Sunday, December 01, 2002

Regence move consolidates mental health (Oregon)
Story in The Business Journal of Portland - "Reliant Mental Health Services, a recent spinoff of Northwest Mental Health Associates (NMHA), will soon take over Regence Bluecross Blueshield of Oregon HMO's behavioral health management for the Portland area."  
  

County watches budget collapse (California)
Santa Cruz Sentinel story on the impact of "a mammoth state deficit" on Santa Cruz County. The stroy notes that the state "cut another $362,000 from children’s mental health services which, when combined with federal matching funds, amounted to a $669,000 loss."  
  

Editorial: Community must keep caring for ill, homeless (Montana)
Billings Gazette editorial focusing on the Hub - a drop-in center for homeless and seriously mentally ill adults that was kept open by community donations after state funding was cut - and the Montana Mental Health Service Plan, which is financially strapped.  
  

Mental health, abuse programs 'on life support' (Canada)
Mississauga News Online story - "Mental health advocates in Peel are urging community leaders and the public to join them in a fight to maintain crucial programs and services at Credit Valley Hospital ... Peel Alert officials are urging CVH to work closely with local health agencies, politicians, the Ontario Hospital Association, the Ontario Psychiatric Association and patient advocacy groups to find solutions to budget problems."  
  

Chemical dependency treatment goes private (Minnesota)
Red Wing Republican Eagle story on Wenden Recovery Services Inc., which will replace Fairview Red Wing Health Services' program, which represents "a transition of providing recovery services from an institutional setting into a private setting." The story notes that "about one treatment center a month closes in Minnesota.... due in part to a freeze in state funding and reimbursement levels."  
  

Canadian Mental Health Association, Ontario Division applauds Romanow's focus on mental health
Canadian News Wire story - "The Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), Ontario Division applauds Roy Romanow for calling on governments to bring mental health into the health care family by including it in home care, primary health care, health promotion and drug benefits."  
  

County supervisor named to governor's commission (Iowa)
Ames Tribune story on Gov. Tom Vilsack's newly created mental health and developmental disabilities commission - "The commission will meet monthly and serve as the state's policy-making body for services to persons with mental illness, mental retardation, brain injury and other developmental disabilities."  
  

10 Keys to Recovery From Schizophrenia
Science Blog posting based on findings by researchers at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute that appear in the November 2002 edition of the International Review of Psychiatry.  
  

In two deaths, buprenorphine prescribed to curb narcotics (Florida)
Sun-Sentinel story on two deaths (in 2000 and 2001) that are "thought to be the first in the country reported among patients taking injections of Buprenex to treat narcotics addiction."