Friday, October 03, 2003
NAMI Supports "Keeping Families Together"Act NAMI press release - "NAMI, the Nation’s Voice on Mental Illness, supports legislation being introduced today by U.S. Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Norm Coleman (R-MN) and Representatives Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) and Pete Stark (D-CA). The legislation addresses a scandal that has lingered too long in states throughout the nation—in which parents have been forced to give up custody of tens of thousands of children and adolescents with mental illnesses in order to secure necessary treatment. ..."
HHS Announces $7.7 Million to Help People Enter, Stay, In Substance Abuse Treatment SAMHSA press release - "Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today announced 13 cooperative agreements totaling $7.7 million over 3 years to improve client access to substance abuse treatment and retention in treatment. The awards are designed to help implement effective clinical and administrative practices that will encourage people to seek addiction treatment and remain in the full course of treatment."
Nearly Half of People Receiving Addiction Treatment Were Involved in Both Drug and Alcohol Abuse
SAMHSA press release - "Nearly half of all 1.1 million people receiving treatment for drug or alcohol addiction were in treatment for both drug and alcohol abuse according to the 2002 National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services released today by HHS’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. ... 'This survey tells us where the substance abuse treatment system is going, to help us analyze system trends and forecast resource requirements,' said SAMHSA Administrator Charles G. Curie. 'At SAMHSA, building treatment capacity is a top priority. We are hopeful that the President’s Access to Recovery program will be funded to allow an additional 100,000 people to enter treatment and rebuild their lives.' ”
HHS awards $11.7 million to states to develop strategies to improve access to health insurance October 1 HHS press release - "HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today announced $11.7 million in grants to support projects in 30 states, the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands to develop plans to provide affordable health insurance for uninsured residents. ... Grantees first conduct studies to identify uninsured residents and the reasons why they are uninsured. Then states use this information to determine the most effective ways to provide high-quality, affordable health insurance, using plans offered to government employees or other benchmark health plans as a model."
State restores Medicaid coverage (Massachusetts)
Story in the
Boston Globe - " Massachusetts will begin restoring health insurance to thousands of low-income residents who lost it five months ago, but the state's retooled Medicaid program for the long-term unemployed will target a poorer population and includes an enrollment cap that will shut out some qualified applicants for the first time. MassHealth Essential, which the state will launch today, will cover 36,000 adults who make $9,000 or less annually. Many of them were kicked off the rolls of another Medicaid program, MassHealth Basic, when the Legislature scaled it back last year to save money."
Optimizing Treatment for Patients with Schizophrenia: Targeting Positive Outcomes A new CME unit available through
Medscape (available in two different versions, one employing
Flash, one employing slides and
Real Audio), with six sections - The Science of Antipsychotics: Mechanistic Insight, Management of Acute Psychosis from Emergency to Stabilization, Beyond Control of Acute Exacerbation: Enhancing Affective and Cognitive Outcomes, Obesity, Diabetes, and Metabolic Syndrome: New Challenges in Antipsychotic Drug Therapy, Factors in Antipsychotic Drug Selection: Tolerability Considerations and Long-term Treatment Goals: Enhancing Healthy Outcomes. [Viewing
Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].
Olanzapine Associated With Lower Rate of Extrapyramidal Symptoms Than Other Antipsychotics
Medscape Medical News story - "Olanzapine was associated with the fewest patients with extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS) at six months compared with baseline, according to the results of a large prospective trial comparing antipsychotics presented on Sept. 21 during the 16th European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) Annual Congress held in Prague, the Czech Republic." [Viewing
Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].
Those in the know help mentally ill (Wisconsin)
Story in the
Capitol Times - "They are people who know what it is to be so paralyzed by depression or overwhelmed by psychosis that getting out of bed to brush their teeth seems impossible. Such life experience - even in today's slowly more accepting culture - might count them out for some jobs. But it's the right experience for their jobs helping others cope with mental illness as aides at the Mental Health Center of Dane County's Emergency Services Unit."
International Battlefield Shares Common Ground in D.C.
NAMI press release reprinted at
Yahoo on NAMI's Global Partnership Initiative this week at NAMI headquarters in Virginia - "From differing continents, governments, languages and cultures, the same concerns of fighting stigma, finding funding, gaining access for people with mental illnesses to needed services and treatments were the uniting chords in a dialogue designed to strengthen mental health advocates and their organizations worldwide."
Research Breakthrough in Understanding Treatment-Resistant Depression (UK) Press release from the Clinical Neuroscience Research Centre reprinted at
Yahoo on research published in the latest in issue of
Biological Psychiatry - "Around 5 million people in the UK experience depression at any one time. Whilst a number of successful treatments, both pharmacological and psychotherapeutic, are available and many people make a full recovery about 30 - 40% of people are resistant to conventional therapies. For them their depression is an enduring, debilitating disease and for some, the only treatment options left include psychosurgery and ECT. Now an international team of researchers have discovered that brain activity differs significantly between healthy individuals and those suffering from treatment-resistant clinical depression. ... The study, the most significant to date to have investigated dysfunction in different parts of the brain in treatment-resistant depression, also heralds a new era in drug development. There are already benchmark drugs for treatment-resistant schizophrenia, but there is no equivalent treatment for treatment-resistant depression at the moment. This development in the understanding of the biological basis of treatment-resistant depression gives hope to scientists searching for a much-needed 'atypical' antidepressant."
Staff decry survey on Human Services reorganization plan (Vermont) Brattleboro Reformer story - "As the Vermont Agency of Human Services attempts an extensive reorganization, employees and providers expressed concern Thursday over the data the agency has used. Approximately 70 representatives of social agencies in Windham County attended a four-hour informational session at the American Legion, hosted by the agency as it determines how to streamline its services. ... The survey at the center of the controversy outlined five perceived problems with the agency, and asked employees, providers, consumers and others involved with the agency to agree or disagree with various statements and rank the seriousness of the problem."
Drug-free option helping mental health patients (New Zealand)
New Zealand Herald story - "People with schizophrenia should be given choices other than medication to help treat their illness, says a British psychology professor. Professor Richard Bentall of Manchester University has been in Auckland this week teaching health workers how to use cognitive behaviour therapy for people suffering delusions. He says mounting evidence shows the treatment can have a positive impact on mental health, in conjunction with medication or on its own."
