TeenScreen under Seige!! Let's go folks!! New Jersey this time

December 13, 2005

After you pound out your letter to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, head east to New

Jersey for your next letter!

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1134454206166690.xml & coll=1

Meant to save teen lives, survey now under siege

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

BY BEV McCARRON

Star-Ledger (The Voice of New Jersey)

When the sixth teenage suicide hit, Anne Einhorn, a Cherry Hill mother and

school board member, remembers sitting helplessly in her kitchen as her son and

his friends vented over why it kept happening.

The first was a girl, in 2000. The last one, an eighth grader, took his life,

with no apparent warning, in the spring of 2004.

" It was frightening, " Einhorn said. " And it seemed they were getting younger as

time went on. "

The Cherry Hill school district wasn't going to wait for another. Last year,

substance abuse counselor Jen DiStefano brought in a screening process -- one

that's gaining ground in schools nationwide -- that tests students and picks up

on suicidal tendencies and depression.

The mental health survey flagged 10 of the 68 kids who took it. Those 10 were

referred for further assessment.

" Those were kids we never would have known about, " said DiStefano, whose

district is one of at least six in New Jersey, including Livingston, using

TeenScreen. Newark is considering it.

But the survey, offered to schools by Columbia University as part of a suicide

prevention program, is under attack by groups on either end of the political

spectrum whose members don't believe schools should give mental health checkups.

To the more than 450 schools and clinics nationwide that have signed on, it is a

much-needed safety net for teens, who are good at concealing their distress.

To critics, it is an intrusion into a family's privacy. The groups fear

TeenScreen's real mission is to push psychotropic drugs on teens -- a subject of

increasingly intense debate as the number of children on medication soars.

The survey itself is a 10-minute question-and-answer test, ranging from 14 to 52

questions, given to students who volunteer and have parental consent. Answers

are immediately reviewed, and if there is cause for concern, a mental health

professional is dispatched to talk to the student. After that interview, the

counselor would decide if the student was at risk, notify the family and suggest

further testing.

In 2003, President Bush's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health praised

TeenScreen as a model tool for early diagnosis of troubled teens. But as

TeenScreen reaches more students -- 55,000 kids have been screened this year,

according to Columbia -- the critics are mobilizing.

" It would be good if parents could see the test beforehand and evaluate it, "

said Ben of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, which was

established by the Church of Scientology to investigate abuses in psychiatry.

" TeenScreen has questions that are invasive. TeenScreen is just a gateway to

fraudulent diagnosis. "

In Indiana, a lawsuit was filed by the conservative Rutherford Institute on

behalf of a family who claimed their daughter took the survey without parental

consent and was labeled as obsessive-compulsive.

All the negative attention has surprised officials at Columbia.

" It's sort of astonishing, " said Laurie Flynn, executive director of TeenScreen,

which stopped disclosing the names of schools using the survey because the

districts are peppered with e-mails denouncing it. " They think somehow we are

promoting and deciding treatment. We are only about screening and informing

parents that there could be something here to check out. "

Flynn also says the TeenScreen program is funded by private foundations,

individuals and organizations concerned about mental illness and youth. The

program gets no funding from pharmaceutical companies, she said.

Mental health professionals say the program is needed.

In New Jersey, the most recent statistics from the Department of Health rank

suicide as the third leading cause of death among teens ages 15 through 19. In

2003, 17 teens committed suicide.

In Livingston, an affluent Essex County town where pressure to achieve is

intense, the community looked to the school for answers after two student

suicides. One death came in the summer of 2002; the other, the following spring.

No one saw them coming.

While the community struggled with how to prevent more deaths, Chang, a

high school student at the time, saw a snippet on the news about TeenScreen and

asked administrators to consider it.

Last spring, Livingston administered the tests for the first time.

Eighty-eight students took the questionnaire, and 12 showed signs for concern.

After talking with the students, two were deemed " false positives. " Of the

remaining 10, two were already in therapy and the other eight were referred for

further diagnosis.

This month, the test is being given again to ninth graders.

" For me, the selling point about TeenScreen is, this generally has the ability

to pick up kids not normally seen in the school system, " said Harry Dietrich,

substance abuse coordinator at Livingston High School. " Teachers and guidance

counselors are able to identify troubled students, but this winds up being

another tool to pick up kids we might not be seeing. "

A RANGE OF FOES

The groups that oppose TeenScreen range from AbleChild, a national advocacy

group formed by parents opposed to medication for children, to EdAction, which

is against federal and state intervention in public schooling, to ifeminists.com

which says such diagnoses are subjective and based on vague criteria.

Conservative Phyllis Schlafly has joined in, referring to TeenScreen surveys as

" nosy psychological questionnaires " on her Web site.

In October, several groups took their fight to the Substance Abuse and Mental

Health Services Administration, the federal agency that sets mental health

policy. They wanted to ensure there will be no federal rule calling for

mandatory screening of children.

The agency has no such plan, the groups were told, but TeenScreen is a tool

schools can use if they want, said Mark Weber, a spokesman for the agency.

" We commend schools like Newark (which is getting a federal grant for a mental

health program) for doing something about suicide prevention, " Weber said. " It's

a huge issue and often not talked about. "

In Cherry Hill, Einhorn, who has now landed on the e-mail lists of groups that

are against TeenScreen, said she hasn't changed her mind. Last year, she signed

up her own son, whom she described as quieter and " more internal " than his older

brother.

" We are screening for everything else at school, why not mental health? " she

said. " If we can save one life by chance through this program, there will be one

eternally grateful mom. "

+++++

You can write your letters to the editor here: eletters@...

December 13, 2005

Here's my response:

Interesting article. One thing that wasn't addressed was how many of

the teens who attempted or complete suicide were ON ssri's at the

time.As a mother of a teen who was on an ssri who attempted suicide

trying to get off this personality altering drug I know how dangerous

they are.

Between 2000-2004, in Pasco County, Florida, the investigation

disclosed that 100% of the children who committed suicide were either

on psychotropic drugs or had received psychiatric treatment.

This article also didn't address the other questions that are posed

to teenagers,this isn't all about suicide. This is trolling for

mental illness that doesn't exist.Here are some of them taken

directly from the Teen Screen questionaire.

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?

If you were asked these questions when you were in High School could

you have answered yes to any or all of them? I could have answered

yes to all of them which would have triggered a mental health

evaluation/diagnosis.

The parental consent used by Teen Screen is " passive consent " . In

other words, they send the consent home with the teen, if the parent

doesn't return it Teen Screen takes that as consent. Does your teen

bring paperwork home from school? Teens are given incentives to

participate.. movie tickets, food coupons, pizza parties etc...

Yes, teenage depression exists. It should be addressed by parents and

the teens doctor. NOT by a random group of questions from a third

party in a High School who are basing their conclusions on a single

point in time in an enviroment not conducive to accurate evaluation.

Your article also addressed funding. Teen screen has denied

pharmaceutical involvement, but the muddied trail of funding does

have pharmaceutical money involved.

>

> After you pound out your letter to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch,

head east to New Jersey for your next letter!

>

> http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-

4/1134454206166690.xml & coll=1

>

> Meant to save teen lives, survey now under siege

> Tuesday, December 13, 2005

> BY BEV McCARRON

> Star-Ledger (The Voice of New Jersey)

> When the sixth teenage suicide hit, Anne Einhorn, a Cherry Hill

mother and school board member, remembers sitting helplessly in her

kitchen as her son and his friends vented over why it kept happening.

>

> The first was a girl, in 2000. The last one, an eighth grader, took

his life, with no apparent warning, in the spring of 2004.

>

> " It was frightening, " Einhorn said. " And it seemed they were

getting younger as time went on. "

>

> The Cherry Hill school district wasn't going to wait for another.

Last year, substance abuse counselor Jen DiStefano brought in a

screening process -- one that's gaining ground in schools nationwide -

- that tests students and picks up on suicidal tendencies and

depression.

>

> The mental health survey flagged 10 of the 68 kids who took it.

Those 10 were referred for further assessment.

>

> " Those were kids we never would have known about, " said DiStefano,

whose district is one of at least six in New Jersey, including

Livingston, using TeenScreen. Newark is considering it.

>

> But the survey, offered to schools by Columbia University as part

of a suicide prevention program, is under attack by groups on either

end of the political spectrum whose members don't believe schools

should give mental health checkups.

>

> To the more than 450 schools and clinics nationwide that have

signed on, it is a much-needed safety net for teens, who are good at

concealing their distress.

>

> To critics, it is an intrusion into a family's privacy. The groups

fear TeenScreen's real mission is to push psychotropic drugs on

teens -- a subject of increasingly intense debate as the number of

children on medication soars.

>

> The survey itself is a 10-minute question-and-answer test, ranging

from 14 to 52 questions, given to students who volunteer and have

parental consent. Answers are immediately reviewed, and if there is

cause for concern, a mental health professional is dispatched to talk

to the student. After that interview, the counselor would decide if

the student was at risk, notify the family and suggest further

testing.

>

> In 2003, President Bush's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health

praised TeenScreen as a model tool for early diagnosis of troubled

teens. But as TeenScreen reaches more students -- 55,000 kids have

been screened this year, according to Columbia -- the critics are

mobilizing.

>

> " It would be good if parents could see the test beforehand and

evaluate it, " said Ben of the Citizens Commission on Human

Rights, which was established by the Church of Scientology to

investigate abuses in psychiatry. " TeenScreen has questions that are

invasive. TeenScreen is just a gateway to fraudulent diagnosis. "

>

> In Indiana, a lawsuit was filed by the conservative Rutherford

Institute on behalf of a family who claimed their daughter took the

survey without parental consent and was labeled as obsessive-

compulsive.

>

> All the negative attention has surprised officials at Columbia.

>

> " It's sort of astonishing, " said Laurie Flynn, executive director

of TeenScreen, which stopped disclosing the names of schools using

the survey because the districts are peppered with e-mails denouncing

it. " They think somehow we are promoting and deciding treatment. We

are only about screening and informing parents that there could be

something here to check out. "

>

> Flynn also says the TeenScreen program is funded by private

foundations, individuals and organizations concerned about mental

illness and youth. The program gets no funding from pharmaceutical

companies, she said.

>

> Mental health professionals say the program is needed.

>

> In New Jersey, the most recent statistics from the Department of

Health rank suicide as the third leading cause of death among teens

ages 15 through 19. In 2003, 17 teens committed suicide.

>

> In Livingston, an affluent Essex County town where pressure to

achieve is intense, the community looked to the school for answers

after two student suicides. One death came in the summer of 2002; the

other, the following spring. No one saw them coming.

>

> While the community struggled with how to prevent more deaths,

Chang, a high school student at the time, saw a snippet on

the news about TeenScreen and asked administrators to consider it.

>

> Last spring, Livingston administered the tests for the first time.

>

> Eighty-eight students took the questionnaire, and 12 showed signs

for concern. After talking with the students, two were deemed " false

positives. " Of the remaining 10, two were already in therapy and the

other eight were referred for further diagnosis.

>

> This month, the test is being given again to ninth graders.

>

> " For me, the selling point about TeenScreen is, this generally has

the ability to pick up kids not normally seen in the school system, "

said Harry Dietrich, substance abuse coordinator at Livingston High

School. " Teachers and guidance counselors are able to identify

troubled students, but this winds up being another tool to pick up

kids we might not be seeing. "

>

> A RANGE OF FOES

>

> The groups that oppose TeenScreen range from AbleChild, a national

advocacy group formed by parents opposed to medication for children,

to EdAction, which is against federal and state intervention in

public schooling, to ifeminists.com which says such diagnoses are

subjective and based on vague criteria.

>

> Conservative Phyllis Schlafly has joined in, referring to

TeenScreen surveys as " nosy psychological questionnaires " on her Web

site.

>

> In October, several groups took their fight to the Substance Abuse

and Mental Health Services Administration, the federal agency that

sets mental health policy. They wanted to ensure there will be no

federal rule calling for mandatory screening of children.

>

> The agency has no such plan, the groups were told, but TeenScreen

is a tool schools can use if they want, said Mark Weber, a spokesman

for the agency.

>

> " We commend schools like Newark (which is getting a federal grant

for a mental health program) for doing something about suicide

prevention, " Weber said. " It's a huge issue and often not talked

about. "

>

> In Cherry Hill, Einhorn, who has now landed on the e-mail lists of

groups that are against TeenScreen, said she hasn't changed her mind.

Last year, she signed up her own son, whom she described as quieter

and " more internal " than his older brother.

>

> " We are screening for everything else at school, why not mental

health? " she said. " If we can save one life by chance through this

program, there will be one eternally grateful mom. "

>

> +++++

>

> You can write your letters to the editor here: eletters@s...

>

December 13, 2005