Wednesday, October 02, 2002
Tracking Health Care Costs: Growth Accelerates Again In 2001 Health Affairs article by Bradley C. Strunk, Paul B. Ginsburg, and Jon R. Gabel on the double digit increase in health care spending per capita. The article is also available in
Acrobat format and includes a link to a Webcast of the press conference for the release of the article.
The End of the Independent Psychiatric Institute Article by Ivan Oransky in
Real Healthcare on independent long-term institutions, which have "fallen on hard times and merged with major medical centers or found other ways to survive" - a development the author characterizes as psychiatry's "surrender to managed care."
Young and Depressed Newsweek cover story on the 3 million adolescents struggling with depression, many of whom "never get the help they need because of prejudice about mental illness, inadequate mental-health resources and widespread ignorance about how emotional problems can wreck young lives."
HHS awards $14 million to improve care for homeless individuals HHS press release on grants to expand and strengthen community substance abuse treatment services and primary health care for homeless individuals experiencing substance abuse disorders and/or mental illness. The release includes a list of grant amounts and projects.
HHS Funds Drug Courts for Families, Juveniles and Adult Offenders SAMHSA press release - "Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today announced over $10 million in funding for 28 community drug treatment courts to provide substance abuse treatment for parents charged with abuse and neglect of their minor children, juveniles, or substance abusing adults charged with criminal offenses. These grants will expand these courts, designed to target effective treatment services to break the cycle of child abuse or criminal behavior, alcohol or drug abuse and incarceration, by funding alcohol and drug treatment and additional services that support substance abuse treatment."
Juvenile system flawed? (Virginia) TimesDispatch story - "Many poor juveniles are denied or give up the right to adequate legal representation in Virginia's juvenile courts, concludes a study by the American Bar Association's Juvenile Justice Center. The study also found that juveniles with mental-health and school-related problems are being inappropriately "dumped" into the state's already overburdened juvenile justice system."
Mental health cases flood region (Minnesota) D
uluth Superior story on the "steady stream of mental health patients arriving from overflowing Twin Cities hospitals has created a crunch in Duluth. Increasingly, emergency room doctors here must send critically ill children and adults 60 to 70 miles for mental health care. It can lengthen the wait for a mentally ill patient in need of emergency services and create obstacles for families who must travel greater distances to see a loved one."
Mental health workers to make house calls (Louisiana) HoumaToday story on plans by the director of the state Office of Metal Health for an alternative service in which mental-health professionals go into the community in a mobile effort to assist patients - "The plan calls for a 24-hour mobile crisis team of at least three mental-health professionals to travel to patients when they are having problems at school or home."
Mental health agency under fire (Washington) AP story at
TribNet.com - "Coos County Mental Health has failed to provide or document basic services to its clients despite keeping millions of dollars in reserve for at least the past four years, according to county records and police and state officials. The center, which received a failing grade on a state review last year, had more than $6.5 million in unspent funds at the beginning of the fiscal year."
