TeenScreen
John H. asked in the comments in the post below:
Kay - are you suggesting that someone in Tennessee Voices for Children is considering using the 'Teen Screen' program, or just hoping that they wouldn't consider such a thing?
Yes, Teen Screen has already been conducted by Tennessee Voices for Children in MNPS. Here's the Teen Screen brochure I picked up while at the BOE this past summer. It says that 170 Hillwood students were surveyed in the winter of 2002. The graphic shows the sponsors and the brochures says that the effort was coordinated by NAMI Nashville, Inc. (National Alliance for the Mentally Ill).
According to the brochure 36 of the original 170 students were referred to case management. "One student in crisis was transported immediately to the hospital, and another was evaluated and received immediate treatment."
The brochure says the screening is conducted in approximately 2-3 hours in four phases: a paper screening, a computerized Voice DISC survey, a mental health clinician reviews the DISC report and interviews the student, and then if treatment is indicated, a case manager will refer to local facilities with a TeenScreen follow-up for three months.
And as you can see from this second graphic, according to them, MNPS is recommending this program be included in the Wellness Curriculum for 9th and 10th grade students.
According to TeenScreen as late as 2005 the Tennessee Department of Mental Health was the recipient of a grant for this program.
This anti-TeenScreen website lists Glencliff, Hillwood, Hunters Lane and Stratford as having participated in this program. These are confirmed by a Tennessee Voices newsletter on page 6 of this .pdf.
Tn Department of Health newsletter dated May/June 2002 in .pdf page 4 reports the Hillwood information.
Let me say clearly, that I picked up this brochure from a hall display at the Central Office this past summer while on the BOE. Other than including that 2002 date for the Hillwood study it is undated and I do not know the status of this program for MNPS at this time.
UPDATE: TeenScreen was dumped in Kenosha, Wi on Tuesday in favor of something called "Signs of Suicide". Another program which has ties to the pharmaceutical industry according to this site.
3 comments:
I'm sad to say that I missed this one. My youngest child graduated high school in 2002, and I hope i would have picked up on this if Hillsboro was involved.
Anyway, their use of the 'passive consent' should be a sign that something is amiss on the ethical front.
Thanks for this info!
You're right about passive consent. It should be an automatic red flag.
So much for
"We will not engage in anything that does not directly support our primary-secondary education program."
And- I'm glad to know of the pharmaseutical connection. I'm glad the companies weren't allowed to make anonymous donations to these programs...then we wouldn't know about this conflict of interest.
Post a Comment