Friday, November 07, 2003
Johanns: Nebraska in mental health crisis Lincoln Journal Star story - "Gov. Mike Johanns says half of the counties in Nebraska are in a crisis over available mental health services. Omaha Sen. Jim Jensen says the state mental health system needs reforms, but is mum over details. Norfolk clinical social worker Kris Boe Simmons says the money is not there to convert to more community-based programs as Johanns has suggested. The problem, to Johanns, is about 20 counties have a single mental health practitioner and 20-plus others don't have any. ... He said people with mental illness in those 40 or so counties without services are particularly in trouble because the day-to-day opportunities to manage the condition don't exist. "
Privacy Rule Shows Need For Documentation Standards
Psychiatric News story on a January 2003 HHS report "describing many of the negative consequences of the failure of managed care organizations (MCOs) to reach an agreement with psychiatrists about what information the MCOs can require from them about patients. The report,
Privacy Issues in Mental Health and Substance Abuse Treatment: Information Sharing Between Providers and Managed Care Organizations, came about as a result of a meeting with senior HHS officials in which then-APA president Richard Harding, M.D., and president-elect Paul Appelbaum, M.D., presented member concerns about interpretation of the 'minimum necessary information' language of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)..." See also the
full report.
State Limits Insurer Access To Psychiatry Records Psychiatric News story - " Psychiatrists pressured by the New York Department of Health to turn over their medical records to Oxford without obtaining a signed patient consent were vindicated by the department’s directive to all managed care companies. When Oxford Health Plans began auditing psychiatrists’ patient records last fall, psychiatrists and others raised concerns that patients had not authorized release of their records. Some psychiatrists asked Oxford for a copy of the signed release from each of their patients involved in the audit and were told that patients authorized release of their medical records when they signed their enrollment form..."
System Must Restore Medical Model, DB President Tells Lawmakers Psychiatric News story - " The president of the Michigan Psychiatric Society says that the emphasis in public psychiatry must move from the current social services model to a medical model. Michael Engel, D.O., president of the Michigan Psychiatric Society (MPS), brought APA’s "Vision for the Mental Health System" to members of the Michigan State Senate in September. State Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema (R) ordered joint hearings of the Senate’s Committee on Health Policy and the Subcommittee on Community Health of the Appropriations Committee after the
Detroit News published a front-page series titled "Michigan’s Mentally Ill: Crisis in Care." The series described problems in the state’s mental health system."
Sides agree to AMHI improvements list (Maine)
Maine Today story - "State mental health officials and lawyers for nearly 4,000 former psychiatric patients treated at the Augusta Mental Health Institute over the past 15 years have agreed on a list of priority improvements that should be made in the state mental health system. That agreement comes despite the fact that the sides are locked in a legal battle headed to the state's highest court over the state's obligations under a court order signed by state officials in 1990 known as the AMHI consent decree."
Many Substance Abusers 'Not Ready' to Seek Treatment
PR Newswire press release at
Yahoo - "A new report from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) shows that even when people recognize they are having problems with alcohol or drugs many do not seek treatment because they are "just not ready" to stop using. The report also found that many people do not believe they can afford to obtain treatment. The report estimates there were about 6 million persons with illicit drug dependence or abuse in 2002 that did not seek specialty treatment for their illicit drug use. There were an estimated 17 million persons in 2002 with alcohol dependence or abuse who did not receive specialty treatment." See also the full report,
Reasons for Not Receiving Substance Abuse Treatment, was developed from
SAMHSA's National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
Mental-health problems 'severe' in rural Utah
Salt Lake Tribune story - "...One of the most overlooked yet serious issues facing rural counties in Utah is the lack of access to mental-health and substance-abuse care. Suicide rates in Utah are higher than the national average -- 16.3 per 100,000 people compared with 12 per 100,000 -- according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And a higher percentage of people in Utah's rural and urban areas reported having bad mental-health days than what is typical in the United States -- 42 percent compared to 33 percent, the Utah Department of Health found."
Area mental health center shares South Carolina DMH grant Story in the
Times and Democrat - "The S.C. Department of Mental Health has awarded over $1.7 million in grants to 10 of its 17 community mental health centers across South Carolina, including the Orangeburg Area Mental Health Center. The dual purpose of the grants is for mental health centers to implement programs which will help reduce the numbers of people with mental illness waiting in local emergency departments and to reduce the number of beds used in the state's two psychiatric hospitals, the Columbia Behavioral Health System and Patrick B. Harris Psychiatric Hospital in Anderson."
