A proposed bill in the General Assembly would mandate all public school children in grades 6, 8, 10 and 12 to have behavioral health assessments. Daniela Altimari is at a hearing in Middletown and sends this video:
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8 Responses to Parents Turn Out Against Behavioral Health Assessments
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Thank GOD! The last thing we’d want to do is identify the next Adam Lanza. This way, we can ignore the problem, let parents handle it all on their own, make sure they don’t get support or intervention. I for one am so concerned about kids potentially being labeled, that I would much prefer that no mental health evaluations or resources are put into place. That way, when the next kid goes bezerk and kills or hurts someone, we can have this debate all over again.
Rick – If this is the level of attention that you and your fellow reporters want to give to the near criminal level of mental health care in CT (whether insurance coverage, parity, identification support and intervention) because it’s so much easier to focus on the guns, then we as a state are not only getting the elected officials we deserve, we’re also getting exactly the media we deserve.
And what if they don’t identify the next Adam Lanza, because the school nurse a.k.a. “health care provider” is not a psychologist or psychiatrist (and isn’t required to be)? Then what?
Assessment is not the problem in Connecticut, it is access and coordination of existing services. Those who have been identified are met with a maze of varying agencies and programs that are not coordinated. Existing state statutes already provide for screening, which is different than assessment.
Increased assessment brings an increase of false positives, stigmatization from labeling, and still no treatment.
Adam Lanza had already been assessed. We don’t know what treatment he received and will not know until, conveniently, the legislative session has ended. As a young adult, it would have been difficult to mandate treatment or placement for him… until he committed a crime.
Behavioral health assessments, in addition to being incredibly expensive (guess who gets to pay for it), are extremely invasive, and have traditionally been used for the population already identified as at risk. The proposed bill makes no distinction, provides no safeguards, and does not allow opt-out provisions. Please read the bill:http://www.cga.ct.gov/2013/TOB/S/2013SB-00374-R00-SB.htm By the way, you’ll notice that the bill does not address students in private schools. Go figure.
There goes the Goth Club.
Although I don not support this garbage,there should be a provision in it that MANDATES all politically elected and appointed officials have to pass this evaluation.The failure rate would make us look like geniuses compared to the state mastery tests.
What this really is, is a smokescreen or to be used at a later time, diversionary bill. Explained as follows: Knowing that mental issues were involved with Sandy Hook,Columbine,Aurora movie theater,etc,this bill is being introduced to “address” those issues, at least in part. Knowing full well that it won’t pass,when the next mass shooting takes place,people will be wondering why/how it happened,like we still are now,and how we could have prevented it. State reps + senators will be saying they supported this kind of measure back in 2013,but the obstructionists prevented it from happening.
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