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September 9, 2006


1. Open Letter to President Bush & Action for Congress
2. Action to take
1. Open Letter to President Bush & Action for Congress
         An "Open Letter to President Bush," written by Karen Effrem, M.D. and signed by twelve other national groups, was recently posted on Townhall .com, a popular site read daily by thousands of viewers across the nation. (Scroll down to "Health Care" section.) The letter is now posted in full on the EdWatch website. (Click here to read the entire letter.) Following are excerpts from the letter:

Mr. George W. Bush
President of the United States

August 22, 2006

Dear Mr. President,

It is a great honor to be able to hear you speak today in Minnetonka, Minnesota. As a wife, mother of three children and a pediatrician, I want to thank you for your great concern for the health of the American people, including their mental health. The undersigned groups and I are also appreciative of efforts on the part of your administration to evaluate the effectiveness of programs and eliminate or decrease the funding of those that are ineffective and not wisely using the peoples hard earned funds as was reflected in the budget requests for the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Education. We want to support and promote those stewardship efforts, especially in relation to programs having to do with mental health screening and intervention, and particularly in relation to programs involving children.

Goal 4 of the New Freedom Commission (NFC) Report declares that, Early Mental Health Screening, Assessment, and Referral to Services Are Common Practice, and describes its model programs, such as TeenScreen and the Texas Medication Algorithm Project (TMAP). The Federal Mental Health Action Agenda (FMHAA.) lays out a blueprint for implementation of the NFC recommendations. These documents have resulted in the promotion of a whole series of federal grants and programs to the states for the mental health screening and intervention of children beginning in infancy, despite documented problems with the scientific validity, safety, effectiveness, and cost of both the screening and the associated interventions. In addition, there are grave concerns regarding whether the federal government should be involved in something that has such profound implications for individual autonomy, parental authority, freedom of conscience, and privacy. Here are some examples of programs of concern: [Letter continues here...]

Learn more
2. Action to Take
It appears that Congress will not pass the spending bills before the November elections. That means Congress will reconvene after the elections. This is called a "lame duck" session, because those members who have not been re-elected ("lame ducks") will be voting to pass or defeat major federal legislation.

The history of lame duck sessions is that bills pass after the election in forms that could not pass before the election. Even members who've been re-elected, election-year pressures are off. Therefore, it is especially important for members of Congress to hear from their constituents.
Contact your Representative (click here for House contact information) and both Senators (click here for Senate contact information) and say that you support eliminating (or at the very least, cutting) the State Early Childhood Comprehensive System (ECCS), the Foundations for Learning Grants, the State Incentive Grants for Transformation, the Mental Health Integration in the Schools and any funding for mental health screening and drugging in the Federal Mental Health Action Agenda. (Click here and here for more detailed information.)
Sample letter:

Dear _________________,

        The federal budget needs to be cut. This is a great opportunity for you to cut spending in the coming appropriations bill for federal mental heath screening programs

        Federal central planners should not be hooking states on dangerous, scientifically invalid and invasive mental health policies for children and even infants using our tax dollars for bait. Instead of cutting funds, however, the psycho-pharmaceutical establishment's lobbyists are resisting cuts and trying to expand funding. This has resulted in 35-300% increases in state Medicaid expenditures for mental health drugs that have many problems with safety and effectiveness. So far this year, they have been successful in stopping the President's recommended cuts. 

        The President and the House Committee on Appropriations have recommended eliminating the Foundations for Learning program and Mental Health Integration in Schools, and we heartily concur with that assessment. Other programs that should be eliminated or at least cut significantly are: Thank you.

Sincerely,
[your name]

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