Monday, July 28, 2003
National Council on Disability Says People With Disabilities Made Progress: More Needs To Be Done NCD press release - "The new report issued today from the National Council on Disability (NCD) concludes that people with disabilities made some progress, but more needs to be done. NCD's annual report,
National Disability Policy: A Progress Report, reviews federal policy activities by issue areas and covers the period from December 2001 through December 2002. As noted in the report, NCD has observed many examples of progress in disability policy. Among these are enactment of the Help America Vote Act for increasing access to elections for Americans with disabilities; establishment of the Presidential Commission on Mental Health to examine and recommend changes in our nation's mental health system; and the Supreme Court's ban on execution of persons with mental retardation. Despite reforms in disability policy intended to improve the lives of people with disabilities, many challenges remain for our citizens with disabilities who wish to be more independent, more productive and more engaged in their families and communities." See also the full report -
National Disability Policy: A Progress Report.
Selected Sessions from the 5th International Conference on Bipolar Disorder A new CME unit from
Medscape Conference Coverage, based on selected sessions at the Fifth International Conference on Bipolar Disorder, held in June 2003 in Pittsburgh. Topics include: Advances in the Treatment of Bipolar Depression, Use of Anticonvulsants and Bipolar Disorder and Children and Adolescents With Bipolar Disorder. [Viewing
Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].
Service for mental patients suffers after hospital closes (South Carolina) Story in the
Sun-News - "The closing of South Carolina's biggest mental hospital - not the budget cuts that state mental-health officials have cited - is the primary reason mentally ill people have languished in emergency rooms untreated for hours or even days, the
Charlotte Observer has found. The S.C. Department of Mental Health decided to close S.C. State Hospital in Columbia in February 2000 and has been winding down its operations since then. That's put tremendous pressure on the state's other mental hospitals and on emergency rooms at local hospitals around the state that weren't prepared for the growing caseloads."
Residents wait for services (Wisconsin) Marshfield News Herald story - "Tight state and county budgets are expected to make the wait longer for more than 100 Wood County residents seeking services, according to county department leaders. ... Unified Services - which offers help to people challenged with alcohol and other drug abuse, as well as mental health difficulties and physical and other disabilities - has 104 people waiting for help, according to a list recently published in an annual department report. Lack of money, staff, equipment and facilities have all contributed to the wait list."
Geauga mental health officials hope tax vote will revive agencies (Ohio) Story in the
Plain Dealer - "Geauga County's teetering mental health care system, which has been slowly dismantled by budget cuts over the last two years, will be rebuilt if voters approve a tax increase Aug. 5, officials said. ... The money would allow reinstatement of more than 40 social service programs that were squeezed out by tight finances, said Jim Adams, executive director of the county agency."
Lost along the way: Seven Counties Services has cut its mental-health programs (Kentucky)
Courier-Journal story - "Six months after Kentucky's largest community mental-health program cut its budget by $4 million, psychiatrists, social workers, judges and others say that patients are being harmed and other agencies are becoming overburdened. While Seven Counties Services continues to provide for 31,000 mentally ill and mentally retarded people in the Louisville region, it has largely stopped being the safety net for the uninsured..."
Mental health center tries for $2 million (New Hampshire) Concord Monitor story - "In a year of fund-raising, Riverbend Community Mental Health has raised $1.6 million from nearly 400 business and individual donors - $400,000 less than Concord Hospital collected in one day from its largest donor alone. Yet Riverbend, no less than the hospital, considers its fund drive a success. The two institutions are actually corporate cousins, linked under a parent company called Capital Region Health Care. But when it comes to fund-raising prowess, the mental health center is the hospital's poor relation...."
