Wednesday, January 22, 2003

The Cost of Protecting Vulnerable Children III What Factors Affect States’ Fiscal Decisions?
Report from the Urban Institute (in Adobe Acrobat format), available at the Open Minds web site - "This paper presents the findings of the 2001 Urban Institute Child Welfare Survey, which collected SFY 2000 expenditures. In addition to spending by source and by use, changes in spending between SFY 1998 and SFY 2000 and, when possible, between SFY 1996 and SFY 2000 are also presented. This survey was designed to identify changes in child welfare spending following states’ implementation of ASFA and PRWORA (commonly referred to as welfare reform). While the Urban Institute’s 1999 survey captured an early glimpse of the effects of welfare reform on child welfare spending, the 2001 survey sought to examine these effects after states had fully implemented reforms."  
  

One in Five Depressed People Have Tried Suicide
Reuters Health (UK) story at Yahoo - "About one in five depressed patients attempt suicide and 47% think about suicide before their condition is diagnosed, according to a survey of psychiatrists released on Monday."  
  

Legislators get virtual-reality dose of schizophrenia with simulator (Washington)
Seattle Times story on a virtual reality equipment supplied to legislators by members of NAMI Whatcom County "to see and hear delusions that a person with schizophrenia could experience after a few weeks without medications."  
  

Jail poses danger to mentally ill (Michigan)
Detroit News story on the "greater number of lawbreakers with mental disturbances ... being incarcerated as a side effect of psychiatric hospital closings and the trend of community-based care, according to corrections officials and health specialists."  
  

McLellan wants medicare expanded to cover home care, some drug costs (Canada)
Canadian Press story on calls by Health Minister Anne McLellan for "a dramatic expansion of medicare to cover home care, end-of-life care and catastrophic drug costs," suggesting that "half of the population should, within five years, have access to 24-hour, seven-day service from multi-disciplinary health teams."  
  

DJC.COM: State cuts could hurt local programs (Washington)
Brief Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce item - "King County's already reduced social service budget will be further affected should Gov. Gary Locke's (D) state budget pass as proposed."  
  

SAMHSA Takes First Step Toward Reshaping Addiction Block Grant
January 10 article at Join Together - "For years, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has been talking about pushing states to be more accountable for how they spend federal block-grant funds. In late December, absent much fanfare, SAMHSA finally unveiled its proposal for transforming the addiction and mental-health block grants into more demanding -- yet more flexible -- Performance Partnership grants. The proposal provides a rudimentary start to the kind of system that many in Congress would like to see -- in which states can determine their own needs, but in turn are expected to meet performance goals identified in partnership with the federal goverment."  
  

Groups seek 50% alcohol tax hike (Indiana)
Indianapolis Star story - "Health and safety advocates want to increase taxes on every can of beer, glass of wine and bottle of booze sold by 50 percent to raise more money for alcohol rehab programs and efforts to curb underage drinking."  
  

Union and state resume contract talks (Missouri)
News Tribune story - "Contract negotiations resumed this morning in the Truman State Office Building auditorium between state officials and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union. Both sides have been talking since last July about terms for employees in the state Mental Health Department and in Missouri veterans homes."