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Biopsychiatry Illuminated
THE CANDLELIGHT PROJECT
by Bob Collier
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22 December 2003 Issue 73 The following are excerpts from a recently produced article entitled 'On Psychiatry and Child Protective Services in the United States: Child Abuse is Child Protection is Mental Health Treatment is Drugging Children' co-authored by Fred Baughman, Jr., MD and John Breeding, PhD. Dr. Baughman is the California neurologist who has spearheaded the movement to increase public awareness of the fraud of so- called 'ADHD' (he's certainly made some progress here in 2003 - a little over a year ago, I'd never even heard of it!). Dr. Breeding is a psychologist in Austin, Texas. His 'Texans For Safe Education' group is one of the forums I started posting to at the beginning of this year when I was looking for information about 'ADHD' and is the only one I still manage to visit regularly. 'On Psychiatry and Child Protective Services in the United States' is an examination of the relationship between the work of America's Child Protective Services and the prevailing ideology of biological psychiatry and an explanation of exactly why the Child Protective Services are, generally speaking and with exceptions, no longer part of the solution but part of the problem. Bear in mind, as always, that American culture is the dominant culture on our planet right now and - as has already been demonstrated by the acceptance of the American Psychiatric Association's manufactured 'disorders of childhood' in countries sympathetic, so to speak, to the American way of life - what affects America's children has consequences for children in many other countries all over the world. 'On Psychiatry and Child Protective Services in the United States: Child Abuse is Child Protection is Mental Health Treatment is Drugging Children' by Fred Baughman, Jr., MD and John Breeding, PhD An introduction "The mission of the US Dept of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, has always been some notion of protecting our nation's children from abuse and neglect. The federal state, as parens patriae, has gradually come to embrace, through evolution of our moral code and attendant law concerning the rights of children, its duty to assure these children's rights. Each of these United States has an agency appointed to fulfill this mission, commonly known as Child Protective Services (CPS)." "Many think that state Child Protective Services have evolved into rogue agencies. This article will briefly mention the general practices of overzealous intervention which have resulted in this charge being levelled at CPS. The main purpose of this essay, however, is to discuss a very specific concern. We believe that CPS agencies are doing consistent grievous harm to children and families, beyond the general dynamics of overzealous intervention. We believe that many thousands of families are being threatened, coerced and broken, not only for possible physical and sexual abuse, but for reasons having to do with the enforcement of the pseudoscientific beliefs and attendant tragic and dangerous practices of our nation's mental health system. The power of the state is enforcing the false beliefs and dictates of biological psychiatry, pressuring, coercing and breaking up the families of parents who reject the psychiatric diagnoses and psychotropic drugs for their children. Furthermore, the state, through CPS and foster care, is wreaking havoc on the children who it is supposed to be removing from harm's way and making safe by systematically placing them on toxic, dangerous, addictive drugs." CPS and Psychiatry "By definition, children taken under state care are having a hard time, or will be as soon as they are separated from family. In the United States today, young people in trouble are mostly explained in one simple way. They are considered to be "mentally ill" - emotionally disturbed, suffering from some sort of psychiatric disorder like ADHD or conduct disorder, or depression, or bipolar disorder, or any of a host of other diagnoses. And since our mental health system of institutionalized psychiatry believes that mental illness is biologically or genetically based, the solution of using powerful psychotropic drugs to "treat" these mental illnesses is called the practice of medicine. We are observing that a very high percentage of children in foster care are placed on psychiatric drugs. It is hard to get the precise data because it has not been routinely collected, but here is a glimpse from two of our more populous states. FLORIDA The Miami Herald (Carol Miller, 9-17-02) reports that the Florida Statewide Advocacy Council (an arm of the Department of Children and Families) conducted a two-year investigation of 1,180 foster children. The Council's report found that more than 50% of the children - including 17 preschoolers - were on psychiatric drugs that had not been approved by the FDA as safe for children. Incredibly, 44% of these mostly Medicaid children had not been seen by a doctor, and 59 children had no diagnosis, while another 143 children had a diagnosis described as "other". NEW YORK New York is one more state whose child protective services are in disarray and controversy. Their agency, called Administration for Children's Services (ACS) has recently undergone a state audit. Doug Montero (New York Post, 4-22-01) reports that ACS (apparently like all states) doesn't know how many of its children are on psychiatric drugs. Nevertheless, also like other states, complaints arise on a regular basis. Montero writes that a state audit of 401 randomly selected children found that more than half were being treated for "mental problems." In today's mental health climate, that almost always means drugs. Again, according to Montero, advocates say that the rate of psychiatric drug treatment for foster children is closer to 90%. Where data is reported, we get rates of over 50% of children in foster care on psychiatric drugs. Many think the actual incidence is considerably higher than 50%. Considering that a pretty good estimate of the incidence of psychiatric drug use in the overall school age population in the United States is about 8,000,000 children, which is approximately 15% of our children, these rates are not so surprising (Breeding, 2000). The numbers are shocking, nevertheless, especially when one confronts the indisputable truth that there is no scientific evidence that allows for an objective test of a specific physical or chemical abnormality for any of these alleged psychiatric illnesses. As one example of the truth of this assertion, the NIH Consensus Conference Report (November 18, 1998) on the most popular of child psychiatric diagnoses concluded that, "...we do not have an independent, valid test for ADHD, and there are no data to indicate that ADHD is due to a brain malfunction." Incredibly, the involvement of psychiatry and foster care goes beyond the ubiquitous presence of psychiatric labels and drugs for our children. To truly understand the depth of the entanglement, it is necessary to address the concept of custody relinquishment." Custody Relinquishment "Custody Relinquishment refers to the situation whereby a parent "voluntarily" relinquishes or turns over the custody of a child to the state. One would think that a parent's voluntary giving up of a child would be extremely rare, occurring only under severe hardship and duress. According to a report in Clinical Psychiatry News (May 2000), however, it is actually quite common, supposedly because gaining access to mental health care for children is so difficult that parents often give up custody to ensure care. The Bazelon Center for Mental Health reports, "Approximately 2-4.1 million children, aged 9-17 years have a serious mental or emotional disorder. Last year, 23% of parents of children with behavioral disorders were told that they needed to relinquish custody to obtain intensive mental health services of their children; 20% actually gave up custody." Two years later, the same newsletter (Clinical Psychiatry News, June 2003) reports that, "Thousands of US families have been forced to choose between obtaining mental health services and relinquishing custody of their children with mental or emotional disorders, according to a new report by the General Accounting Office. The GAO estimated that in fiscal year 2001, 12,700 children in 19 states and 30 counties were placed into the child welfare or juvenile justice systems so they could receive mental health services. This understates the extent of the problem, since officials of 32 states did not provide the GAO with data." This second report says "thousands of US families" while the earlier one said that "approximately 2.1-4.1 million children" have a serious psychiatric disorder, and that 23% of these parents "were told that they needed to relinquish custody to obtain intensive mental health services for their children; 20% actually gave up custody." At the time, then, .483 million to .82 million [483,000 to 820,000] were told they needed to relinquish custody and relinquished custody. This suggests that hundreds of thousands to a million or more U. S. families have been told they should relinquish custody and have done so." Informed Consent "The term relinquishment implies voluntary action on the part of the parents, with informed consent and understanding of the facts of the situation. These assumptions cannot actually be met for a number of reasons, having to do both with the structure of Child Protective Services, and with the "customary and usual" practice of child psychiatry. The structure of Child Protective Services is such that parents are on the defensive. We repeat the quote cited above from California child welfare director, Rita Saenz said, "The original vision for supporting and healing families through the child welfare system has deteriorated into an adversarial and coercive approach." There is good reason to be distrustful of any nice sounding rhetoric of voluntariness. Even more to the crux of the matter, however, are the flawed assumptions and dangerous practices of psychiatry. The psychiatric industry makes two basic claims, both of which are completely unproven. They claim (1) that children with the likes of Attention Deficit Disorder, Conduct Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder - DSM psychiatric diagnoses - have actual diseases. They claim (2) that these "diseases" require necessary "treatment," (i.e., psychiatrists and drugs.) Further, they claim that if parents cannot afford such necessary treatment, and if such treatment can only be gotten for the child by a government or government-affiliated payer scheme (such as Medicaid) that requires that the child be a ward of the state, then the only responsible thing for the simply-biologic parent to do, would be to relinquish custody. Such action puts the payer on line to reimburse those who utilized the billing bible of psychiatry - the DSM - and who prescribe the psychopharmaceutical "medicines". We have written in detail elsewhere about informed consent and the psychiatric drugging of children (Breeding & Baughman, 2001, 2003) - about the denial and minimization of harmful effects of psychotropic drugs, about the inadequacy and bias of FDA drug testing, and about the real dynamics of pragmatics and power that drive the engine of psychiatry. The biggest violation, however, remains the lie that occurs every time a parent is told their child has an actual disease (or [one of] its euphemistic equivalents like disorder). In order to clearly understand how informed consent is systematically violated, one must be fully aware, regarding psychiatry and psychopharmaceuticals, that were it not for presumption of "diseases" (for which there exists today no scientific evidence in the form of an objective indicator validated in the scientific literature), there could be no medical psychiatry. Instead, we would be speaking only of normal human beings and of their humane care and nurturing. Without the presumption of disease, we would be talking of a tyrannical state kidnapping children and drugging those normal children." The Diane Booth Story "There are very many ... stories we could share of parents who have been coerced to drug their children, and of families broken up when parents refuse to drug their children. The story of Diane Booth and her son, Vincent, is one of the worst. The ordeal of Vincent Booth and his mother, Diane, began as it almost always does, in every school district in the US - with teachers diagnosing ADHD, presently the number one "disease" in the country. Teachers from the Sunnyvale School District decided not only that 6-year-old Vincent had ADHD, but that he needed Ritalin as well. Not only did teachers, never having been to Medical school, make the diagnosis, they presumed it was their right, duty, and competence, as well, to designate the medication he needed - in this case, an addictive, dangerous, sometimes lethal medication - Ritalin. When Diane, the natural, legal, mother rejected their diagnosis and treatment, they called in Child Protective Services, and pronounced her "negligent." By order of the juvenile court, they made Vincent a ward of the State of California (case # JD 1110), institutionalized, diagnosed, and drugged him. Vincent was six years old, and, up to that point, healthy and normal. Vincent was held at the Eastfield Ming Quong, a locked, children's holding facility at one time used to force social services on California's Chinese immigrant children. Placed on Ritalin, Vincent developed tics - involuntary movements - a complication of Ritalin, never witnessed previously. He also had bruises and bumps - signs of physical abuse. Diane complained, but to no avail. Next, she took matters into her own hands. In desperation, and at her son's request, she fled to Canada with him on July 5, 2000, and applied for refugee status. Two months later the FBI apprehended them in British Columbia and tore Vincent from her side while he screamed for help that his mother wasn't allowed to give him. For the past 2 ½ years Vincent has been a child of the State of California, held at the Eastfield Ming Quong, getting treatment for the multiple "diseases" psychiatry says he has with the multiple drugs psychiatry says he needs. Throughout the 2 ½ years no member of Diane's family was allowed to have contact with Vincent, and Diane remained a fugitive until she tired of life on the run and turned herself in to authorities in Okanagan, Washington, in January, 2003. Diane has since been extradited to Santa Clara County where she has been unable to make bail and remains incarcerated at the Elmwood Correctional Center for Women. While the FBI has seen fit to drop all charges against her, Santa Clara County, not wishing to be charged themselves, still presses felony, child endangerment and child stealing charges against her that could result in up to 8 years in prison - all of it, mind you, for loving her only child, her normal son, Vincent. Diane began to correspond with Dr. Baughman through his web site, www.adhdfraud.com, about two years ago when she was still in Canada, seeking refugee status there. Based on her description of events (a scenario repeated in every school, in every state, every single day) and medical records, there is no doubt that Vincent was a medically, neurologically normal child at the time psychiatric diagnosing and labeling began, and until the always- injurious psychiatric drugging began. Vincent's psychiatric incarceration, ordered by his new "parent," Judge Leonard P. Edwards (parens patriae), assured it would always be thus. In the summer of 2002, his diagnoses - all psychiatric, not actual diseases, were Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (DSM-IV 309.81), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (313.81) with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (300.82), ADHD, and episodic enuresis (314.01). As is usual in psychiatry, not only did Vincent have multiple "diseases," but he was administered multiple psychiatric medications as well - each known to be brain damaging, none known to target a proven brain abnormality/disease. They were Buspar, Zoloft and Respirdal, an antipsychotic - an especially potent brain poison. As of June, 2002 Vincent was said to display "tics (author's note: probably a persisting side effect of Ritalin, but Respirdal commonly causes involuntary movements, as well, known as tardive dyskinesias), severe anxiety, fearfulness, impulsivity, hyper-vigilance, poor adult- child relationships, tantrums and aggression toward staff and peers." Furthermore, a case manager wrote: "Vincent is socially immature and often functions in a regressed, primitive, unsociable manner, sometimes at a 2 or 3 year level." What if Vincent had been normal and free, living in the protective, loving care of his natural mother, Diane? What if he had been allowed to be the normal child he was, not imprisoned and drugged - a psychiatric patient-in-perpetuity?" Summary "An estimated 8 million school age children in the United States are on psychiatric drugs today. That means we are giving very powerful, extremely dangerous psychotropic substances to about 15 % of our country's children between the ages of 5 and 19. The drugging of children first came to the country's attention in 1970 when the U. S Congress was alarmed enough by the news that 200,000 school children were taking Ritalin to call for an investigative hearing on the issue. Since that time, we have witnessed a 4000% increase in the number of children on psychiatric drugs in the U.S. The trend of the last few years to use these drugs on preschoolers and toddlers, even one-year-olds, further reveals the unconscionable disgrace we are witnessing in this country. Regardless of the extent to which our leaders and large segments of our general population have become so numbed and confused by the constant onslaught of psychopharmaceutical propaganda celebrating the alleged medical necessity of giving psychoactive drugs to children, these numbers are astounding. We also know that the primary conduit of children into psychiatry is through the schools. Not only are school employees affected by psychiatric propaganda just like anyone else in this country, but also they are specifically trained to look for "diseases" like ADHD. They select children out, pressure parents to get a psychiatric evaluation and get their child on a psychoactive drug. We have seen a growing incidence of parents being threatened with accusations of medical neglect when they resist or refuse psychiatric intervention, and we have seen what happens when Child Protective Services is called in and violates a family's life. We know that psychiatry is coercive at its root, and that this coercion has taken root in the schools and Child Protective Services. Our systems are still mostly broken and wrong-headed. Nevertheless, we see hopeful signs. There is very good news available for those interested in CPS reform. We highly recommend the NCCPR website for an overview of the issues, and recommended reforms. The states of Michigan and Alabama, and the Allegheny county run system in the area of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, are wonderful examples of highly successful family preservation programs. Good news is also available on the coercive psychiatry front. There has been a huge wave of political activity across the country in the last four years as a result of committed activists, and especially due to the influence of aggrieved parents who have decided to fight back for themselves and on behalf of all families. An inspiring example of this is the coalition of parents who formed a group called Parents for a Label and Drug Free Education. Four parents started this group. Sheila Matthews was pressured by a Connecticut school to label and drug her child, fought back and led the charge for a precedent-setting legislation in Connecticut in 2001 that not only prevents school personnel from coercing or recommending that parents drug their children, but also backs off CPS from being able to accuse parents of medical neglect simply because they refuse to drug their child. Another eight related bills were introduced the next year. Patty Weathers was coerced to drug her child in New York, fought back, was threatened by Child Protective Services, fought back, got support, went on national television, eventually won and has taken leadership in the fight to protect other children and families. Larry Smith and his wife Kelly were bullied and harassed for years by psychiatry and the schools. In March of 2000, they lost their son, Matthew, to heart failure due to several years of Ritalin usage. Larry's website, www.ritalindeath.com, has educated countless people on the dangers of psychiatric drugs to children. In February of 2001, Vicki Dunkle's beloved 8-year-old daughter, Shaina, died in her arms of Desipramine toxicity (prescribed for "ADHD") as she and her husband Steve watched helplessly. Now they are fierce activists, appearing on national television and testifying to political leaders in Washington. There are others in this group, and all have a story. The Able Child parents, together with allies around the world, are determined to stop the psychiatric drugging of children, and all the lies and coercion that go with such an ugly business. See the website, www.ablechild.org, for information about these brave leaders, their activism, and a record of political actions around the country. The political activity started as a result of the leadership of Patti Johnson in 1999, a member of the Colorado State Board of Education who convinced her fellow Board members to pass a precedent setting Resolution, which asked school personnel to use academic solutions to resolve problems with behavior, attention and learning, rather than psychotropic drugs. Since then, enormous progress has been made on the issue of protecting children and their families from forced psychiatric labeling and drugging, and to monitor the prescription rate of stimulants and other psychiatric drugs for children. Through 2002, there have been 46 state bills or Resolutions; including the Colorado Resolution, in 28 states, that have either passed, or are still pending action, across the United States. Connecticut, Minnesota, and Texas have passed laws explicitly stating that a parent's refusal to consent to the administration of a psychotropic drug to a child does not constitute neglect, therefore is not in itself grounds for CPS investigation. Other states have passed related laws either monitoring or curbing CPS policy in this area. Many states are pursuing related legislation as the wave of activity continues to expand. Many of these laws relate to prohibiting coercion in schools to have a child put on psychiatric drugs; several establish investigations and/or tracking systems for children being psychiatrically labeled and drugged; others increase parental consent rights; still others eliminate the threat of parents being criminally charged with "medical neglect" if they refuse to place their child on a psychiatric drug. We conclude this essay with a piece of exciting news. A new federal bill is drawing nationwide attention to the psychiatric drugging of children. If passed into law, the Child Medication Safety Act (H.R. 1170) would prohibit schools from coercing parents to drug their children. The U.S. Congress is considering this historic legislation largely as a result of the wave of activism in state legislatures around the country. This act has already passed the House of Representatives by an overwhelming 428-1. The Senate is now considering H.R. 1170. All of these efforts are reflective of a push to back off the coercion, and restore common sense and thoughtful care and support to our nation's children and families." Excerpts from 'On Psychiatry and Child Protective Services in the United States' copyright © Fred Baughman, Jr., MD, John Breeding, PhD To read the complete article, please visit: http://www.wildestcolts.com/safeEducation/cps.html |
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