Del. Timothy Anderson, R-Virginia Beach, under fire for introducing House Bill 1389 about use of medication in minors with mental illnesses

State Delegates and people who work to protect children didn’t agree on whether or not a bill that would require parents to be told when a minor was given medicine for mental illness would hurt the child.

Del. Timothy Anderson, R-Virginia Beach, introduced House Bill 1389, which at first said that a minor’s parent or guardian had to agree to the use of controlled substances to treat a mental illness.

There were two House amendments, but the one that changed “controlled substances” to “any medication” was the one that delegates chose. The bill says that one change that was suggested was to change “controlled substances” to “any selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor,” or SSRI.

The Mayo Clinic says that antidepressants like Escitalopram (sold under the brand names Lexapro and Cipralex) and Fluoxetine (also known as Prozac and Sarafem) are used to treat depression and other mental illnesses.

“I wanted to get that passed because the FDA has a black box warning on antidepressants, SSRIs, and MAOIs that says if you are depressed and under 18 and take these drugs, you may become more suicidal,” Anderson said.

On its website, the Food and Drug Administration says that the warning about antidepressants has been used since 2004.

The state code of Virginia says that 14-year-olds and older can agree to treatment for mental illness without telling their parents.

Anderson would want to know that his child was depressed, but he would also want to know if they were given a drug that could make them feel even worse.

“If my son went to the doctor with strep throat and they gave him an antibiotic, like Amoxicillin, I would have to agree to it,” said Anderson. “But if he goes to a doctor and says, ‘I’m depressed,’ and the doctor gives him an antidepressant, I wouldn’t even know about it, and that’s wrong.”

Anderson said that the medical community was against the bill because a parent or guardian could be dangerous to a child getting mental health care.

Anderson said, “We put a safety valve in the bill that says if a doctor gives an antidepressant to a child, they have to tell the parents, unless the doctors think that telling the parents would put the child in danger.” “The medical community is still being very hard to work with.”

Anderson said that Virginia law lets doctors “box” parents out of the mental health care plan for their child.

Even so, he said, parents would probably find out “anyway” if their child was getting treatment for mental illness if they got an explanation of benefits from the insurance company.

Voices for Virginia’s Children is a non-profit group that works to improve the lives of children in Virginia, according to the group’s website.

Emily Moore, a policy analyst for Voices for Virginia’s Children, said that the group was against the bill.

Moore said, “Right now, there is a crisis in the mental health of young people.” “The Surgeon General has issued a warning about this, and mental health professionals and child psychiatrists have been sounding the alarm.”

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website, the U.S. Senate approved Dr. Vivek Murthy as the 21st Surgeon General in March 2021. HHS says that the surgeon general is like the country’s doctor.

Moore says that the pandemic made the mental health crisis worse, even though data show that the crisis began before the pandemic.

“Mental Health America put Virginia at number 48 in the country for the mental health of young people,” Moore said. “One of the reasons for this is that they can’t get the care they need for their mental health.”

Mental Health America’s 2023 report on the state of mental health in America says that states with rankings of 39 or higher have more young people with mental illness and fewer young people who can get help.

Moore said, “Young people deserve to have this kind of freedom. They deserve to have a voice and a say in how they are treated and what they need.”

Even though it’s not always bad for parents to be involved, she said, the organization wants to make sure that every young person is able to talk about their own mental health needs and treatment plan.

Moore said, “It’s possible that if young people can’t get the mental health treatment they need, things could get worse.” “The biggest problem with this bill would have been that it could have made people less likely to speak up.”

She said that a young person wouldn’t have been able to get the mental health help they needed if their home life wasn’t helpful.

The Psychiatric Society of Virginia, which Dr. Sherin Moideen works for, was against the bill.

Moideen told a Senate subcommittee on Feb. 14: “When we give psychiatric care to minors, the standard of care is to involve parents or guardians.”

Moore says that the bill took mental health treatment off of a list of treatments that a 14-year-old can already agree to.

By a vote of 10-5, the Senate Health and Education Committee decided not to move the bill forward.