Monday, October 28, 2002

Paul Wellstone, 58, Icon of Liberalism in Senate, Dies
New York Times obituary of Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone, co-sponsor of the mental health parity legislation still pending in Congress. [Viewing New York Times resources requires registration, which is free]. See also the APA press release APA Mourns Tragic Loss of Senator Wellstone, the statement by NMHA President and CEO Michael Faenza and the statement by Linda Warner, Chair of the Epilepsy Foundation.  
  

Group to join battle for Mental Health Center (Wisconsin)
Green Bay Press-Gazette story on Save Our People - "a coalition of health-care professionals, union representatives, nursing-home residents and their families, and mental-health patients and their families" - organized in opposition to the privatization of the Brown County Mental Health Center.  
  

Trial to determine if state is complying with consent decree to improve mental health care (Maine)
Brief story at WMTW on the trial in Kennebec County Superior Court in Augusta which begins today - and "will determine the future of the consent decree that ordered the state to make widespread changes in the mental health care system."  
  

Children's program is 'black hole' of federal spending, say critics (Canada)
Story in Canoe on the Early Childhood Development Initiative, launched in September 2000 - "Vague goals and lax controls make it almost impossible to say if a $2.2-billion federal program for kids and their parents is working, say social advocates."  
  

Effect of a multifaceted approach to detecting and managing depression in primary care
The abstract of a British Medical Journal article which concludes: "A simple practice based approach improved the detection and management of depression in a team familiar with the philosophy of chronic disease management, with the capacity to commit to the programme, and with a critical mass of team members being open to change. This model failed to affect depression management when staff engagement with the project was passive rather than active and the practice was less well resourced and served an economically deprived and ethnically diverse population." A link to the full text of the article is available.  
  

Mental health cuts will take human toll, protesters say (Maine)
Press Herald story - "Protesters decrying proposed cuts in state mental-health services said on Saturday that the reductions would cost far more than they would save, both in dollars spent and lives lost."