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Flawed DHHS Report Offers Little
Holiday Cheer to Men
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is
planning to release a one-sided and biased report called the “Surgeon
General’s Call to Action on Women’s Mental Health.” The report is being
developed by the Surgeon General’s Women’s Mental Health Project:
http://www.4women.gov/owh/ichp/surgeongeneral.cfm. But if we take
action now, we can turn this around.
This is our recommendation to Dr. John Agwunobi, the
DHHS Assistant Secretary for Health:
Because the flaws in
the draft report are so systematic, we request that a new report be
commissioned that reflects a balanced and truthful perspective on the
mental health problems faced by women and men.
The detailed critique is included in the
letter below. Please put your name and address at the bottom of the
letter and e-mail it to:
John O. Agwunobi, MD
Assistant Secretary for Health
Department of Health and Human Services
Email:
john.agwunobi@hhs.gov
And send a CC of your letter to:
Janet East, Director
Office of the Executive Secretariat
Department of Health and Human Services
Email:
JEAST@osophs.dhhs.gov
Think of the anguish and sorrow of fathers who will
be spending the Holiday Season this year without their children due to
false allegations of domestic violence. If allowed to come out, this
report will cause lasting damage to families, children, and men.
Send your letter today!!
Dear Dr. Agwunobi:
I am writing in regard to the draft “Surgeon
General’s Call to Action on Women’s Mental Health.”
As this letter documents, the report includes false
statistics about domestic violence, contains other inaccurate
statements, and selectively reports the facts of mental illness. Its
assumptions, conclusions, and recommendations are fundamentally biased.
Because the report is so deeply flawed, we request
you commission a new report that reflects a balanced and truthful
perspective on the mental health problems faced by women and men.
False Statistics about Domestic Violence
The draft report states on page 7 that women are
“three times more likely to suffer from intimate partner violence.” That
flawed statistic comes from the National Violence Against Women Survey,
which has been strongly criticized for under-reporting the true
prevalence of partner violence and biasing the responses in favor of
women.
A lmost 200 studies on partner violence have reached
the consistent conclusion that women are equally likely as men to engage
in domestic violence:
Other Inaccurate Statements
The report makes other statements that are vague,
misleading, unsupported, and/or false:
Abuse: The report repeatedly makes the claim
that women are at higher risk of being “abused,” without defining what
this vague term means. On page 8, that claim is supported by citation
number 58, a WHO report titled “Gender and Women’s Health: Gender and
Disaster.” However, a search reveals that report is no longer located on
the Internet. Since it cannot be found or verified, it should not be
cited in a US government document.
If the report wishes to highlight the problem of
child abuse, then it should cite the Administration of Children’s and
Families report, Child Maltreatment 2004, which shows that boys and
girls are subjected to abuse at almost identical rates:
http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm04/index.htm
Trauma and Violence: The report often refers
to women who suffer from trauma and violence. But by any public health
indicator, it’s men who are at far greater risk of dying from trauma and
violence. According to Health, United States 2006 (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus06.pdf),
unintentional injuries claimed the lives of 70,532 men in 2003, compared
to 38,745 women. Likewise, men’s death rate from homicide is 9.4 per
100,000, compared to 2.6 for women, more than a three-fold difference.
Depression: The report states, “women are
nearly twice as likely as men to suffer from major depression” (page 5).
That statement is misleading because it does not consider the fact that
the diagnostic criteria for depression often fail to detect depression
in men. That is one reason why the NIH National Institute of Mental
Health established its “Real Men, Real Depression” program.
Socioeconomic Status: The report claims that
women “face a lower average socioeconomic status compared to men” (page
8). That statement is supported by two citations. The first citation
(number 59) is a report about natural disasters that does not cite even
a single study to support any claim about women’s economic disadvantage
(http://www.who.int/gender/gwhgendernd2.pdf).
The second citation (number 60) is a 2005 workshop presentation that
cannot be located, nor can its claims be verified. Neither citation is
appropriate to include in a US government report that aims to be
authoritative.
The truth is, there is no evidence to support the
broad claim that women “face a lower average socioeconomic status
compared to men.” In fact, that claim has been repeatedly disproved by
economist Victor Fuchs, sociologist Martha Gimenez, and many others.
Selective Reporting of Facts
The entire draft report rests on the assumption that
women are at greater risk of mental health problems. By failing to
report key public health statistics, that assumption is never tested.
The following mortality statistics are strongly
influenced by persons’ mental health status (Health, United States,
2006, Table 29):
Chronic liver
disease/Cirrhosis (Deaths per 100,000)
Men: 13.0
Women: 6.0
Suicide (Deaths per
100,000)
Men: 18.0
Women: 4.2
For both causes of death, men have substantially
higher risk of dying than women. Of particular concern is the effect of
divorce on fathers’ suicide risk. Sociologist Augustine Kposowa found
that divorced men were more than twice as likely to commit suicide as
married men, and almost 10 times more likely to kill themselves as
divorced women.
But these facts are never mentioned, much less
discussed in the Surgeon General’s report.
Finally, the major disparities affecting
African-American men should be highlighted, a concern that has been
highlighted by the Congressional Black Caucus. In 2003, the life
expectancy at birth was:
Black men: 69.0 years
White men: 75.3 years
Black women: 76.1 years
White women: 80.5 years
These troubling lifespan disparities are caused, in
part, by mental health problems.
Summary and Recommendation
In summary, the “Surgeon General’s Call to Action on
Women’s Mental Health” includes claims and statistics that are
one-sided, vague, unsupported, misleading, and/or demonstrably false. It
does not adequately represent the extent of mental health problems faced
by women. It misrepresents, downplays, or ignores altogether the mental
health problems faced by men, particularly minority men. It does not
provide a credible basis for setting public health priorities or
establishing a plan of action for the Department of Health and Human
Services.
Although women indeed face unique mental health
problems, this report does not do justice to that public health concern.
Rather, the draft “Surgeon General’s Call to Action on Women’s Mental
Health” may actually end up discrediting this important issue.
Because the flaws in the draft report are so
systemic, I am requesting that a new report be commissioned that
reflects a balanced and truthful perspective on the mental health
problems faced by women and men.
I look forward to receiving your response.
Sincerely,
Date of RADAR Release: December 11, 2006
R.A.D.A.R. – Respecting Accuracy in Domestic Abuse
Reporting – is a non-profit, non-partisan organization of men and women
working to assure that the problem of domestic violence is treated in a
balanced and effective manner.
http://www.mediaradar.org.
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