Openmind
Openmind is the much-praised bi-monthly magazine published by Mind.
Openmind magazine gives people who use mental health services, and the people who provide them, an open space to share ideas, inspire each other, complain, express opinions, and even share the odd joke or two.
It's the only not-for-profit, editorially independent mental health magazine in the UK.
Screen test
President George Bush personally backs a drive to screen the entire US population, including preschool children, for undiagnosed mental illness. Thousands of schools are already participating in screening their pupils. But is screening effective, who really benefits and would such a policy ever be accepted in the UK? Adam James investigates
May 10, 2006
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It’s now just over two years ago that 15-year-old Chelsea Rhoades arrived at school, was ushered into a classroom and – according to legal documents - told she needed to
take a “test”.
Chelsea duely signed an assent form, and, with other pupils at Penn High School in the US state of Indiana, completed the test. Chelsea was required to answer questions such as whether she felt suicidal or had tried to kill herself. All she had to do was answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Simple. The test took just 10 minutes.
The legal documents state Chelsea was then taken aside by one of the people who had administered the test and told – quite up front – that she had obsessive compulsive disorder and social anxiety disorder. The documents state these diagnoses were made because Chelsea, when filling out the form, had indicated, for example, that she like to help clean the house and did not much like to “party”. Chelsea was told that if her “condition” worsened she should be taken to the local mental health centre for treatment.
The test that Chelsea had completed was, in fact, called Teenscreen, one of dozens of mental disorder screening programmes being implemented across the United States. Since 2001, the makers of Teenscreen say its programme - used to screen for depression, anxiety, and substance abuse - has been used in almost 500 schools, doctors surgeries and youth centre in 43 states. Last year, 122,000 youngsters completed Teenscreen.
The mental health screening policy was introduced by the Bush administration, and its ambitious aim is to screen the entire US population, including preschool children, for mental illness. This policy – effectively President Bush’s War On Mental Illness - was spawned in April 2002 when Bush established a “New Freedom Commission on Mental Health”. Its remit was to investigate the US mental health service and to resolve the problems “that allow Americans to fall through the [mental health] system's cracks.”
The commission reported back to Bush stating that “despite their prevalence, mental disorders often go undiagnosed”. The commission’s subsequent goals included building mental health care that is “consumer and family-driven”, to speed up research and to ensure that “early mental health screening, assessment, and referral to services are common practice.” These goals were greeted by an all-round thumbs up by all main US mental health professional and user groups, from the American Psychiatric Association to the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. US government reports spoke of “recovery” and the importance of community-based mental health services. All the right buttons were hit.
Community mental health service cash has since flowed. Last year US government grants included: $92.5m for “mental health transformation” over five years to seven states; $184.5 million over six years for 25 children community mental health services; $17.5 million over five years for a national training center for child and adolescent mental health; $13.2 million over three years for mental health services for older adults; and $7.2 million over three years for projects aiming to divert people with mental health problems away from the criminal justice system and into community services.
While this cash has been welcomed, it is, however, the screening policy that continues to face vehement criticism on a number of fronts.
Link http://www.psychminded.co.uk/news/news2006/april06/teenscreen.htm
