Monday, January 05, 2004
Editor's NotePULSE resumes today after a holiday break, and will take a few days to catch up. Today's focus is on news stories from around the US, while tomorrow will include news from Canada and the UK and new reports, articles, clinical studies of interest and new web resources. Please contact me directly with any comments or suggestions about how PULSE can better meet your information needs. - Bill Davis
Senators scrutinize mental health plan (Nebraska)Fremont Tribune story - "Gov. Mike Johanns has some work to do if he plans to get his sweeping overhaul of the state's mental health system through the Legislature. In an Associated Press pre-session survey of Nebraska's 49 lawmakers, less than half said they supported the idea of closing state mental hospitals in Norfolk and Hastings and bolstering community based treatment programs. Eight senators said they supported the idea, while 15 said they were leaning that way. Five lawmakers were against the plan and eight said they were leaning that way. Thirteen lawmakers did not answer the questions..."
"Crime, Fraud, Patient Abuse: Welcome to the World of Psychiatry"Press release from the Citizens Commission on Human Rights at
US Newswire - "A controversial exhibit on psychiatry, recently featured in the
Chicago Tribune, will be open to the public in downtown Chicago as part of a world tour that has included stops in Rome, Berlin, Frankfurt, Paris, and the Federal legislature in Mexico City among the 33 cities and six countries where it has been displayed. In the United States it has been featured at the state Capitols of Georgia, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, and a federal building in New York City. The organizers of the exhibit, the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a mental health watchdog, say that the psychiatric abuses portrayed throughout the exhibit though graphic, are a documented portrayal of the rampant abuses committed daily under the guise of mental health -- and effecting some of our most defenseless citizens -- particularly children, the elderly and the mentally or emotionally vulnerable." See also the
Citizens Commission on Human Rights web site.
More Beds For Mental Health Patients, Still Not Enough (Arkansas)Arkansas NBC story - " Five more beds opened for mental patients in Northwest Arkansas, but psychiatrists say that barely puts a dent in the area's need for beds. The beds will provide in-patient treatment for those who can't afford mental healthcare. The beds go for the uninsured and those on Medicaid. ... Patients will continue going without beds, often landing them in the emergency room, and most hospitals are not equiped for psychiatric acute care. "
Mental health unit opens at prison (New Mexico)News-Bulletin story - "Hundreds of state inmates in need of mental-health treatment will soon have a state-of-the-art facility to better serve their needs. The construction of a new 104-bed mental-health facility located at the Central New Mexico Correctional Facility in Los Lunas is scheduled to be completed by mid-February, said Warden Ron Lytle. ... Currently, there are 900 inmates within the state of New Mexico who have been identified as needing some type of mental-health treatment. Corrections Secretary Joe Williams, who toured the new facility in Los Lunas, said this is just the first step in trying to help inmates in need of treatment."
In Mental Health Research, a Clash Over Funding PrioritiesDecember 24
Washington Post story - "A recent report criticizing the funding priorities of the federal government's National Institute of Mental Health has reignited controversy over the organization's direction and destiny -- with the top official at the institute echoing some of the criticism himself. The percentage of funds devoted to severe mental illnesses has shrunk even as the institute's budget has doubled, according to the report issued last month by psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey's Treatment Advocacy Center, the Public Citizen Health Research Group and other mental health experts. ... The report has found more critics than friends. Many health groups accuse Torrey of using misleading statistics, and caricature instead of scientific criticism. Advocacy groups for illnesses not included on Torrey's list of serious conditions criticize the report for its lack of inclusiveness, while neuroscientists and psychologists who do basic research argue that the study of normal behavior and brain biology is essential to developing new treatments for disorders. " If you have trouble accessing the
Post story, it's been reprinted, too, at the
Contra Costa Times. See also the
report at the Treatment Advocacy Center's web site.
Mental health board review has mixed results (Georgia)December 22
AP story at
AccessNorthGa.com - " A state review has found that a community mental health board in northwest Georgia still has not set up a system for finding out whether its own failings might have contributed to patient deaths since late 2002. The review is a follow-up to a similar study a year ago that found that mismanagement by the Highland Rivers Community Service Board might have contributed to the deaths of six of 10 disabled people in a six-month period in 2002. Investigators with the state Department of Human Resources said in their latest review that Highland Rivers, which operates mental health and addition programs in 11 counties north and west of metro Atlanta, is making progress with its problems, including dealing with patient deaths."
Mental health care has come far in 40 years but stigma remainsColumn by Ken Stewart in the
Tullahoma News (Tennessee) - "In 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed into law the "Community Mental Health Act." This piece of legislation resulted in funding for the establishment of community based mental health services. Prior to this time, services for the mentally ill were limited to large state institutions. These facilities housed thousands of residents who had little hope of ever returning to their homes and families. ... Despite the strides that have been made, fears and prejudices still exist that prevent people who may need help from getting the proper treatment. Among the general population, half of those in need of behavioral health services never seek treatment..."
Board studies mental health (Oregon)Statesman-Journal story - "Gov. Ted Kulongoski has named a task force for the first broad examination of Oregons mental-health system in at least a decade. ... Tillamook County Sheriff Todd Anderson, who sits on the task force as a representative of the Oregon Sheriffs Association, said he hopes it can do for mental health what 1993 legislation did for support of children and families. The law set up a network of county commissions to direct money into prevention programs aimed at youths who could fall into poverty and crime. "
Mental-health issues burden county (Colorado)Story in
The Coloradan - "One in five people in Colorado will need mental-health care this year. Fewer than a third of them will receive it. Those are key findings in what many health advocates agree is the most comprehensive report on mental health in Colorado in a decade. The report, completed earlier this year by The Colorado Trust, a nonprofit foundation, found that shrinking public funding for mental-health care and rising costs pose one of the biggest challenges to the state -- probably for years to come. Larimer County is no exception to the challenge as people with mental-health problems show up in emergency rooms, the county jail, doctors' offices, homeless shelters and places other than the psychiatric clinics that are best suited to help them before their lives spiral out of control..."
AMHI receiver orders changes (Maine)Maine Today story from Blethen Maine Newspapers - "Widespread changes in the operation and focus of the 163-year-old Augusta Mental Health Institute must be undertaken in the next several months to meet court-ordered requirements for reform, under the terms of a report by a Maryland woman appointed by a Maine judge to take over the hospital. ..."
Law to help mentally ill is in limbo (California)San Francisco Gate story on Laura's Law, "....a state statute that gives counties the power to force the most severely mentally ill into outpatient treatment. But a year after the Legislature passed Laura's Law, even its name is controversial. Critics say naming the measure after Laura Wilcox was intended to gain sympathy for what is one of the most volatile topics in the mental health world -- forced treatment. ... So far, only one county, Los Angeles, has implemented even a tiny pilot program under the law, which allows forced outpatient treatment after a court hearing for people who are severely mentally ill and have refused voluntary services. The program there, under scrutiny so intense that the head of the agency running it says she has "an advisory board watching our advisory board," has not even filled its maximum of 35 slots. ..."
Burton doctor controversy 'highlights shortage of specialists' (New Zealand)Story in
Stuff - "Continued controversy surrounding a Southland doctor charged over inadequately caring for a patient, shows the difficulty recruiting specialists, a medical group says. Dr Peter Fisher was found guilty of professional misconduct by the Medical Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal, over his care of Mark Burton, who was an inpatient at Southland Hospital mental health unit in 2001. Shortly after being discharged from the unit, Burton drove to Queenstown and stabbed his mother, Paddy, to death. He was later found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity. "
