Thursday, May 15, 2003

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Annual Report
Includes information on the Foundation's grants and contracts in the past year. See also the printable Adobe Acrobat version of the report.  
  

Task force begins look at Brown County Mental Health Center (Wisconsin)
Green Bay Press-Gazette story - "The handpicked task force advising Brown County Executive Carol Kelso on the Brown County Mental Health Center held its first meeting Wednesday. While much of the committee’s discussion centered on the economic challenges facing Brown County in providing services to the mentally ill, Kelso stressed that it’s also important to keep health-care tends in mind."  
  

Healthcare for US children: controversial budget-cut target
Christian Science Monitor article on the curtailing of health insurance for children through the SCHIP program - "From Connecticut to Montana, budget cutbacks are affecting everything from gym classes to fire stations. But one of the most emotional areas that may be pruned is children's healthcare. While every downturn brings fiscal dilemmas, the current quandary poses piercing questions about whether medical care is a right or a commodity, and where federal responsibility lies in caring for the vulnerable."  
  

Mentally ill are more often victim than perpetrator
Article in the Herald-Review - "According to the National Mental Health Association 1 in 5 Americans has a mental illness, which means more than 54 million Americans live with a mental disorder ranging from schizophrenia, bi-polar depression, dissociative disorder to obsessive compulsive behavior, anorexia and bulimia in any given year. This makes mental illness more prevalent than cancer, lung and heart disease combined." The story notes, too, that a recent study conducted by researchers at North Carolina State University and Duke University led by Sociologist Virginia Hiday "found that people with mental illnesses are twice as likely to be victims of violent crime than others."  
  

Senate panel approves Nevada mental health spending
Las Vegas Sun story - "A Nevada Senate panel has approved the governor's request to spend $372 million on mental health programs over the next two years - a nearly 40 percent increase over the current budget. Some of the increase endorsed Monday by the Finance Committee would pay for faster diagnosis and treatment of people with mental problems who are filling the hospital emergency rooms in Las Vegas."  
  

Radical shakeup for Bay mental health (New Zealand)
Story at MyTown.com - "Hawke's Bay's troubled mental health service is in for a radical shakeup that mental health advocates say could transform it from one of the worst in the country into one of the best. Yesterday the Hawke's Bay District Health Board voted to go ahead with the proposed overhaul, the result of a five-month review."  
  

Mental health center official wary of state's budget woes (Maine)
Kennebec Journal story nased on remarks by Kennebec Valley Mental Health Center Interim CEO Thomas McAdam on the impact of proposed state funding cuts.