Orwell’s 1984 a Republican Reality in 2004
Mental Health Deregulation, Government Control & Corporate Profits
Not so long ago the Reagan administration ordered a commission to address mental health issues. In 1981 the Commission on Mental Health issues its final report, albeit without fanfare and so begins the federal government’s massive reforms to deinstitutionalize people with mental illness. Under the guise of providing greater access to mental healthcare and integrating people with mental illnesses back into the community the federal government closed the doors to mental institutions. Most mental healthcare advocates supported this measure. However, the de-institutionalization under the Reagan administration became the criminalization of mental illness, largely due to tax-cuts and as much as 25% cuts in funding.
Now 20 years later Bush announced his “New Freedom Initiative” that expands the failed policy of his predecessor.
There are a few differences in approach, however. The most significant difference being, Bush is cozy-in-bed with pharmaceutical conglomerates allowing them to develop the government’s mental health policy. The policy would be consumer driven, providing “State-of-the-art treatments” i.e. the newest drugs. But how can the emphasis be on the newest treatments when most government programs limit coverage to generic pharmaceuticals? How does the Bush administration plan to distribute grants to all 50 states to cover his “Freedom Initiative,” when for the past three years its been unable to meet it’s obligation to provide full funding of the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP)? In fact, the lack of fully funding a consumer driven program such as ADAP has caused hundreds to be put on waiting lists. How then will the “Freedom Initiative” be funded? Will he propose to cut corporate taxes to maximize profits? Or will he continue his reckless deficit spending on a failed foreign policy of nation building, at the expense of federally mandated social services?
But with pharmaceutical conglomerates pouring money into both Democrats and Republicans campaign coffers’ do we have a viable choice? Will one party fully fund a consumer driven policy? Yes there is a better chance that Democrats will, just as they did back in the 1980’s when budgets for mental healthcare were being slashed, Democrats in Congress buried funding allocations for community based care in omnibus budget bills. This type of funding became the norm when the National Mental Health Systems Act, which asserted that the federal government would continue to shape mental health policy but assume less of the burden of paying for treatment, passed in 1980. Now again we have a Republican President dictating federal mandates with no funding.
It’s ironic that Republicans who espouse smaller government and less government intervention have created the most intrusive laws in micromanaging the every day life of the mentally ill. For example, the federal State Comprehensive Mental Health Plan Act of 1986 compelled states to devise detailed service plans that emphasized the needs of the seriously mentally ill in order to remain eligible for federal block grant funds. Now jump forward to 2004 and we find yet another Republican proposal to “set in motion a well-planned, coordinated array of services and treatments… [creating a] detailed roadmap – a personalized, highly individualized health management program.” The program would be developed in “partnership with the Federal, State and local governments.” Clearly Republicans are proposing more government intervention with the “New Freedom Initiative” not less. The current proposal amounts to another unfunded federal mandate.
Start Early
The Final Report proposes, “the early detection of mental health problems in children and adults – through routine and comprehensive testing and screening – will be an expected and typical occurrence.” In other words, children will be tested regularly in schools and exposed to psychiatric drugs. Even before implementing the “New Freedom Initiative” medical professionals and law enforcement officials have expressed concerns as early as 1996, about the prescribing of stimulants, such as Ritalin, to school-age children for the treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). “Medical experts agree that these drugs do help the small percentage of children who need them. But there is also strong evidence that the drugs have been greatly over-prescribed in some parts of the country as a panacea for behavior problems…when we see that in some localities as many as 15 to 20 percent of the children have been put on Ritalin or a similar stimulant, there is good reason to conclude that this is "quick-fix." bogus medical practice which is nevertheless producing large profits.”
At the conclusion of a 1996 Conference on Stimulant Use in the Treatment of ADHD, Mr. Gene R. Haislip, Deputy Assistant Administrator Office of Diversion Control, Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) goes on to say, “These drugs have been over-promoted, over-marketed and over-sold, resulting in profits of some $450 million annually.” In 2004 those profits surpass the $1 billion mark.
The abuse of over-medicating, “constitutes a potential health threat to many children and has also created a new source of drug abuse and illicit traffic. The data shows that there has been a 1,000 percent increase in drug abuse injury reports involving methylphenidate for children in the 10 to 14 age group.” This new group of prescription drug abusers is adding to the already over loaded criminal justice system, and the Federal, State and local prison systems. It’s estimated that 5.9 million Americans are under some type of correctional supervision and some 13 million Americans are jailed every year. This is a staggering number that will become worse if and when Bush’s initiative is implemented.
So not only do you have an Orwellian connection of government controlling individuals but you also have profiteers at both ends of the spectrum. On the one hand there are the pharmaceutical conglomerates benefiting from the over-promoted, over-marketed and over-sold state of the art psychoactive drugs. At the other end is the labyrinth of privatized prison and probation systems reaping huge profits at the expense of the “mentally ill.”
Who are the mentally ill?
I’d say the first person on the list should be George W. Bush. Then following him is Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Karl Rove and Paul Wolfowitz. As cynical as that may seem it’s no more condescending than the actual list the Final Report purports to be most likely to have mental illness:
African Americans
Alaska Native
Asian American
Hispanic American
Native American
Pacific Islander
and, People whose primary language is not English (I guess this means the French
must all be insane)
The Final Report is particular in targeting minorities and immigrants. Why? It also focuses on the poor and uninsured. Why focus on medicating these groups?
Is the “New Freedom Initiative’s Final Report” Bush’s blueprint for the Final Solution?
In the next part of the series we will look at who is targeted, why and how this eerily correlates to an Orwellian future as well as the infamous German’s I.G. Farbenindustrie A.G. (I.G. Farben).