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Published Online: 15 October 2004

House Defeats Hasty Amendment Barring Mental Health Screenings

Ken HausmanAuthors Info & Affiliations
Publication: Psychiatric News
Volume 39, Number 20
https://doi.org/10.1176/pn.39.20.0390010a
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APA had a hand in defeating an amendment to a bill under consideration in the House of Representatives that would have prohibited the use of federal funds for nationwide mental health screenings.
Ron Paul (R-Tex.), a gynecologist, was the author of the amendment, which had been tacked on to an appropriations bill funding the departments of Labor and Health and Human Services.
Among the concerns that he said led him to introduce his proposal, Paul cited the call for such a screening program in the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, published last year. In fact, the report nowhere says that the federal government should sponsor widespread mental health screenings.
He also sounded alarms about the possibility that widespread screening of children for mental health problems would open the door to “schoolhouse drug pushers,” by which he meant psychiatrists, and in particular those who prescribe stimulants for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
“We already have an epidemic in our schools” of children being“ overtreated” for ADHD, Paul said, and “parents who have denied medication for their children have been accused of child abuse. There is already tremendous pressure on parents to allow public school officials to put children on medication like Ritalin.”
He went on to blame psychiatrists for their eagerness to label as mentally ill people who do not agree with their political beliefs. “If one has a strange world view or a strange personal belief,” he told his House colleagues, “if you have a prejudice or whatever, one may be deemed mentally ill.”
The day before the amendment was introduced, APA sent an action alert to its members explaining the content of Paul's “anti-mental-health” amendment and asking them to contact their representative in the House and urge him or her to vote against the amendment.
“Make no mistake,” APA said, “these efforts are fundamentally designed to attack access to medically necessary psychiatric treatment, particularly of children and adolescents.”
The amendment was voted down on the day it was introduced by a vote of 315-95. ▪

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Psychiatric News
Volume 39 • Number 20 • October 15, 2004
Pages: 10

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Published online: 15 October 2004
Published in print: October 15, 2004

Notes

The House of Representatives shows little enthusiasm for a proposal that, based on faulty premises, would have barred the use of federal dollars to conduct mental health screenings.

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