HHS Appropriation Contains Seeds of Universal Mental Health Screening

The appropriation bill (HR 5006) for several federal departments, including the Health and Human Services Department (HHS), contains $20 million in grants to states implementing recommendations of the president's "New Freedom Commission". One of those recommendations is that the federal government work toward mental health screening as a routine part of every American's medical care. This especially includes children, all of whom would be screened by staff in the schools they attend if the commission has its way. (See the editorial on the Fox News web site.)

Like so much (perhaps all) of HHS's mandate, these grants are unconstitutional: nothing in the Constitution gives Congress the power to spend tax dollars on anyone's medical care. But there is an even worse problem here. There are many examples of public school systems violating parental prerogatives in dealing with health or disciplinary issues involving children: random drug testing, controlling the content of web sites operated by children outside of school hours and premises, and others.

Worst of all has been the trend toward school-based diagnoses of hyperactivity and the like, with forced prescription of Ritalin and other powerful drugs. Parents have been charged with child abuse for failing to submit to this control over their children's medical care. Children have been sickened or even killed as a result of such treatments carried out over their parents' objections.

The New Freedom Commission implementation grants would encourage school systems to expand their interference in the mental health care of students. Mental health assessment is an inherently subjective process, open to extreme abuse. There are leaders in the education establishment who stand ready to abuse the process if given the opportunity.

For example, Dr. William Pierce of Harvard University had this to say to a teacher convention in Denver, Colorado: "Every child in America who enters school at the age of five is mentally ill, because he comes to school with an allegiance toward our elected officials, toward our Founding Fathers, toward our institutions, toward the preservation of this form of government .... All of this proves the children are sick, because the truly well individual is one who has rejected all of those things and is what I would call the true international child of the future."

If school administrators trained by someone like Pierce get control of a New Freedom Commission grant, there is no telling what kind of mental health assessments the staff might come up with. Children who have picked up their parents' values at home could be labeled as mentally ill for their religious or political views, for example.

Rep. Ron Paul of Texas introduced an amendment to the HHS appropriations bill last week, to remove the dangers I've described here. His amendment is short and simple: "None of the funds made available in this Act may be used to create or implement any new universal mental health screening program."

During debate on the amendment, several representatives argued that, since the appropriation bill does not itself mandate universal mental health screening, the amendment is unnecessary. Of course, the problem is that implementing some of the New Freedom Commission recommendations would do just that on a state or school district level. At worst, Paul's amendment would satisfy many people's reservations about the bill. At best, it would prevent horrific abuse of children, as well as their parents' rights.

A vote against this amendment shows either a lack of concern about the obvious dangers, or actual support of mandating mental health screening for all Americans. The amendment failed by a vote of 95-315, with Ninth District Rep. Baron Hill voting against the amendment. Let's support any further efforts to oppose this alarming attempt to increase government control over our lives.