The e-mail below emanates from the Columbia University child psychiatry department in colaboration with the Amerian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

It is an example of how the Child Psychiatric industry garners its troops to lobby Congress for increased funds.
This time, they are lobbying Congress to enact the Child Health Care Crisis Relief Act–
"This legislation will help New York children and their families gain access to treatment by increasing the numbers of children’s mental health professionals."

Clearly, the mental health industry recognizes that the Child Health Care Crisis Relief Act as an employment insurance for themselves.

Such laws DO  NOT help children; they help the mental health industry increase its own employment opportunites by dragging healthy children into their  net.

The e-mail was generated within the department of Child Psychiatry chaired by TeenScreen’s guiding light, Dr. David Shaffer.
TeenScreen is the perfect tool for increasing the number of children falsely labeled as mentally il–
TeenScreen’s rate of false-positive identification of healthy children as mentally ill is 84%–you can’t beat that.
And children labeled with a psychiatric problems are 91% CERTAIN to be prescribed psychotropic drugs.
Most of these children will be healthy, some will be harmed by the false label and by the adverse effects of the drugs.

Since the 1970s Health care planners have long known that an increase in medical care specialists directly predicts the enrollment and expenditure by society of its scarece resources for the services of the expanded health care providers.

Given all the other claim on rapidly decreasing domestic budget is this the best use of our money?
Someone has to stop the purveyors of "mental health crisis" from syphoning needed resources for purposes of disease mongering.

Note the shameful effort to take away from Hurricane Katrina victims needed resources!

Contact: Vera Hassner Sharav
212-595-8974
veracare@ahrp.org <mailto:veracare@ahrp.org>  

—–Original Message—–
From: Cathryn Galanter [mailto:cg168@columbia.edu <mailto:cg168@columbia.edu> ]
Sent: Friday, January 06, 2006 10:56 AM
To: ‘DL_Everyone DL_Everyone’
Subject: Advocating for the mental health needs of children
Hello, I hope some of you will take a few minutes to help out with a critical issue effecting the mental health case of children.

As you may know, there is a l national shortage of child and adolescent psychiatrists and other children’s mental health professionals You can help remedy this by voicing your support for the Child Health Care Crisis Relief Act, H.R.1106/S. 537 on January 10th.

I am including more information about the bill and about what you might do to help bellow. The email was originally sent to child psychiatrists but I think it is applicable to all of us.

Thanks! Cathryn
Cathryn Galanter, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry
Columbia University
Division of Child Psychiatry
1051 Riverside Drive
Unit 78
New York, New York 10032
phone: (212) 543-5290
fax: (212) 543-5966
Private Practice:
25 Central Park West
Suite 1U
New York, New York 10023
(212) 581-9053

On January 10, all NYC residents are asked to contact their House representative and Sen. Schumer (D-NY) to request their cosponsorship (support) for the AACAP’s priority workforce shortage legislation, the Child Health Care Crisis Relief Act, H.R.1106/S. 537. We appreciate the support of Sen. Clinton (D-NY), who has already signed on as a cosponsor.

The Child Health Care Crisis Relief Act will address the critical national shortage of child and adolescent psychiatrists and other children’s mental health professionals by creating education incentives to encourage recruitment into these fields. For child and adolescent psychiatry training programs, the legislation would extend Medicare graduate medical education (GME) funding support for two years after general psychiatry, and create a loan forgiveness program for use by child and adolescent psychiatry trainees.
On January 10, we are calling on all AACAP members in New York City to call 1-202-224-3121 to reach the Capitol Switchboard, and ask for your House Representative or Sen. Schumer’s office. If you do not know who your representative is, give your zip code. When connected to each office, ask for the Health Legislative Assistant. If you leave a voicemail message, include your name and phone number. A sample message is as follows:

“I am a practicing child and adolescent psychiatrist (psychologist, citizen interested in the heath of children, etc) from (your town), and I am calling to urge Rep. _______ (or Sen. Schumer) to cosponsor the Child Health Care Crisis Relief Act, S. 537/ H.R. 1106, sponsored by Sens. Bingaman and Collins, and Reps. Kennedy and Ros-Lehtinen. This legislation will help New York children and their families gain access to treatment by increasing the numbers of children’s mental health professionals.

Many communities around the country are facing a greater need for mental health services in the wake of Hurricane Katrina at a time when there is a severe shortage of specialists trained to treat children and adolescents. Please contact Bruce Lesley in Sen. Bingaman’s office (or Mike Zamore in Rep. Kennedy’s office) to cosponsor this important legislation.”

Please pass this e-mail on to your mental health colleagues. This bill increases the workforce for other mental health clinicians too!

Here are some additional talk points to guide you in your advocacy:
· The most important points you can make are about your own experiences treating children and adolescents, how severe the shortage and other access problems are in your community, and how this affects children and families in your state. If you have a waiting list in your practice, this is a good indicator of a shortage.

· The Surgeon General, the NIMH, and the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health have all recognized under-identification and the lack of treatment of mental illness in children and adolescents as a major problem. The Surgeon General reported in 1999 that only 20% of children and adolescents in need of treatment for mental illnesses get it.

· Kids that do not receive treatment for mental illnesses are at high-risk for school failure, substance abuse and entrance into the juvenile justice system.

· Please e-mail the AACAP Dept. of Government Affairs & Clinical Practice at Nmoore@aacap.org <mailto:Nmoore@aacap.org <mailto:Nmoore@aacap.org> > when you have made your contact.

You may visit the AACAP website at www.aacap.org <file://www.aacap.org>  to find your House representative. If you have any questions or need more information, please call Nuala Moore, Deputy Director of Government Affairs, at 800.333.7636, x. 126, or e-mail nmoore@aacap.org <mailto:nmoore@aacap.org <mailto:nmoore@aacap.org> >.

Thank you for your efforts in support of child and adolescent psychiatry!