A recent news article by Carey Goldberg in the Boston Globe newspaper ought to have Massachusetts parents fuming mad. In fact, parents nationwide need to be on the alert as well. The long and stretched out arms of psychiatry are poised to put a choke-hold on your children.

Think I am kidding? Think again. In Carey Goldberg's December 27th article, ("Mental screening for young to begin: Mass. doctors to offer questionnaires for children on Medicaid"), we find out that on December 31st, "Annual checkups for the nearly half a million Massachusetts children on Medicaid will carry a new requirement: Doctors must offer simple questionnaires to detect warning signs of possible mental health problems, from autism in toddlers to depression in teens."

This is scary stuff. Pay close attention to this part again, "from autism in toddlers to depression in teens." Perhaps I am paranoid, but I believe a Brave New World is here. Psychiatry just had an incredible cash cow handed to them on a silver platter through the force of government. That is, Massachusetts taxpayers fund Medicaid. In turn, Massachusetts taxpayers are supporting through no choice of their own the inevitable drugging of children.

I agree with Dr. John Abramson, the author of "Overdosed America" when he states in relation to screening for mental illness amongst children, "What happens is that there's a very quick translation of mental health symptoms into drug treatment." He truly speaks to where we are right now in the world of mental health. And despite what the national trends are, I think Dr. Robin Adair, a pediatrician and "screening specialist" is dead wrong when she states this is a "huge step forward." A huge step forward - where?

Hey, I'm not a medical doctor. I'm just a health care consumer. However, mental health screening poses far more risks and causes far more harm than any good it could create. I find this to be especially true for children on Medicaid. These are children that come from poorer families with a likelihood of greater family issues. So it makes sense for psychiatry and the government to try and hone in on this group (460,000 children and young adults up to 21 years of age covered by Masshealth) and hopefully refer them for further treatment past the subjective and leading mental health questionnaires at annual checkup time.

Carey Goldberg writes that the Medicaid/MassHealth families "may decline the screening if they wish." But come on, this is wishful thinking. You don't think little Johnny's doctor isn't going to raise up a red flag to his office ceiling when he hears a parent whose child is on government assistance say, "I do not want you to screen Johnny for mental illness. He is fine. After all, he's only four years old. Thank you anyway." I think the doctor will automatically assume that the parent is a Scientologist and call the authorities! Now, I don't know if that would happen, but very few parents will even think to decline the mental health screening. This will ultimately lead to more "at risk" children being drugged. This isn't what I call "First, do no harm."

Some say there will not be an increase in children being diagnosed with mental illness, putting a further strain on the health care system. But in my opinion, the numbers don't lie and the push to ram a pill down a child's throat to gain compliance and the feeling that something has been done to supposedly improve their mental health is pretty clear. From cradle to grave, there is now some kind of mental disorder for every American. Keep your eyes open long enough to see what's going on.

You know yourself that if you walk out of your doctor's office without a prescription, you almost feel as if you weren't even treated. God help 460,000 children and young adults who are now sucked into the whirlwind of psychiatry thanks in part to them being on Medicaid/MassHealth, and thanks in part to legislators in Massachusetts who are leaving these young people out to dry. They ought to be aware of the link between antidepressant psychiatric drugs and violence.

Now, it is true that some children have autism or can become depressed. They are not automatons. They have feelings. The world isn't perfect. This does not mean we twist things to suit the "business" of psychiatry and bow to bogus statistics. Since when did we decide that our children and young adults must never for one minute suffer from stress and anxiety and failure? This is all a part of growing up.

Instead, we twist things to try and justify forced drugging and the destruction of informed consent by throwing around subjective "national estimates" that Carey Goldberg included in his article that attempt to show "about 10 percent of children have some sort of significant psycho-social problem from hyperactivity to anxiety to stress from living amid domestic violence." Again, it appears children and young adults in Massachusetts, and nationwide, can no longer experience any kind of feeling or thought or deep reflection without it being subjected to a mental health screening or antidepressant psychiatric drug. This isn't medicine. It's medicine gone mad.

We can engage in healthy debate about how best to deliver mental health services to children and young adults. In terms of counseling, I look at the terrific film "Good Will Hunting" as a wonderful model. Unfortunately, some parents and government programs and health insurance plans prefer the "pill for every ill" model to the time consuming talk therapy model. This is unacceptable and borders on child abuse in the opinion of this writer. If you don't have the "time" to "parent" your children, you shouldn't have the opportunity to drug them and foolishly call that taking care of their mental health issues.

Massachusetts has taken a wrong turn here on mental health screening. Cute code words and catch phrases don't cut it. Lisa Lambert, executive director of the Parent/Professional Advocacy League, falsely compares the screening of children and young adults for mental illness to that of acting as a "check engine light" for parents to gauge if their children have any problems. I'm sorry, growing up is a little more complicated than this. On the other hand, mental health screening sets off alarms when no alarm needs to be sounded.

It's time for parents all over this country to get in the front seat when it comes to parenting their children and young adults. I find it hard to believe a subjective mental health "questionnaire" can serve somehow as a substitute parent. Something is seriously wrong when 460,000 Massachusetts children and young adults wake up one morning to find out that they must now submit to a subjective mental health screening at their next annual checkup.

And you thought Tom Cruise was nuts when he questioned the scope and purpose of psychiatry on national television?



Tony Zizza is a freelance writer who lives in Atlanta, GA. He writes frequently about psychiatry and children's issues.