Examining A Questionable Big Pharma Influence in Connecticut Law and Politics

Exploring the individuals, and individual entities, that are really behind the actions taken by government, whether local, state, federal, or global, is a constant theme here at TheGoodmanChronicle.com, and one such organization that will continue to come up, when researching events taking place in Connecticut, as well as across the country, is the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).

The RWJF is one of the largest private foundations in the country, with a stated goal to "improve the health and health care of all Americans."  Important to note, as we trace the RWJF's involvement in Connecticut legislative policy, is that the RWJF was established with a bequest of shares of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) from its late chief executive, Robert Wood Johnson.  Johnson & Johnson is one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies.  This connection is important because many legislative actions, and programs, supported, and funded, by the RWJF, would seemingly benefit the pharmaceutical industry.  Let us explore some of these programs, and legislation, supported by the RWJF, in the state of Connecticut.

In March 2014, I published an article titled Forced Mental Health Assessments Being Proposed For All Children In Connecticut, which discussed legislation that was being presented in the state legislature of Connecticut, which would have required "each pupil enrolled in public school at grades 6, 8, 10 and 12 and each home-schooled child at ages 12, 14 and 17 to have a confidential behavioral health assessment."  This legislation was lobbied for by the president of the board of directors for the CT Association of School
Based Health Centers, JoAnn Eaccarino.  The CT Association of School Based Health Centers receives funding and support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

There is also a program in operation in Connecticut, that has received millions of dollars from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, called "Child First", which is an "evidence-based model that uses home visits and a network of community services to prevent the devastating effects of early childhood adversity."  The founder of Child First, Darcy Lowell, regularly submits testimony to the state legislature, usually in favor of legislation that would use the state to increase the number of children being examined for "mental health".

In a presentation to the state Commission on Children, Lowell discussed the Child First program, where she listed situations that her organization deems "environmental risks" to children.  The list includes obvious risks to children, such as physical abuse, and lack of food, but it also includes questionable risks such as "single parenthood", and "unemployment".  The DCF, or Department of Children and Families, is listed as the leading agency of the Child First program.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation connection to these type of programs should be scrutinized.  It is important to understand how these home-visitation programs and behavioral mental health assessments can be used to increase the number of children on pharmaceutical drugs, thus profiting big pharmaceutical companies like Johnson & Johnson.  Former veteran Congressman Dr. Ron Paul, in 2011, was speaking out against this push for mandatory health screenings, calling it "a persistent lobbying effort, funded by pharmaceutical companies, to increase the number of these (drug) prescriptions to even more children."  If you are thinking that you have nothing to worry about, because neither you, or your children, have a mental illness, keep in mind that the list of mental disorders is ever-growing, and includes illness' such as "Oppositional Defiant Disorder", which you can be labeled with for "disagreeing with someone in a position of authority".  Also, some studies, like the one put out by the Children’s Services Working Group, suggest that the number of people that have a mental illness, many of whom unknowingly, may be as high as 20%, in a state like Connecticut.