Former Psychiatrist Sentenced for Child Sex Crimes

A Report from WNEP

Michael Kessler was sentenced to state prison Friday for trying to lure a 13-year-old boy to meet him for sex back in 2013.

“Michael, why did you tell the court you're sorry? Are you sorry you got caught? Or are you sorry you did it?" Newswatch 16 asked Kessler. He had no response.

Former psychiatrist Michael Kessler of Cresco is headed to a state prison after his sentencing in Monroe County Court. Kessler admits trying to lure a 13-year-old by to meet him and engage in sexual activity, sending him child porn and more. The boy’s mother says she’s glad Kessler will be behind bars.

"It caused a lot of anxiety not knowing and knowing that he knew where I lived and was my friend and he targeted my son,” said the boy’s mother Janet VanHorn.

That mother says she monitors her children’s phones and Facebook accounts. Two years ago she caught Kessler posing online as a 14-year old boy and turned the case over to Monroe County Detectives.

"She paid attention. She caught it early. She was on top of things and she took the right steps,” said Detective Brian Webbe of the Monroe County Detective Office.

Kessler worked at Pocono Psychiatric Associates near Marshalls Creek before his license was revoked in 2012. Prosecutors say Kessler was arrested four other times for sexual incidents in Massachusetts and New Jersey without facing jail time.

"It makes you angry because all these years he thought he was above the law. It made me want to fight even harder to make sure he faced punishment,” said VanHorn.

Now Kessler faces a year and a half to five years behind bars. And this mother of two has a message for other parents after a long tough two years waiting for justice.

“Parents need to be aware that they need to keep up on your social media you need to check your kids' phones and their Facebook. You need to be on top of it all because if you're not, Lord knows what could have happened,” said VanHorn.

Mark and Cheryl Miller in February of 2004 testifying about the Zoloft-induced suicide of their 13 year old son Matt after only 7 pills.

Psychotropics Lead List for Youth-Related Drug Poisoning Calls

As Reported by the Psychiatric News section of the American Psychiatric Association Website

The Referenced Report is available here in PDF Format

A new report shows that almost half of the calls made to United States poison control centers on behalf of those aged 19 and under are related to medication—with psychotropic drugs representing 50 percent of the top 10 medications contributing to unintentional poisoning.

Safe Kids Worldwide, in partnership with the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC), conducted a study to identify the types of medications that contribute to the volume of calls made to poison control centers for drug poisoning in children and teens.

Safe Kids said in statement that the study was designed to “take a deeper look at two specific groups of calls related to medicine: unintentional-general exposures, when kids get into medicine without intending to take it (such as when a young child takes medicine on a nightstand); and unintentional-therapeutic errors (such as when a child is given too much medicine or the wrong medicine).” The study did not include cases in which medications were taken intentionally.

After evaluating data generated from the National Poison Data System of calls made to poison control centers in 2013, analysts from Safe Kids found that 1.34 million calls were associated with poisoning of a child or teen, with 547,042 of those calls related to unintentional-general exposures or unintentional-therapeutic errors. Though 75 percent of the calls made for unintentional drug poisoning involved young children aged 1 to 4 compared with 3 percent for teens, serious health outcomes resulting from unintentional poisoning were six times greater in those aged 15 to 19. The most common mistakes made by teens were forgetting to take a medicine and then doubling up or taking two medicines with the same ingredients, the study found. Atypical antipsychotics and amphetamines intended for the treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder were the top two medication classes for serious health outcomes in teens.

Other psychotropic medicines commonly reported for unintentional poisoning throughout all studied age groups included benzodiazepines, clonidine, and methylphenidate. Nonpsychotropic drug classes included antihypertensives such as beta blockers and analgesics such as ibuprofen and acetaminophen.

AAPCC Executive Director Stephen Kaminski, J.D., said the current report points to an urgent need to continue to educate families on using medicines responsibly.

“Our nation’s 55 poison centers play a crucial role in keeping Americans safe by providing poison prevention and free, expert information and advice,” said Kaminski. “In addition to the public, emergency clinicians and pediatricians rely on poison-center professionals to help treat their patients. In fact, about 20 percent of all poison-center exposure calls come from health care providers. It’s good to know that expert help is just a phone call away when the unthinkable happens.”

Child molestation case against child psychologist Kenneth McPherson is moving out of limbo

From the Augusta Chronicle (See the link for a photo)

Psychologist Kenneth McPherson, 58, was named in two indictments that accuse him of committing acts of child molestation in 2005, 2008, 2010 and 2011. McPherson has pleaded not guilty in Richmond County Superior Court.

Since 2011, the criminal cases have been placed on trial calendars but later postponed. In January, Assistant District Attorney Rex Myers and attorney Kirk Gilliard presented an order to Chief Judge J. Carlisle Overstreet to put McPherson’s cases on the dead docket because the prosecutor could not find several necessary witnesses.

Although the order was signed and dated Jan. 12, it wasn’t filed with the clerk’s office until Wednesday, when a motion requesting the cases be removed from the dead docket was also filed. According to the motion filed by Assistant District Attorney Natalie Paine, the witnesses have been located and interviewed.

Although McPherson wasn’t indicted until 2011, parents of some of his patients warned authorities that something was wrong in 2005. The mothers of two boys reported inappropriate sexual behavior that the children said they learned at McPherson’s office. But one of the boys was unable to communicate with a forensic child interviewer, and the second child’s statement was not thought to be strong enough to file charges.

In early 2011, however, more specific allegations were brought forward and sheriff investigators obtained search warrants for McPherson’s Central Avenue office. Investigators reported finding sexually explicit materials and a photograph of a child dressed only in underwear that had been taken in the office.

McPherson was indicted June 7, 2011, on seven counts of child molestation and one count of sexual exploitation of a minor. Overstreet, who is assigned to preside over the case, granted McPherson’s release on a $200,000 bond Aug. 16, 2011.

McPherson was licensed in 1990 in Georgia to practice psychology. His license expired Dec. 31, 2012, according to the Secretary of State’s office.

Bronx Child Psychologist Justin Miller Accused of Trying to Meet 14-Year-Old Girl for Sex

A report from NBC TV New York

A 34-year-old child psychologist at the Yeshiva University's Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx has been arrested for allegedly engaging in sexually explicit online conversations with an undercover detective he thought was a 14-year-old girl, authorities said Wednesday.

The psychologist, Justin Miller, was arrested Tuesday in the Bronx as a result of the three-month investigation. An online profile says he has eight years of experience.

Since January, authorities allege Miller engaged in the explicit sexual conversations with the undercover detective and at what point said he wanted to meet the 14-year-old girl he thought he was chatting with for sex. Police say he admitted to engaging in the sex chats with someone he believed to be a teenager.

Miller was charged with disseminating indecent material to a minor and acting in a manner injurious to a child younger than 17, which is a felony.

An email request to Miller seeking comment bounced back, and information on an attorney for him wasn't immediately available.

Albert Einstein College of Medicine referred questions about the case to police. Miller was not listed on the college's website Wednesday.

Of course, sometimes psychologists get in on the action normally reserved for shrinks

Utah Child Psychiatrist David Wilson Now Faces Criminal Charges Related to Child Pornography. Has Lost Job, License Revoked

From the Standard Examiner

David Ford Wilson, 43, is charged with 15 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. He entered not guilty pleas to the charges on July 16, 2014.

At a Hearing today, Judge Scott Hadley scheduled a hearing for oral arguments on May 8.

Wilson was investigated by the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force, with assistance from the FBI in 2013, officials had said.

In late March of 2013, Intermountain Healthcare’s information system security department found that Wilson’s computer was being accessed to download and view child pornography. He was immediately terminated and the incident was reported to police.

Detectives served a search warrant for Wilson’s hard drive and after a forensic analysis, which can take a lengthy amount of time, he was arrested on Sept. 6, 2013.

Wilson was an osteopathic physician as well as an child psychiatrist for Weber County. The Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing revoked his license to practice medicine and prescribe drugs. A panel of three doctors reviewed the case and made an emergency motion to suspend Wilson. McKay-Dee Hospital also released a statement in 2013 that said there is no evidence that any of Wilson’s patients were at risk.

California Lawmakers blast overuse of psychiatric drugs on foster kids

from this report in the Tribune in San Luis Obispo

California lawmakers on Tuesday blasted the overuse of psychiatric drugs on the state's foster children and pledged to improve the lives of thousands of vulnerable teens after more than a decade of government inaction.

"We can't let another decade go by without creating a system of care, a system of care that is capable of helping kids heal from the challenging experiences they have lived through or protecting them from further harm," said Sen. Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, in opening a joint Senate Human Services Committee and Senate Select Committee on Mental Health.

Advocates said the state's foster children are being prescribed psychiatric drugs at three times the rate of other youth. Since 2006, the use rate of psychotropic medications has nearly doubled, McGuire said. He noted that it's costing taxpayers millions of dollars through the state's low-income health program Medi-Cal.

Iris Hoffman, a member of the California Youth Connection in Sonoma County, told lawmakers how she spent her childhood in juvenile homes, group homes and treatment centers while heavily medicated on the anti-psychotic drugs Abilify and Seroquel. She and other foster children were fearful of retribution if they refused drugs that made them drowsy in class, Hoffman said.

"When you're in those situations, there's all kinds of punishments and things you have to be fearful of if you are to refuse medications prescribed to you by a psychiatrist that only meets with you for an hour a month," she said.

Democratic lawmakers are proposing several pieces of legislation to improve oversight after an investigation by the Bay Area News Group found that thousands of vulnerable teens in foster care are being prescribed antipsychotics that could trigger diabetes, tics, weight gain and drowsiness.

Sen. Jim Beall, D-San Jose, said Tuesday that the hearing at the Capitol is only a step in determining whether the drugs are being administered as part of a therapeutic regimen or "being used as a chemical straitjacket solely to control their behavior."

Beall and Sen. Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, have proposed SB238, which would alert caretakers when drugs are overprescribed and warn of dangerous drug interactions.

Beall also plans to introduce two other bills — one calling for public health nurses to oversee the medical monitoring of children's medication, and the other to establish treatment protocols and oversight in group homes.

Lawmakers on Tuesday heard from medical professionals, child welfare directors, family service advocates, foster youth and officials from California's health and social services agencies.

The use of psychiatric drugs has increased even though the state's foster care population has dropped. As a result of reforms that emphasize keeping children with their families whenever possible, the number of children in foster care has dropped from 103,000 in 2000 to about 55,000 in 2013.

Lawmakers say nearly a quarter of adolescents in California's foster care youth system are prescribed powerful psychotropic drugs. According to the National Center for Youth Law with data provided by the state, 36 percent of them are taking multiple medications that carry harmful side effects.

Antipsychotics, antidepressants, ADHD drugs, anti-anxiety medications and mood stabilizers are some of the psychotropic drugs.

Judge: State of Alaska can't hold foster kids at mental hospital for indefinite stretches

From a report in the Alaska Dispatch News

More details at the link

Facing allegations that it improperly warehoused foster children at North Star psychiatric hospital in Anchorage, the Alaska Office of Children’s Services has been ordered by a state Superior Court judge not to keep children at the facility for indefinite periods of time.

The order is part of a preliminary injunction issued by Superior Court Judge Erin Marston that said a minor, admitted to the acute psychiatric hospital during an emergency, cannot remain there longer than 30 days without court approval.

But that length of time may change. As a next step, the judge has asked parties in the case to offer recommendations on the appropriate period of time a minor should be kept at the hospital before a court can weigh in.

The case was brought a year ago by the Southwest Alaska tribal governments of Hooper Bay and Kongiganak on behalf of the tribes’ children.

Alaska Legal Services, representing the tribes, argued that the state was improperly placing and holding children in the hospital. It provided examples of three Alaska Native teenage girls from two foster families who had been held at the hospital for at least four weeks without a judge’s approval, though their admission was based on questionable evidence.

One of the girls, a teenager referenced as C.A. for her initials, was held at the hospital for about a month, though a hearing judge later found there was no evidence supporting the decision to send her there, wrote Marston.

“OCS decided to send C.A. to North Star, although the reason for this decision is unclear,” Marston wrote.

Marston’s Feb. 12 preliminary order said that indefinite stays by children at North Star may violate U.S. constitutional rights and lead to “irreparable harm.”

“Continuing treatment of foster children without a judicial hearing raises the question of a violation of the fundamental right to due process,” he wrote.

The hospital provides a secure, locked facility where 24-hour services are given under the care of psychiatrists to children with severe emotional and behavioral disorders, he wrote.

But long, unnecessary placement at a mental hospital is not good for adolescents, said Jim Davis, the attorney arguing the case for Alaska Legal Services.

“This is not to say North Star is ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,’ but a mental hospital is not a good place for kids” with typical teenage behaviors, said Davis. “It can disempower and otherwise undermine a kid’s sense of self if they don’t really have a mental illness requiring them to be there.”

North Star Behavioral Health System was a defendant in the case along with Christy Lawton, OCS director. Like OCS, North Star must change its practices because of the preliminary order, Davis said.

Officials representing and working for North Star did not return phone calls seeking comments.

Though the case is not settled, the judge’s preliminary order is in part a victory for the tribal governments.

[...]

The state’s policy was insufficient because it proposed no timeline, leaving that up to the scheduling of the courts, Davis said. Getting a hearing can take far too long, sometimes leaving a child in the mental hospital long after they should have been released, said Davis.

The girl had caused alarm after it was believed she had overdosed on antidepressants, leading to a trip to the hospital emergency room in the hub city of Bethel. There, the girl showed no physical signs of overdosing and the girl’s foster mother found the bottle of pills the next day.

[...]

D.S. was held for 38 days, while J.S. was held for 47 days, Davis said. They were released after a Superior Court judge said they shouldn’t be there, he said.

“The process isn’t working when it takes weeks and weeks to have a hearing,” Davis said.

In his order, the judge wants the parties by March 12 to recommend the appropriate length of time to hold minors before a court can weigh in.

Davis said he will argue that minors, just like adults, should not be involuntarily held longer than 72 hours without a court’s input. That is more than enough time to determine whether a minor is being improperly held at the hospital, he said.

Bookman, of the OCS, said a child admitted by a guardian is in a situation different from that of an involuntarily admitted adult, so 72 hours may not be appropriate. He said he would “talk to OCS about it, do some research and come up with a position.”

Lawsuit describes string of sex assaults at Seattle Children's Hospital - Hospital staff failed to help girl abused in psychiatric ward

From a report in Seattle PI

Much more information at the link

A former patient at Seattle Children’s Hospital has sued, claiming hospital staff failed to notice as she was repeatedly, sexually assaulted by another patient.

Attorneys for the young woman claim at least three other children have been sexually abused at the Laurelhurst neighborhood facility in recent years. Despite assurances of reform from hospital managers, they contend too little is being done to protect children there.

Writing the court, attorneys Steve Berman and Marty McLean said their client was just one of an unknown number of children abused while locked in Children’s inpatient psychiatric unit.

“Sadly, (she) is not the first child-patient who was sexually victimized while admitted,” Berman said in the lawsuit, which was filed earlier this week. “Publically available records confirm that (she) was at least the fourth patient in a five-year span to have been sexually victimized while under (Children’s) care and custody.”

Berman, a nationally prominent attorney specializing in class-action lawsuits, went on to say he believes “there are more children who have been victimized, as well.”

A spokeswoman for Seattle Children’s declined to comment on the lawsuit. Attorneys for the University of Washington-affiliated nonprofit have not yet responded to the allegations in court.

Man sentenced to 17 years in prison for childmolestation of his own daughter. Judge outraged at the man's psychiatrist

As reported in the Daily Telegraph

The Judge in the case had especially harsh words for the psychiatrist assigned to the case.

A truck driver will spend at least 17 years in jail for the sexual abuse of his daughter in one of the longest sentences handed down to a paedophile father in Australia.

In sentencing the 49-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his daughter, Judge Paul Conlon said it was what the community expected.

[...]

Judge Conlon, who has a ­reputation for handing down tough sentences to child sex offenders, said the truck driver had exploited her youth “in the worst possible way”.

“He has groomed his own daughter, turning her into his sexual play thing,” the judge said.

He was critical of psychiatrist Dr Olav Nielssen who told the court the repeated sexual abuse over seven years had been “opportunistic”.

Judge Conlon said the psychiatrist had seemed to treat “without any critical evaluation” the man’s comments that he had trouble “showing his feelings” to his daughter and had not known how to express himself.

“In my view, it is inappropriate to use the word ‘opportunistic’ when dealing with persistent sexual abuse of a child over a period of seven years. I am unable to have much confidence in this future risk assessment,” Judge Conlon said.

His daughter, now 28, went to Queensland police in 2007. The ­father was sentenced in Queensland to a maximum of four years with a non-parole term of just one year four months after telling the psychiatrist that “he and his daughter had a very close and open relationship and that he really loved her”.

He had pleaded guilty to three counts of raping his daughter.

[...]

Child psychiatrist discovered to have child porn conviction

As reported by DutchNews.NL

A Dordrecht psychiatric clinic, which offers help from a Christian perspective, is employing a psychiatrist with a conviction for possessing large amounts of child pornography, the Volkskrant says on Monday. The man was convicted of possessing 66,000 items of child porn, including rape videos, in 2012. The board of the De Hoop clinic is aware of the conviction and says the doctor ‘deserves a second chance’.

The clinic says the psychiatrist treats adults with addiction problems and does not work with children or the perpetrators or victims of sexual violence. These conditions of employment were formulated by health ministry inspectors, the clinic said.

(The) Television programme De Monitor reported on Sunday that the man, named as Van R, continued to work with the victims of sexual abuse at a different clinic six months after his conviction. He was then sacked when news of his conviction leaked out.

Next week’s programme will focus on his work at De Hoop. Staff and patients at the clinic have now been informed about the psychiatrist’s past.

See the VolksRant Report here

Online Translation Here

The problem is, of course, that psychiatrists admit that they never cure anyone, and that no one can be cured of any medical condition.

Therefore, how can they give a second chance to a child pornographer if they can't cure him of this condition and addiction?>

Regulation needed to curb overprescribing of drugs for children, say advocates

A Report from the LA Daily News

Scrutiny of doctors who prescribe psychotropic drugs to California foster children intensified this week, with growing calls for regulators to consider whether financial relationships with pharmaceutical companies may be driving the excessive use of medication.

The outcry came from a leading consumer advocacy group as lawmakers stepped up their efforts to rein in reckless prescribing and the California Medical Board vowed to widen its investigation in response to this news organization’s ongoing series “Drugging Our Kids.” On Sunday, the news organization reported that prescribers in the foster care system received more than twice as much as the typical California doctor in payments from big drug companies for meals, gifts, travel, speaking and industry-sponsored research. The news organization also found that last year doctors who prescribed the most to California foster youth, on average, accepted almost four times as much as those who fell in a lower-prescribing group.

“We’ve known for years that the problem of drug manufacturer payments to doctors appears to have an outsize influence in their prescribing practices,” said Carmen Balber, executive director of the nonprofit group Consumer Watchdog. “But this investigation was particularly disturbing because of the patients it affects. The conflict of interest is clear in these cases and we think that action is long overdue.”

In a letter to the California Medical Board sent earlier this week, Balber’s Santa Monica-based organization called on the state licensing agency to expand its current investigation of doctors who may be overprescribing to foster youth “to determine if children are inappropriately being prescribed or overprescribed because of drug manufacturer payments to their physicians.” Balber said the prescribing has not only cost taxpayers millions of dollars in payments for possibly unneeded drugs, but has also put the children’s health at risk. The news organization’s report on industry ties, she added, “makes clear that the state has failed to take the steps necessary to protect children.”

Kimberly Kirchmeyer, executive director of the California Medical Board, noted there is no law prohibiting doctors from accepting drug industry promotional funds. The news organization found pharmaceutical companies spent more than $14 million to woo foster care prescribers from 2010 to 2013.

But the payments may constitute “unprofessional conduct,” Kirchmeyer added, and that could warrant additional scrutiny. She said the agency plans to look into whether these doctors “have a reason to prescribe, are they appropriately prescribing, or are they prescribing medication inappropriately to support the pharmaceutical company?”

The medical board has been looking into whether specific doctors are over-prescribing psychotropic medications to foster youth since the news organization published its first installment of “Drugging Our Kids’’ in August, which revealed that almost one in four foster teens are prescribed psych meds. Many of the drugs are being prescribed to control troublesome behavior instead of the severe mental illnesses they are approved to treat. They can have debilitating side effects, such as rapid weight gain, higher risks of diabetes and severe lethargy.

The news organization’s original findings drove state Sen. Jim Beall, chairman of the Senate Human Services Committee, to push for more detailed information from the state Department of Health Care Services on prescribing practices to foster youth.

On Monday, Beall, D-San Jose, met with California’s director of social services, Will Lightbourne, to discuss the request he and Los Angeles Democratic state Sen. Holly Mitchell submitted to health care officials last week.

The two senators have called on Health Care Services Director Toby Douglas to release geographic and demographic information on prescribing patterns, including tallies of foster children on multiple medications and high doses, as well as those being prescribed drugs for conduct “disorders” — more information than the state has been willing to release so far.

Beall said he will use the data to draft legislation aimed at improving the oversight and monitoring of psych medication use in foster care. The bill could require regular reports and analysis of county-level prescribing trends and establish a hotline for lawyers, judges, doctors and other caregivers who need guidance on medication. On Monday, after the news organization’s latest report, Beall said he also wants doctors’ interactions with drug companies to be better monitored.

“The Social Services Agency should take all steps to ensure that there’s no conflict of interest in medical care for any of our foster kids — and if that’s happening right now, we’re going to take action in the Legislature to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Beall said.

State Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Redondo Beach, who in August called for a state investigation into psychotropic drug prescriptions for minors in the wake of the initial series of news reports, echoed the more recent calls by his fellow state legislators to make the additional information public.

“I’m pleased that the California Medical Board had initiated an investigation, but now has expanded it,” said Lieu, who was just elected to Congress. “I believe the investigation by the newspaper has raised some very troubling questions about how psychotropic drugs are being administered to foster youth.”

Marilyn Benoit — the former president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and current chair of the academy’s task force that proposed guidelines on relations with drug companies — said the news organization’s unique look at foster care prescribers’ link to drug companies is “concerning.”

“This is a capitalistic country — you’re supposed to market and advertise the products you make — there’s nothing wrong with that,” said Benoit, a child psychiatrist who oversees a Pennsylvania-based behavioral health center that treats foster youth. “But as prescribers, we have to be more scrutinizing and understand the difference between marketing and real scientific information about the medication we use.”

Yet Benoit cautioned that although “research clearly shows that doctors can be influenced by gifts,” her organization is advisory only, and has no enforcement capabilities. She said doctors must take personal responsibility to draw the line. “When you’re tied to the pharmaceutical industry,” Benoit said, “then there could be a conflict of interest in your prescribing behavior.”

Unforgotten: Twenty-Five Years After Willowbrook

"Unforgotten" is a critically acclaimed, award-winning documentary that examines the impact of the horrors of Willowbrook on the survivors and their families, 25 years after Geraldo Rivera's historic television exposé.

It was a nightmare that shocked not only New York, but all of America. The public outcry about the Willowbrook State School for people with developmental disabilities resulted from Geraldo Rivera's exposé on WABC after he had entered Willowbrook with a film crew in 1972, using a stolen key.

Geraldo Rivera discusses what he found in Willibrook



Geraldo Rivera speaks on what it was like to make the investigative report (Parts 1 and 2 in particular)

Part One



Part Two



Part Three

The British Parliament's Health Select Commitee has issued a damning report on the alarming failings in children’s mental health services

You can read the report online here and download a PDF of the 179 page report as well.

As reported in the Mirror:

Thousands of mentally unwell children are being failed because of “serious and deeply ingrained problems” in the provision of care, MPs warn today.

In a damning 117-page report, the Health Select Committee lays bare the alarming failings in children’s mental health services.

The official House of Commons probe was prompted in part by a series of campaigning articles in the Mirror, which submitted evidence to the committee’s inquiry.

Its report warns how “in many areas early intervention services are being cut or are suffering from insecure or short term funding”.

[...]

Earlier this year the Mirror uncovered how 4,391 children aged 10 or under had received treatment for stress, anxiety or depression since 2009 at two of the biggest NHS mental health trusts.

But Tory MP Dr Sarah Wollaston said it was a “disgrace” that data had not been collected centrally for over a decade.

She highlighted how the cost of a child’s in-patient bed in a mental health ward costs £25,000 a month. If that sort of cash had been spent on early schemes such as drop-in services it could have helped avoid the need for dozens of children to be admitted to hospital, she said.

While it is praise worthy that they want to do something for the children, they seem to be overlooking the inherent failure of psychiatry itself. No wonder the system is in such deplorable condition.

Misuse of Psychological Tests in Forensic Settings: Some Horrible Examples

As seen on ParentingPlan.net We have not quoted the entire paper, but only the introductory section with a few of the smaller examples.

The original post has many fine examples, plenty of detailed references, and is oriented to situations where parents are separated. Unfortunately, given other news reports of recent years, this paper is still quite relevant

Misuse of Psychological Tests in Forensic Settings: Some Horrible Examples

Ralph Underwager and Hollida Wakefield

American Journal of Forensic Psychology, Volume 11, Issue 1

Psychological tests are often used inappropriately and are misinterpreted and overinterpreted in the forensic setting. This harms the person being evaluated and interferes with the cause of justice. It also does a disservice to the reputation of psychologists and the science of psychology. Actual examples of misuse of particular techniques and tests and misinterpretation illustrate what has been done in forensic settings.

A forensic evaluation is different from a clinical evaluation. When an evaluation is done in the clinical setting, the conclusions are used to develop a treatment plan. These conclusions form working hypotheses which can be confirmed or rejected during treatment. However, in the forensic setting, a one-time decision is made about the individual — a decision which can markedly affect the person's life.

If tests are misinterpreted in the clinical setting, the treatment plan developed from the evaluation may not be the most effective for the client. However, since treatment plans are generally modified and revised throughout the course of treatment, the mistaken conclusions can be corrected. But, an erroneous decision in the forensic setting can result in immediate and severe consequences, such as losing custody of a child or being jailed. If decisions and recommendations by the psychologist are not based on adequate data, the psychologist is acting both incompetently and unethically.

In addition, conclusions drawn by the psychologist are subject to cross-examination in the adversarial setting. If the conclusions are not based upon adequate data, the psychologist's testimony will be discredited or impeached by a skillful opposing attorney. Therefore, the psychologist should only present conclusions in reports and testimony which can be defended when challenged in cross-examination.

In the course of examining hundreds of reports, we have seen many examples of tests that are misadministered, misinterpreted, overinterpreted, or should never have been given in the particular setting. We are presenting a sample of these to illustrate what should be avoided by any psychologist who does forensic evaluations.

DRAWINGS

Tests such as the House-Tree-Person (HTP) and Kinetic Family Drawings are often overinterpreted and misinterpreted. There is a lack of validity and reliability in the use of drawings as projective assessment devices. In a review of the Draw-A-Person test in the Seventh Mental Measurements Yearbook, Harris (1) notes that there is very little evidence for the use of "signs" as valid indicators of personality characteristics. With children's drawings there is so much variability from drawing to drawing that particular features of any one drawing are too unreliable to say anything about them. The Tenth Mental Measurements Yearbook (2), in reviews by Cundick and Weinberg (p.422-425) continues the consistent finding since the first edition, 1938, that interpretations of drawings (as are often done in forensic evaluations) are unsupported by empirical evidence. Both reviewers note that there are no normative data establishing reliability and validity of the Kinetic Drawing System.

Here are some of the examples as given:

Example 2

A four-year-old girl was asked to draw a picture of herself and the family doing something. She instead, according to the school psychologist who was evaluating her, "seemed to be preoccupied with drawing circles within circles which she called 'caves.' Her second representation bore a significant resemblance to male genitalia (when asked what it represented, she reported that it was a ball rolling into a lion's cave)." This was interpreted as being suggestive of sexual abuse and the fact that the child has been subjected to some type of traumatic experience.

When we saw the child, now age five, we tested her and found borderline to low-average intelligence and no ability to draw anything other than scribbled circles. The child clearly had difficulties with visual motor perception and indeed, could not draw, a fact which was ignored by the other evaluator. This example, therefore, illustrates the importance of recognizing the child's developmental level.

Example 5

A four-year-old girl's drawing of a tree in the HTP was considered significant because the child, when asked to draw a tree, also drew a cactus. This was interpreted in terms of "unconscious expression of danger and fearfulness." However, the child was not asked if she had a cactus in her yard (this was in Texas).

The child also brought a drawing of a clown's face to the therapist which she had ostensibly drawn while in the waiting room with her parents. The clown was interpreted as being significant because "there is an element of sadness in the clown's eyes." This clown is of much greater sophistication and detail than the child's other drawings. When pressed about this in his deposition, the psychologist acknowledged that the parents probably drew it and she colored it. This example illustrates both problems in administration and in interpretation.

Example 20

A baby was returned to the foster mother following a visit with the parents and was described as having the "smell of sex." An emergency hearing was held in which social services attempted to cut off visits because this "smell of sex" triggered the suspicion that the parents were having sex with their baby. A psychologist agreed that the sex smell was significant and indicated probable abuse on the part of the parents. Fortunately, the parents had been at a church potluck dinner during the entire visit so they were able to disprove, the accusations.

We can just imagine the horror that happens when this gets involved with separation and divorce proceedings.

Attorneys begin closing arguments in William Ayres trial

As reported in the San Mateo County Times

Closing arguments are expected to conclude today in the trial of Dr. William Ayres, the once-prominent child psychiatrist accused of lewdly touching half a dozen boys under the guise of medical necessity.

Prosecutor Melissa McKowan and defense attorney Doron Weinberg began their closing statements Monday in San Mateo County Superior Court. Ayres, 77, faces nine counts of lewd and lascivious conduct with a minor younger than 14. The charges are based on the accusations of six former patients who argue that they were molested by Ayres between the ages 9 and 13.

McKowan said Monday that a 10th charge had been dropped during the course of the trial that stemmed from the accusations of a man referred to in court as Eric B., who testified that Ayres masturbated him during a physical exam when he was 13. He originally was going to testify that a second incident had occurred, McKowan said.

She told the jury Monday that Ayres performed physical and genital exams exclusively on male patients because he is a pedophile — a psychiatrist who desired to undress, touch and see the bodies of young boys. She referred to the exams he conducted as "sloppy, drop your pants and sit on the table" procedures.

"If genital exams are necessary in the diagnosis of adolescent children with psychological or mental health issues, why would you only conduct those exams on boys?" she asked the jury.

McKowan urged the jury to consider why Ayres kept poor notes of the exams and the unusual conditions under which he gave them. She also pointed out that no witness ever testified for the defense that Ayres taught the importance of physical exams at UC San Francisco, something he told the court last week that he had done.

Judge Beth Freeman issued jury instruction before closing arguments. She told the jury that four former patients who accused Ayres of molesting them but whose charges fall outside the state's statute of limitations can be considered in deciding if Ayres has a disposition to commit sexual offenses, or if their testimony can show that Ayres had a plan to lewdly touch the in-statute accusers.

Weinberg told the jury that there is simply no evidence Ayres committed a crime. He said the case rests entirely on memory, asking jurors to recall the testimony of memory expert Dr. Elizabeth Loftus.

"This case is about memory and memory alone," Weinberg argued. "There is no physical evidence."

[...]

Update: The Prosecution of Psychiatrist Dr. Alan Beitel

We have an update on the prosecution of psychiatrist Allan Beitel. Essentially, the charges were dropped for a number of practical reasons as seen in the article below.

1. He wasn't going to get anymore jail time than what he had already served while waiting for trial, and
2. the victim was moving out of the country, and would not be available to give testimony.

These circumstances are not a clean verdict such as acquittal, and leaves a cloud of suspicion over the doctor's head. This is also not a clean statement of innocence by the prosecutor, although the original charges were a little convoluted. The psychiatrist still faces other criminal charges, according to the report. As reported in The Hamilton Spectator.

Charges of accessing and possessing child pornography against a psychiatrist who formerly practised in Hamilton and Burlington have been stayed by the Crown.

Dr. Allan Beitel, who now practices in Toronto, had been facing the charges since 2003.

The Crown also stayed a charge of possession of stolen property and two counts of failing to comply against Beitel.

The Crown's prosecutor concluded that it was no longer in the public's interest to continue prosecution of the case, according to a spokesperson for Ontario's Ministry of the Attorney General.

"Even if Dr. Beitel had been found guilty of all charges, it was unlikely that he would serve a single additional day in jail beyond the time he had already served in pre-trial custody," the spokes-person indicated.

"Given that completing the trial would have required significant amounts of additional court time and resources, the Crown concluded that it was not in the public interest to continue."

Beitel had spent a number of months in custody last year related to other charges.

A charge of sexual assault against Beitel has also been withdrawn by the Crown after concluding there was no longer a reasonable prospect of conviction.

"The victim was moving out of the country and would not be returning for the trial," the ministry spokesperson indicated.

Beitel is still facing a number of other charges, including perjury, fraud under $5,000, two counts of theft under $5,000 and six counts of fail to comply with a recognizance.

Beitel remains an active member of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, with no past disciplinary findings against him.

UPDATE: see also this Blog Post by David Akin

Electroshock therapy is being used on chinese teenagers to treat Internet addiction

From a report first seen here

Electroshock therapy is being administered to youngsters at a controversial Internet addiction clinic where patients are "reborn".

More than 3,000 youths have been tricked or forced in to a four-month program run by Dr Yang Yongxin at a clinic in Shandong province. About 100 people are currently receiving treatment at the clinic.

Patients are given electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for breaking any of the center's 86 rules, including eating chocolate, locking the bathroom door, taking pills before a meal and sitting on Yang's chair without permission, the Information Times reported.

Parents or guardians sign a contract acknowledging that the child will be given ECT and pay 6,000 yuan ($878) per month for treatment.

Details about the treatment were revealed online recently when a number of former patients began to write about their experience.

According to the posts, the clinic administers continuous ECT in a current of up to 200 milliamperes.

Meanwhile, patients are forced to admit "wrongdoings" and those of others and are also instructed to kneel down in front of their parents to show obedience.

In addition, patients - known as "members of the alliance" at the clinic - are not permitted to talk about anything other than overcoming their Internet addiction, numerous former patients write.

Most are found to be "cured" - or "reborn" according to Yang - by simply "admitting" that they have overcome their addiction.

Internet addiction is not classified as a mental illness in China, a country with nearly 300 million Internet users, many of whom are adolescents who willingly indulge in endless hours of online games per day.

Depression, fainting, muscle weakness and twitching and anorexia have been listed as typical syndromes of Internet addiction.

The government established the first Internet addiction treatment clinic in Beijing in 2004.

Today, all online game operators are required to install a "fatigue system" for players under 18 years, which is designed to restrict their play time to three hours a day. But analysts say there are too many ways to work around the rules.

Until recently, media reported on Yang's alleged "success". Liu Mingyin, a China Central Television reporter, called Yang "a fighter in the Third Opium War", framing the doctor's combat against Internet obsession as part of an ongoing war against "spiritual opium".

For his part, Yang views his acts as part of "a holy crusade" and says the electric current he applies to his "patients" is mild and "not dangerous".

What the youths receive at the clinic isn't really ECT, but a "refreshment therapy" that cautiously helps Net-addicted children calm down, says a story written in Yang's name and published online.

[...]

Tao Ran, director of the China's first Internet addiction clinic, said that ECT is "the last resort" in treating people with severe depression who are suicidal.

"It'll make patients more submissive, no doubt. But at the same time, ECT will cause memory loss," Tao says, adding that Yang's clinic is "the only Internet addiction clinic in the world that applies ECT to patients".

Tao's own center has treated more than 4,000 Internet-addicted youths. Patients have "comprehensive therapy" that includes medication and psychological counseling.

About 30 percent of Internet addicted youngsters are hyperactive and uncontrollable in a family environment, Tao said.

They need treatment at a professional institution that does not administer ECT, he said.

Zhuo Xiaoqin, a public health expert with the China University of Political Science and Law, said it was wrong to link Internet obsession with mental illness.

"A consistent standard must be in place to determine what Internet addiction really is," he said.

(China Daily June 3, 2009)

Trial for psychiatrist Dr. William Ayres, accused of molestation begins

Report from the San Mateo County Times

After two years of events worthy of a prime time legal drama, embattled child psychiatrist Dr. William Ayres will finally stand trial Monday. He is accused of molesting seven of his young male patients.

Ayres, 77, was a prominent member of the San Mateo medical community and served as president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

He also performed physical examinations and inspected the genitalia of many of his juvenile psychiatric patients.

The once well-respected doctor was arrested in April 2007 and charged with 14 counts of lewd and lascivious acts with three victims, ages 9, 11 and 12 at the time of the alleged abuse.

The case's publicity brought forward four more accusers, bringing the number of Ayres' felony molestation counts to 20. He was freed on $750,000 bail.

The shocking story made international headlines, and the trial beginning Monday is expected to draw more public attention.

"We are exceedingly pleased that we are now on the doorstep of getting justice," San Mateo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said Friday.

A trial judge will be selected by Judge James Ellis in San Mateo County Superior Court in Redwood City on Monday morning.

Wagstaffe predicted jury selection and pretrial motions would take two weeks, but that the entire trial would last eight to 10 weeks.

Ayres practiced for decades in San Mateo County, seeing patients referred to him
through local school districts and the county's juvenile court, in addition to his private practice.

[...]

Police first began investigating him in 2002 after being told by a man who was a patient of Ayres in the 1970s that the doctor had molested him on multiple occasions. But the case had to be dropped after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling effectively changed the statute of limitations on such cases.

Childhood molestation can only be brought by victims who are younger than 29 or whose alleged abuse occurred after Jan. 1, 1998.

The San Mateo Police Department reopened the case in March 2006, at the urging of a friend of one of the victims to seek out other possible victims who fell within the legal statute of limitation.

That friend was New York-based freelance writer Victoria Balfour, who made it a personal crusade to unearth possible molestation victims of Ayres and help authorities build a case against him.

A search warrant was executed for Ayres' records, and a list was compiled of more than 800 patients.

Prosecutors believe they know of at least 39 former patients of Ayres who had been molested by him, but most did not fall under the state's statute of limitations.

After seven months of exhaustive and painful interviews with patients on the list, police took Ayres into custody at his San Mateo home on April 5, 2007.

Ayres' medical license was suspended, and has since expired.

On April 28, 2007, the child psychiatrist accused of molesting dozens of pre-adolescent boys in San Mateo County for decades declared his innocence of the multiple counts against him.

Now, more than two years later, the once-prominent child psychiatrist's fate will likely be left to a jury.

[...]

Ayres was known nationally as one of the country's top child psychiatrists; he was just as well respected on the Peninsula where he ran a private practice for decades.

He was probably one of fewer than 10 San Mateo County psychiatrists with a subspecialty in child and adolescent psychiatry, according to San Mateo County Medical Association Executive Director Sue Malone.

He told colleagues he performed medical examinations because that was the way he had been trained. He had done his residency in the early 1960s at the Judge Baker Center in Boston, one of the country's premier centers for the study of child psychology.

While most child psychiatrists admit that administering physical exams to patients is uncommon today, many professionals defend the practice as another instrument in a psychiatrist's toolbox.

A spokeswoman from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, of which Ayres was president for more than a decade, told MediaNews that performing physicals on patients in a psychiatric setting can be "consistent with good medical practice."

Wagstaffe said he expected attorneys on both sides to present expert opinions on the matter.

While the passing of time between charges and trial can often damage prosecutors' cases, Wagstaffe said all their witnesses were ready to go.

"This case is more than ripe for trial," he said.

The Drugs, They Do Nothing!

Some selected snippets from this report

Short-term Intensive Treatment Not Likely to Improve Long-term Outcomes for Children with ADHD

Initial positive results gleaned from intensive treatment of childhood attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are unlikely to be sustained over the long term, according to a recent analysis of data from the NIMH-funded Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (MTA). The study was published online ahead of print March 2009 in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Using reports from parents and teachers as well as self-reports from the children, now high school-aged, the researchers found that the youth’s functioning remained improved overall compared to their functioning at the beginning of the study, suggesting that available treatments can still be effective. However, they also found the following:

• The eight-year follow-up revealed no differences in symptoms or functioning among the youths assigned to the different treatment groups as children. This result suggests that the type or intensity of a one-year treatment for ADHD in childhood does not predict future functioning.
  
• A majority (61.5 percent) of the children who were medicated at the end of the 14-month trial had stopped taking medication by the eight-year follow-up, suggesting that medication treatment may lose appeal with families over time. The reasons for this decline are under investigation, but they nevertheless signal the need for alternative treatments.
  
• Children who were no longer taking medication at the eight-year follow-up were generally functioning as well as children who were still medicated, raising questions about whether medication treatment beyond two years continues to be beneficial or needed by all.

Basically, parents become disillusioned with the failed promise of the easy fix of drugs for the treatment of this "condition"