Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Sheriff Merritt Backs Psychologist Prescription Bill

The American Idol performance in support of legislation to allow psychologists to prescribe certain medications is HERE.

Greene County Sheriff Jack Merritt also spoke at the rally in support of the legislation. Merritt said it would help with suicide prevention in the county jail.

"What I see as a very important impact of this legislation, there's not anyway that I could ever afford to hire a psychologist, a full-time psychologist to be in my jail," Merritt said.

Merritt said that you'd be surprised how many inmates admit to contemplating suicide when entering the jail. "We can immediately, by having a psychologist on staff, have attention to that to those individuals," Merritt said.

His comments are included in the YouTube video as well.

1 comment:

Amenable said...

Let me get this straight. The good sheriff says he can't afford to hire a psychologist, so if psychologists can prescribe drugs with minimal training, then he can have a psychologist on staff for prisoners who say they are thinking of suicide. And the logic here is ... ?

The slick and well-funded RxP marketers who use an American Idol singer as a lobbyist seem to be long on zeal as to how to destroy psychology and harm mental health patients for their own profit, and short on logic and facts.

Here are some facts: The Missouri bill is championed by the president of the private (expensive) psychology school which will profit from the legislation. The "grass roots" organization supporting this is a phony front started by the psych association, which that school president heads. The same "grass roots" organization was created in Louisiana and only existed within the psych association's publications.

The RxP "movement" is a political turf war on medicine run and funded from the HQ in Washington, spending millions of dollars in member funds without their permission. It is highly controversial among psychologists who care about their profession and know how to treat their patients with psychology and how to collaborate with physicians to get patients the best medication.