name of Pete. FictionPete claims to be a great friend of a celebrity and says "I have inside information for you such and such" Journalist Bob now has "evidence" on the story and publishes is saving his home-made email in the files as the document.

One takes Bob or the Newspaper to court and they pull up the "evidence" which is an email from FictionPete.

That's my 5-cents - but I bet that's the way it goes.

All in the name of a bit of money these giddy little people happily ruin lives. Cute isn't it.

Is Psychiatry for Sale?

I just saw this very neat article on Psychiatry. It's 9000 words so a bit to read but very informative and gives a neat view how Big Pharma is pulling the strings in the medical profession.

Nice piece of research (better than me I must admit).

It sort of puts the text to my earlier post with the cartoon, "could we up the dosage" in fact this is exactly what Psychiatry has become. A Big Pharma pusher - if you don't know what I am talking about you need to see the DVD I posted about earlier Psychiatry: An Industry of Death.

Could we up the dosage, doctor? I still have feelings

Saw this cartoon - it's subtle enough to be quite funny!

Patient says to his psychiatrist: Could we up the dosage? I still have feelings.
By Alex Gregory

ID: 123559, Published in The New Yorker January 22, 2007

How to win any argument

OK I’ll be frank. I dislike psychiatry and just about anything they do. I have seen the vegetables they make and nothing much they can say or do will make up for the millions of lives they ruin.

So how to they get away with their crimes.

Not too complex.

1. If you oppose a psychiatrist or their profession they challenge you with their diplomas and tell you you haven’t studied.

2. Anyone who tries to have a success (and often does much good) get’s labelled as a fake and they get their propaganda machine (well financed by Big Pharma) to chop them up into little bits.

Grim? Yes I know but unfortunately true.

PS: And when you show them that they don’t have any results = they say can’t possibly get results as they lack the funds. Nice one eh?

Film Premiere puts Spotlight on Sex Trafficking in USA

Found this article, following my earlier posts on Human Rights I thought it is an intersting point.

Human rights activists from Southern California will gather on Wednesday, January 17th to address the growing problem of human trafficking in Los Angeles and throughout the United States.

A new docudrama that exposes trafficking in the US will be premiered followed by a panel discussion.

The film, Cargo: Innocence Lost, by award-winning film director Michael Cory Davis, unveils the dark underworld of sex trafficking. Cargo provides an insight into this human tragedy through interviews with top officials on the subject, victims' advocates and some of the victims themselves.

The film is interwoven with raw, intense narrative based on numerous true stories.

The event, which will be held at the Garden Pavilion of the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre International in Los Angeles, is co-organized by a number of Southern California groups, united in the fight against human trafficking — now a $9.5 billion a year criminal industry internationally. Human trafficking experts and law enforcement representatives dealing with this issue will lead the panel discussion and answer questions.

Mary Shuttleworth, President of LA-based International Foundation for Human Rights and Tolerance stated, "Human trafficking is only possible because people are uninformed about modern-day slavery and about their basic human rights. This is why we are promoting a series of public service announcements depicting all 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In less than 30 minutes, any person can gain a working knowledge of their fundamental rights."

Released in June of last year, these emotion-packed PSAs have now aired to more than 130 million people in 60 countries. The fourth in the series, "No Slavery," is a heart-rending message that promotes that we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that slavery is still alive today.

Official estimates of the number of people trafficked into the United States each year range from 14,500 to 50,000. Eighty percent of the cases in California occur in Los Angeles, San Diego or San Francisco, according to a 2005 report from the Human Rights Center at UC Berkeley.

According to a United Nations 2005 news report, after drug dealing, human trafficking and arms dealing are the largest criminal industries in the world; however human trafficking is the fastest-growing of the three. Around the world an estimated 27 million people are slaves and every year 600,000 to 800,000 victims are trafficked across international borders, half of them children.

The event is being organized jointly by the International Foundation for Human Rights & Tolerance, the Los Angeles City Commission on the Status of Women Human Trafficking, the San Diego Bilateral Safety Corridor Coalition, Youth for Human Rights International, the Human Rights Department of the Church of Scientology International, Artists for Human Rights, the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force, the Rescue and Restore Southern Region Coalition and the Salvation Army.

"a lack of respect towards professionals working in psychiatry"

I found this quote on the site of PsykiatriFonden - who is farily active these days on the PR front in Denmark. They even convinced the Crown Princess Mary to become a "protector" for their association.

The most recent campaign they are running is "anyone who promotes that they can help stress is a fake." - now hold on, that means that they can do something about it? No they even say it themselves.

Quote from PsykiatriFonden, a Politically-Neutral Advocacy Organisation for Mental Illness

The perception of psychiatry and the role of the psychiatrist Despite improvements in the scientific understanding of mental health disorders and advances in their treatment, there is still a lack of respect towards professionals working in psychiatry. Our image in the general public, as well as in our own ranks, is not as good as it should be. The general public is sceptical and the media often carries stories about patients who are overdrugged, patients who receive insufficient psychotherapy and lack of treatment coordination in severely ill patients. Consequently, young doctors are choosing other specialities. Most damaging of all are acts of violence committed by psychiatric patients (most often following noncompliance) that receive adverse publicity and thus, in the minds of the public, confirm the inability of psychiatrists to cope with mental health problems.

Come on. What story are they trying to spin, they know they have no cures they even state it openly. They don't need to work on publicity, they need to work on results.

All in the name of progress...

A friend of mine sent this to me - I thought it would be relevant. Trace back most of these changes and lo and behold, who or what do you find behind it?

++++++++++++++++++++++

Scenario: Jack pulls into school parking lot with rifle in gun rack.

1973: Vice Principal comes over, takes a look at Jack's rifle, goes to his car and gets his to show Jack.

2006: School goes into lockdown, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.

++++++++++++++++++++++

Scenario: Johnny and Mark get into a fist fight after school.

1973: Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up best friends. Nobody goes to jail, nobody arrested, nobody expelled.

2006: Pol ice called, SWAT team arrives, arrests Johnny and Mark. Charge them with assault, both expelled even though Johnny started it.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Scenario: Jeffrey won't be still in class, disrupts other students.

1973: Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by Principal. He Sits still in class.

2006: Jeffrey given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. School gets extra money from state because Jeffrey has a disability.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Scenario: Billy breaks a window in his father's car and his Dad gives him a whipping.

1973: Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.

2006: Billy's Dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy removed to Foster care and joins a gang. Billy's sister is told by state psychologist that she remembers being abused herself and their Dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has affair with psychologist.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Scenario: Mark gets a headache and takes some headache medicine to school.

1973: Mark shares headache medicine with Principal out on the smoking dock.

2006: Police called, Mark expelled from school for drug violations. Car searched for drugs and weapons.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Scenario: Mary turns up pregnant.

1973: Five high school boys leave town. Mary does her senior year at a special school for expectant mothers.

2006: Middle School Counselor calls Planned Parenthood, who notifies the ACLU. Mary is driven to the next state over and gets an abortion without her parent's consent or knowledge. Mary given condoms and told to be more careful next time.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Scenario: Pedro fails high school English.

1973: Pedro goes to summer school, passes English, goes to college.

2006: Pedro's cause is taken up by state democratic party. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against state school system & Pedro's English teacher. English banned from core curriculum. Pedro given diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he can't speak English.

+++++++++++++++++++++

Scenario: Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from the 4th of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle, blows up a red ant bed.

1973: Ants die.

2006: ATF, Homeland Security, FBI called. Johnny charged with domestic terrorism, FBI investigates parents, siblings removed from home, computers confiscated, Johnny's Dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.

+++++++++++++++++++++

Scenario: Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes hisknee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary... Mary, hugs him to comfort him..

1973: In a short time Johnny feels better and goes on playing.

2006: Mary is accused of being a sexual predator, and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison.



All in the name of "progress"!

Alaska Mental Health Act or the "Siberia Bill" - any similarities to UK Mental Health Bill?

The “Siberia Bill” was the final extension of a decade-long psychiatric effort to simplify commitment procedures, the bill specifically called for the establishment of a remote Alaskan mental health facility and radically streamlined means of incarcerating inmates-hence the nickname “Siberia Bill” to remind the people of precisely what the plan comprised, i.e. an American Gulag. Eventually described by the Superior Court Judge as representing, “totalitarian government at its best” the bill proposed that “any health welfare or police officer who has reason to believe that an individual is mentally ill and therefore likely to injure himself or others if not immediately restrained” may transport that individual to a mental asylum for professional evaluation.
There, “the prisoner” could be detained five days, or if judged mentally incompetent, “for the rest of his natural life.” No statement of probably cause was required, no issue of warrant was necessary, and no hearing.
Sound similar to the Mental Health bill in UK right now?
50 years later to the day... and why is someone still trying to push through such a bill?

More on the UK Mental Health Bill

I gathered some quotes from articles on the UK Mental Health bill. Interesting how few people agree with it.


FROM: The Independent
The Bill, if approved, will allow local authorities to force compulsory treatment on mental patients whether or not it is beneficial. Wide-spread use of proposed Community Treatment Orders (CTOs) could put severe restrictions on patients after they have been discharged from hospital as well as governing where they live and what medication they take.
Paul Corry of Rethink. "Detention for reasons other than health benefit should be handled by non-health services."
The Bill is the third attempt to reform existing legislation. Previous efforts failed after fierce opposition.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article2016145.ece


FROM: YOUNG PEOPLE NOW
The mental health bill, which amends part of the Mental Health Act 1983, would allow health services to detain mentally ill patients for treatment without their permission if they are perceived as a danger to others, whether their illness is curable or not. This would include 16- and 17-year-olds. Currently health services can only detain patients with curable problems.
Louis Appleby, national clinical director for mental health services at the Department of Health, said: "Sixteen- and 17-year-olds will be treated like adults. For under-16s we will need parental consent."

http://www.ypnmagazine.com/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=full_news&ID=12412


FROM: Rethink: reports on politics.co.uk
Dr Tony Zigmond, a psychiatrist in Leeds and Honorary Vice President at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: "Of course I sometimes need the authority to treat some of my patients without their consent. The problem with this Bill is that it will increase the stigma and fear that people face when they consider telling me about their mental health problems. As a doctor I need service users to trust that I will always put their health first. We need legislation with principles that strengthen the rights of service users and carers.”

http://www.politics.co.uk/press-releases/health/mental-health/mental-health/rethink-mental-health-service-users-families-and-staff-concerned-about-mental-health-bill-$459426.htm

New Mental Health Bill in UK

I just read about the new draft Mental Health bill for UK. I read a part of the bill and this looks quite scary.

Involuntary commitment now gets a new form. There is a new Tribunal to be made of minimum 3 people which will decide if someone gets put away or not. And they don't decide based on the problem the person has but rather based on the behaviour even if they don't know the cause.

I stopped reading the rest after that.

I was reminded of the book 1984 by Orwell, what if someone disagrees with the government. Well all it would take is for some psychiatrist to name that as a disorder and there we go.

They already have some 400 disorders and more growing by the day. Everything can be construed as a disorder if one has a different view on the subject.

It is the classical psychiatrist solution. Someone disagrees with them - they label him crazy, he gets locked up and they can continue with what they want to do.

25 years ago Homosexuality was a disorder, now it isn't. What's the difference? Some lawyers put enough pressure on the psychiatric assiciation to take it out of their book. That's not too scientific an approach.

If that bill passes we are heading for a grim future.

Man dead after storming German School

Just read this article from Reuters. I am quoting a part of it here:
EMSDETTEN, Germany (Reuters) - A masked man opened fire after storming a school in the western German town of Emsdetten on Monday, wounding several students before he apparently committed suicide.

Click here to view it.

Almost all of these stories lead back to someone who had just come out of psychiatric care. And almost each one of the murderers are on psychiatric drugs.

I don't thing this is an exception and we will probably find out soon.

Something needs to be done about it.

I was speaking to a friend of mine lately whose sister is a teacher in Belgium. The school had been ordered to advise their children to take drugs if they aren't doing good. One teacher objected to it and asked the Teachers Board if they were willing to take the same drugs that they are giving to the kids - surprise surprise, nobody was and all were terrified at the idea.

They put off giving the drugs for a few weeks until they received an order that they must give the drugs or their license would be revoked.

It makes me wonder who the pharmaceutical industry has been lobbying. There is a video I mentioned a week or so ago that bears repeating. It is an eye opener! Click here.

And the result are these Men/Kids storming their or other schools and shooting innocent people.
Is it really worth it?

Psychiatry: An Industry of Death Documentary on DVD

I just watched this DVD for the second time. I am not sure what to say... yuk or wow! The fact of the matter is that this is an eye-opener of the best kind.

It is like a wake-up call. We have psychiatry creeping in on us every day and twisting some of the wildest viewpoints to "ok". OK well pretty much anyone knows instrinctively these guys are up to no-good. They success rate sort of proves it. But nobody really has the evidence to to show it.

This DVD does the job.

What we are looking at here is just like the Emperor's New Clothes, Psychiatry goes around and pretends to be an authority on a subject they actually have no results in, and millions believe they have the answers but nobody dares to look at the results.

Well see the DVD yourself, it is quite revealing.

http://www.cchr.org/index.cfm/14396