Tuesday, July 29, 2003

Preserving Recent Progress for Health Coverage of Children and Parents: New Tensions Emerge
This page indexes documents from a policy briefing convened by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, at which they released ".... a new survey of the states showing that as states struggle with their worst fiscal crisis since World War II, health coverage for low-income families may be at risk. The report finds that state actions in the past several years to simplify enrollment procedures and expand eligibility for coverage may have plateaued with some actions a harbinger of future problems." See the news release, the executive summary, the full report (Preserving Recent Progress for Health Coverage of Children and Parents: New Tensions Emerge), The Health Insurance Status of Low-Income Children and Their Parents: Recent Trends in Coverage and State-Level Data, and earlier, related documents (all in Adobe Acrobat format).  
  

Boston health agency says drug deaths rise 76 percent (Massachusetts)
Boston Globe story - "Deaths from heroin and other narcotics in Boston rose by 76 percent from 1998 to 2001 because of an influx of cheaper and deadlier heroin, according to the city's annual health report, which is being released today. Public health officials say the disturbing trend is continuing, as budget cuts eliminate substance-abuse treatment options."  
  

Virginia advocate for mentally ill dies at 37
AP story at HamptonRoads.com on the death of Caitlin Wright Binning, who "played a pivotal role in exposing abuse and neglect in the state's mental-health system." Binning was a former director of research at the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill-Virginia, and spurred a federal investigation after documenting a death in Central State Hospital in 1996. She also helped create the Virginia Office for Protection and Advocacy and worked to change the law "so that Virginia no longer would indefinitely institutionalize mentally ill people who pleaded guilty to minor crimes because of insanity."  
  

Supervisors Learn more about Privatizing (Iowa)
Muscatine Journal story - "The Muscatine County Board of Supervisors on Monday learned more about how privatizing its mental health services could affect the county. The board is considering cutting services that are not mandated by state or federal law in hopes of saving the county money. A decision is expected in September. Mike Johannsen, director of Muscatine County's Community Services and the Central Point of Coordination administrator, responded to several questions during his monthly meeting with the board..."  
  

Johanns weighing state mental hospital closures (Nebraska)
Story at Fremont.com - "Gov. Mike Johanns toured the state's three mental hospitals Monday as part of an evaluation that could lead to the closing of up to two of the facilities. ... He toured the facilities with Omaha Sen. Jim Jensen, chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee. Jensen's bill (LB724) last session called for a comprehensive study of the state's mental-health system — which could result in one or two of the centers being closed in favor of more community-based programs."  
  

Alternatives to jailing mentally ill proposed (Michigan)
Story in The Macomb Daily - "Macomb County law enforcement and mental health care professionals are hoping to create a special court that would divert mentally ill criminal defendants to treatment programs rather than jail cells. The proposed mental health court could save space at a time when the Macomb County Jail is at capacity and reduce the number of repeat offenders by getting the mentally ill the treatment they lack. The program would be limited to nonviolent offenders guilty of misdemeanors."  
  

Childhood history of adult mental health disorders
Story at ClinnixPro.net, based on research published in the Archives of General Psychiatry - "Most adult mental disorders are preceded by their juvenile counterparts, according to researchers from the UK, the US, and New Zealand, and this could affect strategies for reducing psychiatric disorders in the population. Julia Kim-Cohen, from the Institute of Psychiatry in London, and colleagues from the University of Wisconsin in the US, and the University of Otago in New Zealand, followed back 1,037 people participating in the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, a prospective longitudinal study based in Dunedin, New Zealand." The full article is only available for a fee, but there is an abstract at the Archives of General Psychiatry web site.  
  

Mental-health clients, workers protest cuts (Michigan)
Kalamazoo Gazette story on about 100 people "...who packed a Kalamazoo Community Mental Health Services board meeting Monday evening to protest a plan that would eliminate about 43 staff positions that provide services for more than 500 clients."  
  

South Carolina governor to hear mental health priorities
Charlotte Observer story - "S.C. Department of Mental Health officials are scheduled to appear in front of Gov. Mark Sanford today to present their budget priorities for the year. The hearing comes on the heels of recent criticism by mental health advocates that department mismanagement is partly to blame for long patient waits for admission to state mental hospitals."