Ablechild Joins NAACP's Call for Shrink's Resignation

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Ablechild Joins NAACP's Call for Shrink's Resignation

Publish Date : 11/9/2004 5:42:00 PM Source : Culture and Community News

Recently, in a Texas Committee hearing on Psychotropic Drugs and Care

Children, a psychiatrist, Joe Burkett, testified regarding foster care children.

In what proved to be one shocking and horrific moment for child advocates

everywhere, he informed the committee that one of the main reasons so many

foster kids need to be on psychotropic drugs is that " they are very sick, from a

Bad Gene pool " .

Last week in Austin, civil rights groups and critics of the state's welfare

agency, of which included the NAACP, demanded the resignation of this

psychiatrist.

Ablechild is in full support of the NAACP's request. We wholeheartedly assert

that we will continue to back groups committed to safeguarding children's

rights. We reassert the call for an immediate and swift kick out of office for

this psychiatrist, who clearly, by his flippant and de-humanistic statements, is

not representing children's health and safety.

In response to Civil Rights groups call for his resignation, Joe Burkett, in the

Dallas Morning News, October 27, 2004, said that he did nothing wrong and has no

plans to quit. Questioned regarding his " Gene Pool " statement Burkett responded

to the Dallas Morning News stating, " There are pretty strong genetic factors in

mental illness. The comment.was really a comment about the fact that these

children are in the foster care system because they don't have normal parents

making good decisions.. " " That's really the connection I'm making with

genetics. "

Based upon Burkett's recent statements, Ablechild as well as other civil rights

advocates call upon Burkett to produce certifiable evidence of these " genetic

factors " in foster care children.

Burkett is well aware, as are we, that there are No objective tests to verify

with certainty a genetic component for mental illness. Unless Burkett can

miraculously pull out of his hat scientific proof in the form of a blood test,

x-ray, biopsy, or exact brain scan verifying such a statement, he should be held

accountable for deceiving the public, and attempting to divert public attention

away from his original and most damaging statement.

Just one example of the division within the psychiatric and medical community

regarding how " scientific " psychiatric diagnoses truly are can be pulled from

Clinical Psychiatry News, January 2000. Dr. Theodore Pearlman, a psychiatrist in

Houston, speaking about the DSM-IV, the billing bible for psychiatry and what

psychiatric diagnoses are based upon, stated that DSM-IV has gone too far.

" There are too many diagnoses without any objective basis or biological

support, " Dr. Pearlman went on to say.

This is one doctor out of many who have challenged the " genetic factor " and or

elusive " chemical imbalance " , clearly recognizing their theoretical foundations

demonstrating lack of proof.

Burkett's comments highlight the failed approach psychiatry as a whole has

marketed to the public encompassing both our foster care system and education

system. Psychiatrists, like Burkett, should be held accountable for putting

forth misleading and biased information to the public to skew perception or

understanding of this topic.

" Marketing theories of " bad genes, " " chemical imbalances, " or " diseases " for

diagnoses such as ADHD for one, has led to a tremendous increase in the number

of children labeled mentally ill and trafficked into drug use without proper and

full informed consent " , said Sheila s, Vice President of Ablechild.org a

grassroots parent organization dedicated to safeguarding children's rights and

ensuring that all receive full informed consent prior to any psychiatric

" treatment " .

Children falsely accused of suffering from subjective mental disorders is a

disturbing issue that has been taking place without question for far too many

years. It is painfully obvious to so many now that the Psychiatric Industry is

allowed to oversee the foster care system without any independent oversight or

accountability. It has been a long time without justice for these children. They

deserve more.

We need to recognize that it is the time to act and attempt to get both

educational and healthy non-drug approaches over the walls to these unprotected

children, instead of promoting and allowing the psychiatric gatekeepers and

their tentative theories to remain at the helm.

For more information on mental health and its role in foster care abuse and for

recent information on the FDA's issuance of Black Box Warnings on

Antidepressants given to children nationwide please visit our site at

www.ablechild.org

Weathers, President (845) 677-8115

Sheila s, National Vice President (203) 966-8419