reading dead men's voices this morning, and pondering over mandated mental health screenings for children in public schools...
seeing both sides of this issue: frightening, yes, that parental consent is not necessary for these screenings... on the other hand, what of children whose parents are mentally ill themselves? mental health professionals are not always out to feed the hand of the pharmaceutical company; sometimes, they do identify and help young children whose parents are too close to the situation to see that help is needed...
sometimes, the mental health professional does offer a drug that gets a child through a terrible point in life...
i think we should be careful not to denigrate all mental health professionals as avaricious, government-owned evil "let's get johnny stoned" so we can teach him something persons...
Sunday, December 19, 2004
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
My StumbleUpon Page
4 comments:
Well, I do sincerely thank you for reading my blog, and I appreciate the fact that many mental health professionals add value to society. However, as a fellow Christian, I would challenge you to rethink your approval of our government acting as a big brother. I, for one, do not want a big brother or a keeper, and I do not believe one should be forced upon me by the special interests or even the majority, for that matter. Furthermore, you will not find a Big Brother Article in the Constitution, which is really more to the point. The Government is venturing into territory in which it simply does not belong. I am sure many Psychologists are quit competent and useful, but I do not believe we should be forced to see them unless, perhaps, we commit a crime. By the way, mandatory mental health screenings for adults is next on the agenda.
Andrew McIntyre
Author of Dead Men's Voices
as i said, i appreciate both viewpoints on this... i, too, worry about our government getting too involved in the lives of our children especially... but, i also worried about children whose parents do not or are not able to care for them... i am not saying that the government is the big brother these children need; i am just saying someone needs to care about them...
Point taken and appreciated. I do think we have enough child abuse and neglect laws, some legitimate, some no so legitimate, to cover your concerns. Remember, this initiative does not simply provide mental healthcare for obviously troubled or neglected youth. It mandates the screening of all children.
Peace to you,
Andrew
andrew, i agree that we should be cautious about the government screening our children for mental health issues without our consent... i live near berkeley county where a high school had the police enter with guns drawn to search young adults for possible drugs without so much as a search warrant, if i remember correctly... the video was pretty shocking to say the least...
Post a Comment