Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Conflicts of Interest Part 2

Laurie Flynn, TeenScreen Director

On January 1, 2001, Laurie Flynn joined the Columbia University Department of Psychiatry. Prior to this, Flynn was the Executive Director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) for 16 years, but left in December of 2000 after a no-confidence vote from the board.

Well Funded by Pharmaceutical Companies

NAMI was well funded by the industry during Flynn?’s tenure. According to internal documents obtained by Mother Jones, 18 drug firms gave NAMI a total of $11.72 million between 1996 and mid-1999. These include Janssen ($2.08 million), Novartis ($1.87 million), Pfizer ($1.3 million), Abbott Laboratories ($1.24 million), Wyeth-Ayerst Pharmaceuticals ($658,000), and Bristol-Myers Squibb ($613,505).

Remember, it's these pharmaceutical companies who are currently making billions in drug sales from the people who NAMI purports to support (and their insurance companies).

Following a PR campaign devised by one of TeenScreen's PR firms, Flynn monitors areas of teen suicides, then authors letters to local newspapers to take advantage of the grief of the community, offering condolences and TeenScreen as a solution. Flynn's emails to her associates are a bit more crass (see the sidebar).

Flynn Lies to a Senate Committee

Flynn has also perjured herself in front of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Bill H.R. 3063, in a Capitol Hill Hearing on March 2, 2004, when she testified: ''In partnership with the University of South Florida we are piloting district wide mental health screening of 9th graders in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties.''

The truth? There was no piloting of any TeenScreen program in either of these school districts. In fact, the day before Flynn's testimony, the Hillsborough County School District said they were not partnering with TeenScreen, did not feel comfortable with the information provided by TeenScreen and had serious concerns about the program, including liability and risk issues. In Pinellas County, TeenScreen is prohibited from doing their suicide survey because Board policy protects the identity of students when surveys are done. In addition, the Pinellas County School Board Superintendent, Dr. Clayton Wilcox, has serious reservations about partnering with such an organization.

http://www.teenscreentruth.com/teenscreen_key_players.html

Conflicts of Interest Part 3

Leslie McGuire, TeenScreen Director

Leslie M. Mcguire began her career at Columbia in 1998 and is now one of the Directors of the Columbia University TeenScreen Program and Co-Deputy Director of the Carmel Hill Center for Early Diagnosis and Treatment, both housed in the Department of Child Psychiatry at Columbia University in New York.
McGuire is a seasoned presenter and speaks for TeenScreen at numerous national conferences annually. At these conferences, McGuire presents TeenScreen?¡?¦s intentions clearly.
She states that TeenScreen has a big goal:
?„h ?¡?§We ?¡X our goal, we have a big one. We want every child in America to get a mental health checkup.?¡?¨
?„h ?¡?§?¡Kwe believe this is something that every child in America deserves.?¡?¨
?„h ?¡?§This is also something we believe should be an annual requirement ?¡K?¡?¨
?„h ?¡?§Our one group isn't going to be able to ensure that every child in America gets a mental health checkup so we're creating partnerships with advocates, state departments of mental health, with school districts, education associations, service agencies and other places so that they can help us create this new initiative. There are a number of organizations that have signed on and agree with our goal that every child in America should get a mental health checkup?¡?¨.
During McGuire's presentation at the national NAMI convention June 2005:
?„h ''Getting the kids to buy in is such an essential thing because for the most part, you're distributing the consent forms to the kids to bring home to their parents and bring them back. So you have to get their buy in, you have to get them interested in it.'' When asked about ''incentives'', McGuire replied: ''Hollywood Video coupons, you get that regardless. Even if the form says no, you still get the reward.''

One incentive for taking the test, some students admit, is a chance to miss class.

?„h ''I've been talking a bit about this campaign of mis-information that's going on. And we do need your help, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to pass around a blank notebook here. And if anyone in this room would be willing to be contacted if umm there if, if there was a sort of a uprising against screening in your community we have lots of people throughout the country who, ya' know, there might already be screening going on in your community, we may ask you to write a letter to the editor in support of screening. We could possibly ask you to go to a school board meeting, umm, something like that. Obviously this would be your choice, but, we are starting to create really a response network and an e-mail list sorta' kinda thing, to keep people in the loop on this, ummm, so I'll pass it around and if you're interested please sign up.''

http://www.teenscreentruth.com/teenscreen_key_players.html

Conflicts - Smoking Gun

Michael F. Hogan, PhD
Chairman of New Freedom Commission on Mental Health,
Director of Ohio Department of Mental Health

Hogan's close ties to both TeenScreen and pharmaceutical companies

Michael Hogan is a member of TeenScreen?’s Advisory Council and a member-at-large of the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD). He is the past president of both NASMHPD and the NASMHPD Research Institute (NRI), and is currently on the NRI Board of Directors. Both entities are heavily supported by Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly through ''educational grants''.

Hogan is also an Advisory Board member of Janssen Pharmaceutical's, ?“Mental Health Issues Today?” (MHIT). This journal is published by Parexel Medical Marketing, which receives funds from the drug companies to run ''advisory panels'' on their behalf. Janssen contracts with Parexel International Corporation to produce MHIT. Janssen funds the project, but Parexel writes the checks.

With Hogan at the helm in Ohio, it is no wonder that TeenScreen has more locations than any other state in the nation with 68 sites, more than double of any other state. The Ohio state budget proposal for fiscal years 2006 and 2007 includes a total of $140,000 for TeenScreen, $70,000 for each of those years. (page 61)

http://www.teenscreentruth.com/teenscreen_key_players.html

Ohio Also Funds TeenScreen

More taxpayer money going to TeenScreen

The state of Ohio has budgeted $70,000 in 2006 and 2007 ($140,000 total) to TeenScreen (page 61 of the document below). That mean's we're paying THREE TIMES for a program that hasn't been proven to reduce teen suicides, but which helps line the coffers of the pharmaceutical companies who make toxic psychotropic drugs which have been shown to cause the depression and suicidal ideation they are marketed to treat.

http://www.obm.ohio.gov/budget/operating/executive/0607/bb0607_d.pdf