Tuesday, October 15, 2002

The Complex Public Sector Environment
A report by Monica Oss, President of Open Minds , presented at the Service Capacity & Performance Measurement Conference in August sponsored by the Texas Department Of Mental Health & Mental Retardation.  
  

Agencies must strive to be more sensitive: Cultural Competence in Public Mental Health
A 10-page report from Manisses Communications (Adobe Acrobat format) excerpted from the book Cultural Competency in Managed Behavioral Healthcare.  
  

Aetna Stands By Ailing Vendor, For Now (Connecticut)
Hartford Courant story - "Aetna says it's confident the ailing Magellan Health Services Inc. can properly manage mental health services for its members - but isn't saying yet how long it might keep Magellan as a vendor. Aetna has a contract with Maryland-based Magellan through 2003 that covers most of its 14.4 million members. But Aetna has said it's rethinking its strategy on how to provide behavioral health care. Magellan is the nation's largest managed care company specializing in behavioral health, with contracts covering roughly 68 million people. Magellan, which has warned it may breach terms of bank loans, was downgraded by rating agencies last week. Also, trading of its stock was suspended by the New York Stock Exchange, which is moving to delist the company."  
  

Warner Announces Emergency Budget Cuts (Virginia)
Washington Post story on $858 million in budget cuts ordered by Gov. Mark R. Warner - "Spared deep cuts – at least for now – was funding for public safety, Medicaid and direct aid to public education. Direct state care for the mentally ill in state institutions also escaped cuts, although funding for community-based mental health services did not."  
  

Psychiatry Journal Scan, September 2002
Medscape's Journal Scan "is the clinician's guide to the latest clinical research findings in the American Journal of Psychiatry, The Lancet, Archives of General Psychiatry, Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, and Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology. Short summaries of feature articles include links to the article abstracts and full text, when available." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

Protests grow in mental health (New Zealand)
New Zealand Herald story - "Industrial action by mental healthcare workers is spreading as they demand more beds to ease an "unsafe" crush of patients. Public Service Association members at three Auckland sites have been protesting since March against conditions they consider unsafe for themselves and their patients."  
  

$1.2 million grant bolsters Family Drug Court (Kentucky)
Courier-Journal story on a federal grant that will allow Jefferson County's Family Drug Court program - which combines counseling, parenting classes, and drug and alcohol treatment - to become fully operational.  
  

Cuts to state's mental health system means fewer beds (Iowa)
Daily Gate City story - "Two years of budget cuts to the state's mental health system have trimmed the number of beds available for long-term care nearly in half, leaving some patients without the treatment they need."  
  

Dismantling the virtual Berlin Wall (UK)
The first of a week long series at The Guardian on the role of the internet and information technology in delivering public services, focusing on on how systems for sharing records between health and social care teams could work.