There are alarming federal recommendations to screen all 1.8 million Australian children aged under 5 for “mental illness” and “emerging mental illness,” putting a percentage at risk of potentially dangerous psychiatric drugs.

• It may seem harmless, because we all want our children healthy, but there are hidden risks. Amongst “wellness” questions, are those relating to “emotional and social well-being”—another name for or a forerunner to labelling a child mentally ill.
• When New Zealand implemented mental health screening of 4 and 5 year olds, within four years, prescriptions of antidepressants to 0-4 year olds increased by 140%.
• Antidepressants are not approved in Australia for children under 18 for depression because of the risk of inducing suicidal thoughts and suicide.
• Already, Australia reports 1,768 adverse drug reactions for antidepressants and antipsychotics alone in 0–19-year-olds, including 14 deaths.
• Antipsychotics have been prescribed to one year olds in Australia—drugs with side effects that include heart and metabolic problems, stroke, cognitive impairment, abnormal behaviour and can induce psychosis.
• Australia already has 99,355 children aged 0-11 years old on a psychiatric drug, 2,522 of those aged 0-4 years old.
• Children will be screened using a highly subjective, unscientific checklist of questions, from which any child could be identified and labelled as mentally ill—normal childhood symptoms such as difficulty sleeping, fidgeting, tantrums, losing track of a favourite stuffed animal, and hyperactivity are redefined as symptoms of mental illness.
• Parents’ informed consent rights are violated when they are not advised that there are no scientific tests (blood tests, x-ray, scan or urine test) to confirm a psychiatric diagnosis, as can be done with medical conditions
• Psychotropic (mind-altering) drugs are prescribed when children’s bodies and brains are still developing, playing Russian Roulette with their futures.
• The drugs are so potentially dangerous that no one should suddenly stop taking them. Withdrawal must only be done with the advice and assistance of a medical doctor.

Invasive Screening

• Maternal and child nurses in community health services will be told to expand existing physical checks of children under 5 years old to include arbitrary behavioural/emotional screening.
• Identified children may be referred for further assessment and possible diagnosis which, will be based on a subjective behavioural checklist and could lead to psychiatric drug(s) being recommended.
• Based on existing physical check schedules, an infant or toddler could be behaviourally screened seven times before they turn three: at 1-4 weeks, 6-8 weeks, 6, 12 and 18 months, 2 and 3 years old.

This recommendation arises from the Australian Productivity Commission’s Inquiry into Mental Health, the government's advisory body on economic policy. The Federal Government has given $0.5 million to write national guidelines so that states and territories can include this screening in early childhood checks. State and territory governments will be required to fund and implement the screening.

These recommendations must go! Parental and children’s rights are at stake. Please make your voice count, by signing this petition. Then share it with your family and friends.

For more information & references to the above please visit: https://cchr.org.au/all-children-under-5-years-old-to-be-screened 

If you or your child have been diagnosed and experienced side effects from psychiatric drugs, please let us know by filling out this confidential form: https://cchr.org.au/report-psychiatric-abuse