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In short this commission was established to "eliminate inequality for Americans with disabilities" and to "promote successful community integration for adults with a serious mental illness and children with a serious emotional disturbance".

One of the end results was the establishment of "The TeenScreen Program". This program was developed by Columbia University and is a national mental health and suicide risk screening program for youth. "The goal of the National TeenScreen Program is to make voluntary mental health check-ups available for all American teens.

If you are wondering why this is an issue which needs to be brought to the forefront of public awareness I will explain it to you.

Now I’m not going to point the finger of guilt at anyone. The purpose of this article is to call to your attention the existence of this program and the problems that are already associated with its young life. This program, as most psychological diagnostic programs is based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. This is the bible of psycho diagnosis in America. Robert Spitzer, professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, chaired the team which created the diagnostic bible now states that he believes these classifications have led to many mistaken medical diagnoses when people were only experiencing normal mood swings. Dr. Spitzer further states that up to 30% of youngsters classified as suffering from disruptive and hyperactive conditions could have been misdiagnosed.

The main problem with this program, in my opinion, isare the tactics being used by those who are implementing the program at the local level. Apparently Columbia University program coordinators are coaching program administrators at the local level. It seems that although this program is supposed to require parental permission, allowing the screening of their teen, program coordinators have attempted to circumvent that permission. The have attempted to do this by using what is being called a “passive consent” form. Below find a copy of one of these “passive consent” forms used by the principal of Flagler Palm Coast High School.

Do you think it odd that the parent is to do nothing as a sign of their consent rather than their signature being required? Do you think that this has the potential to open the door to youngsters being tested without parental consent? If you answered "yes" you are correct. There are already dozens of law suites that have been filed by parents whose children were tested without their knowledge or consent.

Moving on to the next problem with the program Id like to show you some examples of the questions the teens being tested are asked.

Has there been a time when nothing was fun for you and you just weren't interested in anything?
Has there been a time when you felt you couldn't do anything well or that you weren't as good-looking or as smart as other people?
How often did your parents get annoyed or upset with you because of the way you were feeling or acting?
Have you often felt very nervous when you've had to do things in front of people?
Have you often worried a lot before you were going to play a sport or game or do some other activity?
Have you tried to kill yourself in the last year?
Are you still thinking of killing yourself?
Have you thought seriously about killing yourself?
Have you often thought about killing yourself??
Have you ever tried to kill yourself?

Based on how the child answered the "suicide survey", and which label the clinician conjured up and how the child did on his "impairment score" the child is then sent off for "treatment". This brings me to the major problem with this program. "Treatment" according to TeamScreen director, Laurie Flynn, is the long term goal for the program. What exactly is "treatment"?

Parents are being mislead by a multi billion-dollar a year child drugging industry that a diagnoses of "mental disorder" (ADHD, Bi-Polar, Social Anxiety Disorder) are medical diseases or illnesses. This is a fraud. No child has a brain scan, blood test, X-Ray or any evidence of physical abnormality to verify they are "ill" or "diseased."

Yet psychiatrists continue to pound the public with misleading and fraudulent statements that these so called mental disorders are biochemical or neurological conditions. That is false. They are simply a list of behaviors that psychiatrists vote into existence and insert into their billing bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

This has led to over 8 million children in the U.S. taking mind-altering psychiatric drugs.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders, 4th Edition (DSM-IV), published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), is psychiatry's billing bible of "disorders" from which psychiatric screening, diagnoses and their treatment are derived. The current edition lists 374 psychiatric conditions that have been identified as mental disorders.

Yet, the disorders contained in the DSM-IV are arrived at by consensus, not by scientific criteria. There are no blood tests, brain scans, X-Rays, MRIs or "chemical imbalance" tests that can scientifically validate any mental "disorder" as a disease or illness. Canadian psychologist Tana Dineen reports, "Unlike medical diagnoses that convey a probable cause, appropriate treatment and likely prognosis, the disorders listed in DSM-IV are terms arrived at through peer consensus"- literally, a vote by APA committee members.

TeenScreen — no evidence of workability
TeenScreen officials admit that there have been no studies that show that their program reduces suicide. That is not surprising, because the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force report of May of 2004 states:

A. There is no evidence that screening for suicide risk reduces suicide attempts or mortality.

B. There is limited evidence on the accuracy of screening tools to identify suicide risk.

C. There is insufficient evidence that treatment of those at high risk reduces suicide attempts or mortality.

D. No studies were found that directly address the harms of screening and treatment for suicide risk.

TeenScreen has no proof that their survey reduces suicide rates. The co-director of TeenScreen Rob Caruano, says that suicides are so rare that you'd have to screen the whole country to see a difference in mortality between screened and unscreened students.

TeenScreen was established in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1997 . According to a 2003 Tulsa World newspaper article, Mike Brose, executive director of the Mental Health Association in Tulsa, stated: "To the best of my knowledge, this is the highest number of youth suicides we've ever had during the school year -- a number we find very frightening."

Psychiatrists are even coming forth saying TeenScreen is unworkable. Nathaniel Lehrman says: "The claim by the director of the TeenScreen Program that her program would significantly reduce suicides is unsupported by the data. Indeed, such screenings would probably cause more harm than good. It is impossible, on cursory examination, or on the basis of the Program's brief written screening test, to detect suicidality or "mental illness," however we define it. "

So much for the workability of TeenScreen.

There is no Suicide Epidemic
Child Suicides are Rare
Certainly any parent suffers a heavy burden of grief over the loss of a child and our hearts go out to any family that suffers such a tragedy.

However, the fact is suicide amongst children is very rare. TeenScreen's sales pitch constantly stated is that "Suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death amongst children!" This is the tactic they use to gain sympathy from parents and school administrators and use this to create in the media, a suicide hysteria, when in fact child suicides are very rare. For instance in Florida, the number is 50 per year. Coincidentally, 50 is the same number of people who are struck by lightning each year in Florida. 50 out of close to 4 million children is not an epidemic.

Suicides are on the decline. Suicide among American youngsters and teens fell about 25 percent in the last decade. The suicide rate for ages 10 to 19 fell from 6.2 deaths per 100,000 people in 1992 to 4.6 per 100,000 in 2001, according to the Center for Disease Control. In 1991, 10 of 100,000 people in Florida ages 10-24 committed suicide. By 1999, that number had dropped to six out of 100,000.

Suicides generally have been on the decline since 1987. The rate of suicide for 19 years of age and younger is less now than in 1981, reaching their most recent highest peak in 1988.

The true story is that the majority of child suicides in Florida had been on psychotropic drugs or had already received psychiatric treatment, which is completely consistent with the recent flood of FDA and international warnings that these drugs can create suicidal ideation.

There is no epidemic of suicide in young people. The recent "suicide hysteria" is only the marketing strategy of the suicide "prevention" industry, ie the very controversial psychiatric based TeenScreen program.

In review we see a flawed diagnostic tool (DSMMD) and a flawed screening program with no evidence of success created for an epidemic that does not exist. Why then was it created? In simple terms the reason can be clearly stated in one word; economics. As we can see psychotropic drugs are BIG business. The demand for these drugs has been artificially created by the medical community (psychiatrists) by virtue of the DSMMD and the supply was happily provided by the pharmaceutical industry. This my friends is The Plain Truth about the TeenScreen Program.

What are your thoughts?