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  • Essay / The Pros and Cons of Mental Health - 1395

    “At a Colorado homeless shelter, 50 percent of the 350 youth who received the TeenScreen were at risk of suicide and 71 percent screened positive for psychiatric disorders. Although these youth certainly suffer from residential and social instability, and likely not eating or sleeping properly, TeenScreen diagnoses lead to medication instead of appropriate interventions. Take the case of 13-year-old Aliah Gleason. Aliah's class was screened for mental illness, and after the screening, her parents were informed that Aliah needed further evaluation due to her high score on a suicidal note. Aliah was then referred to a university consultant psychiatrist, and therefore to an emergency clinic. Six weeks later, a child protection worker showed up at her school, questioned her, then summoned her father to the school. They ordered him to take Aliah to Austin State (Psychiatric) Hospital. When Aliah's father refused, Aliah was taken into emergency custody and had to be taken by a police officer to the hospital. During the five months Aliah spent in the hospital, she was not allowed to speak or see her parents. She was placed under restraint more than 26 times and received at least 12 different psychiatric medications, most simultaneously. Despite caregivers' uncertainty about her diagnosis and whether she even suffered from a psychiatric illness, Aliah's parents