Make no mistake, HB 1088 is about expanding the child mental health systems ability to deliver psychiatric drug treatments.
This bill focuses on early intervention, and system expansion. It says it focuses on prevention, but how this is accomplished is not outlined or revealed. It is perplexing how “prevention” is accomplished with psychiatric drugs for our youth when psychiatric drugs are not cures, actually create chemical imbalances and at best mask the real problems our youth face today.
If this bill is enacted, we can call the 2007 legislature the drug pushing legislature!
The bill utter fails to recognize the reality of psychiatric treatment given to youth today. Youth today are far more liable to be diagnosed as having psychiatric disorders. Studies show that in a recent 6 year period the number of youth being prescribed psychotropic drugs has increased nearly 600%. HB 1088 as written simply takes advantage of this trend and will lead to a higher percentage of our youth being placed on powerful, mind-altering drugs.
Our children today do need help. Studies done by Washington Kids Count have well documented real-world difficulties our children face such as illiteracy, delinquency, broken homes and poverty and outright abuse. These studies also show the poor are much more likely to be diagnosed as mentally ill.
The real problem with HB 1088 is that it does not address any of these real-world problems named in the previous paragraph. The bill is vague on what “treatment” children will really receive. In the absence of specific language in the bill identifying what programs youth will receive, there is no doubt that HB 1088 will simply result in more child drugging.
The bill could be vastly improved by stating specifically that the intent of the legislation is not to place children on drugs, especially children under 5 years of age. The bill should also be amended to broaden the scope of involved health care professionals to encompass the whole needs of the child and the family. Above all, the bill should prescribe what control parents will have over their children in the system.
I think the major failing of the bill is to recognize where the system fails youth. It is not that the problems have not been readily identified – so early identification is a red herring. The real problem is what is done after the child is identified as having difficulties that should be addressed. No child “needs” psychiatric drugs. What children need are attention, a system of supports, healthcare professionals, adequate nutrition, etc. So why does the state want to push psychiatric solutions on Washingtonians? Who is pushing this? Well for now, it is the sponsors of HB 1088 and all the legislators that are voting for it.
HB 1088 says there should be a vast coordinated mental health system. Sadly, psychiatric treatment today for our youth consists of mind-altering drugs. Many children will never escape the psychiatric label and diagnosis and will become long-term patients. Many will become psychiatrically disabled for life. HB 1088 would call this a success because these individuals are receiving treatment. This will drain future budgets and tie up resources and destroy lives.
Would you call HB 1088 a success if it simply resulted in more kids taking psychiatric drugs? These drugs will have many detrimental effects on our youth. These drugs are also not cures – in fact they create chemical imbalances in their forming brains. These drugs are getting more and more expensive every year. Many of these youth will become violent from side effects of the drugs, overdosing on them, or improperly withdrawing from them. Many will get diabetes as a side effect, have damaged internal organs and shortened life spans.
The true budgetary impact of HB 1088 will be felt for decades. In light of dozens of FDA warnings over recent years, HB 1088 may even involve the state in future lawsuits for failing to adequately look into the safety concerns over children being prescribed powerful psychiatric drugs.
HB 1088 is opening the door to a whole new approach for psychiatric treatment – “wraparound” programs that are intensive and expensive (which means they cost around $6000 per child per month or more). They are also by nature contain a coercive component of keeping the child and parent in the program. The bill provides no safeguards or oversight of these new programs. The studies that are being planned will not be ready for 3 years! The only real outcome here is that the services for the youth are tightly controlled and he youth continues in those services for a long time –i.e. the system profits off the individual and family. No one is ever really cured in the public mental health system – chronic illness and disability are the real outcomes.
The bill contains language about DSHS examining the use of off-label drugs on youth. While this is a wonderful admission – I think it lulls legislators into thinking this is all that is needed. The FDA safety warnings over the last 3 years are on the dangerous side effects of the drugs themselves. As stated earlier, psychiatric treatment consists of drugs. HB 1088 does not provide any means to lessen the use of psychiatric drugs. The bill states that this would be a good thing, but there is absolutely no language in the bill to bring this about.
HB 1088 in it’s current form does not deserve to be approved by this legislature. The issues raised are too important to our future. Let’s look at this much more thoroughly, without the psychiatric marketing and front groups misleading information.
I am afraid legislators will wait 3 years and get the report back full of all these statistics on how many children are doing this, how many doing that, and how much more money is needed to expand these services statewide. All the while no-one is cured, psychiatric drug consumption is through the roof, and who knows if we will have a new school shooter, a child death, or how many of these youths lives will be shortened by damage from the “solution” enacted in HB 1088.
Are you going to trust your kids to a system of care?
We all should be telling our legislators to stop the drug pushing!
Steven Pearce, Director
Citizens Commission on Human Rights of Seattle
PO Box 19633
Seattle, WA 98109
Ph# (206) 283-1099
Email: steve@cchrseattle.org