Tuesday, April 22, 2003

University Study Looks at Parents' Attempts to Help Teenagers Cope After Terrorist Attacks
Ascribe Newswire story reprinted at PsycPORT - "After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, psychologists encouraged parents to talk with their children about the day's tragic events. But parental attempts to help their teenagers cope were not always effective and sometimes even detrimental, according to a new study by UC Irvine psychologists."  
  

Report Examines Custody of Mentally Ill
AP story at PsycPORT - "Thousands of children with severe mental illnesses are placed into state systems designed for abused or delinquent children in order to get treatment for their illnesses, congressional auditors reported Monday. Most of the children are teen boys, often with multiple problems. Many show behavior that threatens the safety of themselves and others. Tese children need treatment, but neither the child welfare system, which cares for abused and neglected kids who have to be removed from their parents, nor the justice system, which handles delinquents, was designed to treat them."  
  

Agencies challenge budget cuts (Pennsylvania)
Express-Times story - "More than 70 representatives of 50 Lehigh Valley social services agencies are ready to fight Gov. Ed Rendell's budget cuts, which they say could put some of them out of business. In a meeting Monday at the Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley offices, agency representatives organized to force action in Harrisburg to restore funding to human services. Attendees were from agencies that are contracted by Lehigh and Northampton counties to combat addiction, abuse and poverty-related problems to tens of thousands of area residents."  
  

240 families sought for childhood depression, conduct disorder study (Washington)
Seattle Press story - "Psychologists at the University of Washington trying to understand the underlying causes of childhood and adolescent depression and conduct disorder are looking for 240 Seattle-area 8- to 12-year-olds and one of their parents to participate in a new study. The research is part of a $1.4 million project funded by the National Institute of Mental Health to understand these conditions alone and in combination, according to Theodore Beauchaine, UW assistant professor of psychology."  
  

Mental Illness: Mental health care changes over time (Texas) News8 (Austin) story - "Caring for people with mental illnesses has always primarily been a state responsibility, not the federal government's. In Texas, state hospitals are at capacity and local mental health and mental retardation centers are underfunded, understaffed and under-serving. According to the Mental Health Association in Texas more than half a million people were considered at risk of a mental disorder and eligible to receive state care last year. However, only 30 percent of them got it." The story also includes an overview of the evolution of mental health care in the state from 1700 to the present, with a detailed timeline.  
  

Six mental health facilities to be shut in consolidation (Alabama)
Birmingham News story - "Alabama plans to close nearly half of its institutional homes for the mentally ill and mentally retarded in a massive consolidation of facilities, a state official said Monday. ... The number of facilities will drop from 14 to eight, Ziegler said. More than 300 patients are in the facilities that will be closed. Patients will be moved to other institutions, to group homes or back to their families with new support services from the state, according to an April 18 letter Mental Health Commissioner Kathy Sawyer sent to families and employees." See also the related story at WAFF, Families Plan to Fight Closing of Wallace Center and Plan would consolidate three mental health centers at Partlow at al.com.