Monday, December 16, 2002

State mental health chief resigns (Massachusetts)
December 12 Boston Globe story on the resignation of Mary Lou Sudders, the state's commissioner of mental health since 1996, who will leave her post at the end of January to head the nonprofit Massachusetts Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children.  
  

Cuts to mental health centers cause anxiety (Nebraska)
Beatrice Daily Sun Online story - "Cuts in Nebraska's Medicaid funding are starting to be felt around the state this fall, and perhaps most prominently in state-funded mental health centers, where clients displaced from the Medicaid rolls are worrying about how they will pay for continued treatment or counseling."  
  

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Supports General Direction of Special Committee on Non-Medical Use of Drugs Interim Report (Canada)
December 9 Canadian News Wire press release - "The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) supports the general direction of the House of Commons Special Committee on Non-Medical Use of Drugs interim report. CAMH is particularly pleased to see the emphasis the Committee placed on addiction as a health issue and the need to address it within a health care framework."  
  

Legislator says closing mental health institutes won't save money (Iowa)
December 10 Mt. Pleasant News story on comments by state Rep. Dave Heaton (R-Mt. Pleasant) to describe a recommendation by a state panel to close two of the four state mental health institutes as a cost-cutting measure.  
  

Mental health official says new computer tracking not in use (Maine)
December 11 story at Maine Today - "State mental health officials have yet to begin using a new computer system, known as the Enterprise Information System, that is expected to track services and promptly detect problems with patient care."  
  

His mental health fight finally over (New Hampshire)
Portsmouth Herald story on Charles Proulx’s "four-year battle to institute a uniform mental health bill of rights" - a battle that "came to a close this past week when Merrimack County Superior Court Judge Edward Fitzgerald approved a judgment Tuesday rescinding the New Hampshire Board of Mental Health Practice’s current rule on the bill of rights."  
  

Board plans $36m boost for mental health services (New Zealand)
New Zealand News story on plans by the Waitemata District Health Board to spend $36.5 million improving and expanding mental health facilities.  
  

Report faults children’s mental-health care (Oregon)
A December 13 stiry in the Statesman Journal (Salem OR) on a report released last Thursday by the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, which indicates that "the state is failing to provide federally mandated services to children with mental illnesses." One of the report's authors, the story notes, said that "Oregon’s current approach to children’s mental-health needs is extremely expensive and damaging to families." The full report, "Assessing Child Mental Health Services in the Oregon Health Plan" is available in Adobe Acrobat format from the Bazelon web site.  
  

South Carolina mental health agency fights on
Charlotte Observer story on the state Department of Mental Health, which last year had $31 million cut from its budget. The State Budget and Control Board voted last week to cut all state spending by an additional 4.5 percent, but "mental health officials said they would need an additional $2 million in next year's budget to comply with a judge's order that they treat mentally ill defendants who are sitting in county jails despite court orders that they be hospitalized."  
  

Mental health agencies may fuse (Michigan)
Traverse City Record-Eagle story - "Antrim-Kalkaska Community Mental Health will likely merge with a larger agency, a move to cut expenses while maintaining services that other mental health agencies in northern Michigan are looking to follow."  
  

Mental health issues raised (UK)
BBC story on Scotland's first survey into public attitudes to mental health, which noted, among other things, that "a stigma of mental illness still exists, with half of those questioned saying if they had a mental health problem they would not want other people to know about it." The report was published by the Scottish Executive available at their web site in a series of Adobe Acrobat files.  
  

Children at Risk for Schizophrenia
Brief story at Ivanhoe's Medical Breakthroughs on research published in the American Journal of Human Genetics which indicates that Infants born with the cell protein called Rhesus (Rh) factor that their mothers are missing, have twice the risk for developing schizophrenia.  
  

DDN | Inmates sue about jail’s care response (Ohio)
Dayton Daily News story on a lawsuit filed by inmates at the Montgomery County Jail "to stop what they say is overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, inattention to the inmates' medical needs and other abuses." The lawsuit claims, for example, that "one inmate was denied his mental health medication for more than seven days."  
  

Cuts squeeze treatment of mentally ill (Colorado)
Denver Post story on the impact of an expected reduction of more than $20 million in programs that serve the mentally ill during the coming year.  
  

Mental health workers rally (Connecticut)
Norwich Bulletin story - "More than 100 people gathered inside the First Congregational Church of Willimantic Sunday night to rally against Gov. John G. Rowland's proposed budget cuts to the state Department of Mental Retardation."