Wednesday, December 18, 2002

Medscape Journal Scan: Psychiatry, November 2002
"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." See also the journal scan on child and adolescent psychiatry. [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

Experts Debate Key Controversies in Prescribing Antipsychotics for Schizophrenia
The second part of a report in The Brown University Psychopharmacology Update at Medscape summarizing the proceedings of The Mount Sinai Conference -- "a gathering of investigators who hoped to reach a consensus about whether the evidence base concerning antipsychotic prescribing for the treatment of schizophrenia was clear enough to support establishing a particular clinical practice as a treatment standard." Part One was published last month. [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

Partnership For Solutions
This project of Johns Hopkins University and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is subtitled "Better Lives for People With Chronic Conditions." The web site includes background material, statistics and research summaries, resources and a chartbook (Adobe Acrobat format, 48 pages) "that takes a comprehensive look at chronic care in America today and in the future."  
  

2002.12.16: HHS Approves Arizona's Request to Expand Medicaid to Working Individuals with a Disability
HHS press release - "HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today announced approval of Arizona's plan to allow people with disabilities who return to work to retain their Medicaid coverage -- removing a key barrier to allow more disabled Arizonans to lead productive lives." See also the press release on the approval of a New Hampshire plan to give families with Medicaid-eligible disabled children greater control of the care and services their children receive.  
  

About 60,000 could lose health coverage (Washington)
News Tribune story - "With health care costs rising up to 14 percent a year, Washington can no longer afford to be a pioneer in providing coverage for its poorest citizens, Gov. Gary Locke said Tuesday as he proposed paring more than $800 million from state medical programs. Nearly 60,000 people - mainly the working poor - would lose their state-subsidized health insurance under Locke's 2003-05 budget proposal." See also Locke cuts deep and wide in new budget (Seattle Post Intelligencer).  
  

Social services in danger (Kentucky)
Courier-Journal story - "From abused women and children to the mentally ill and mentally retarded, thousands of Kentucky's most vulnerable citizens could see vastly reduced government services because of plunging state revenues, Gov. Paul Patton warned yesterday. The state's safety net for the needy already is stretched, and many people will suffer if further cuts are necessary in programs that help them, Patton said in the third of a series of news conferences to spell out the details of the state's budget crisis."  
  

Warner eyes shifting money (Virginia) 
Story in the Washington Times on a proposal Gov. Mark R. Warner to "close wings in five mental hospitals over the next 18 months and shift hundreds of patients in them to community-based, state-funded care programs." See also Mental health lobby pleads for assistance (Springfield Times) and Warner wants larger mental health budget (Daily Press).  
  

Cuts to leave mentally ill on the streets (UK)
Story in The Guardian - "Patients with mental health problems could end up on the streets because councils are faced with diverting money into different services to avoid new government penalties. Mental health charities are concerned that hundreds of pioneering community care projects around the country may lose their funding within the year."