Counselor cited for phony billing to hide an affair

Counselor cited for phony billing to hide an affair with ex-patient

Dec. 13, 2007

BY JOE VANHOOSE
STAR-BANNER

OCALA - The Florida Department of Health has disciplined an Ocala mental health counselor accused of phony billing designed to hide an extramarital affair with a former patient. His wife - now his ex-wife - kept the books. Michael Kean Weaver, 52, was reprimanded on Nov. 19 by the State Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage and Family Therapy, and Mental Health Counseling. He currently practices at Rapha Counseling Center in Ocala. His alleged actions violated a state law prohibiting "misleading, deceptive, untrue, or fraudulent representations in the practice of mental health counseling." He was fined $1,000 and ordered to pay $3,368 in costs and complete 12 hours of ethics classes. According to the administrative complaint, Weaver had a physical relationship with a former patient from July 2002 through March 2004. Weaver had counseled the patient from June 1997 to April 2000. Relationships like this, according to an investigator for the Citizens Commission on Human Rights of Florida, are occurring more and more frequently. "I've run into all kinds of cases with psychologists or counselors having sex with their patients, probably over 100 over the last few years," said Ken Kramer, an investigator for the commission who monitors state reports daily. "But what's really interesting about this case is that he faked documents to cover up his affair. I've never seen that before." To keep his wife from finding out about his extramarital relationship, Weaver created billing records that indicated the patient received treatment through March 2004, according to the complaint. In a settlement signed Sept. 12, Weaver acknowledged probable cause for the case against him but did not accept or deny the allegations. He refused to comment Wednesday to the Star-Banner. Kramer believes that Weaver got off too easy. "There's a lot more the board could have done, like take away his license," Kramer said. "If you sleep with a current patient, that's a felony. He changed his records to make her a current patient." Read the original article here.

Watchdog Says Omaha Mall Shootings Reflect Why They Launched Startling PSAs

How Many Antidepressant-Induced Massacres Will It Take To Get Federal Investigation?

LOS ANGELES: 19-year-old Robert Hawkins, who killed eight people and wounded five before committing suicide in an Omaha, Nebraska mall, appears to be the latest kid killer under the influence of psychiatric drugs (click here for CNN video) documented to cause violence, mania, psychosis, suicide and “homicidal ideation.” With ten recent school shooters under the influence of psychiatric drugs, the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) a mental health watchdog, says the government can no longer ignore the violence inducing effects of these drugs and must launch a federal investigation. With 39 dead and 84 wounded from these ten recent drug-induced shootings alone, CCHR produced a series of three startling new PSAs, called “Get the Facts - Fight Back”, depicting the consequences of prescribing violence and suicide inducing psychiatric drugs to children and teens (click here to watch PSAs).

The groups says the evidence of drugs causing violence, murder and homicide is overwhelming – yet ignored due to billions in drug company/psychiatric profits. In September 2006, Dr. David Healy, director of the North Wales Department of Psychological Medicine, and colleagues published the findings of their study of the antidepressant, Paxil, in the journal Public Library of Science Medicine stating: “We've got good evidence that the drugs can make people violent and you'd have to reason from that that there may be more episodes of violence.” (link)

Fox National News reporter Douglas Kennedy exposed the link between school shooters and antidepressant/psychiatric drug use in his ground breaking expose “Deadly Drugs” as far back as 2002. (link)

Despite the deadly side effects, antidepressants are commonly prescribed to children and teens, raking in $20.6 billion in profits worldwide in 2006. In the meantime, the senseless drug-induced violence continues, taking a heavy toll on our nation’s children and teens.

CCHR launched the PSAs to help galvanize the public to demand a federal investigation of the violence inducing effects of psychiatric drugs before more children and innocent bystanders are murdered. The group fought for more than a decade against vested psychiatric and pharmaceutical interests to have black box suicide warnings added to antidepressants, and was the first to expose the suicidal effects of the drugs in 1991 – 13 years before the government took action and finally issued the black box suicide warnings on all antidepressant drugs in 2004. Click here to watch a video of the 1991 FDA hearing on antidepressants and violence/suicide.

CCHR has also published a report Psychiatric Drugs and Anger Management Curricula—A Perspective on School Violence, which can be found by clicking here.

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights is an international psychiatric watchdog group co-founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus, to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights. Contact CCHR's Media Department at 800-869-2247 or humanrights@cchr.org.