Monday, March 08, 2004
Legislative malpractice (Massachusetts)Ediroial in the
Boston Globe - "State senators are justified in their concern about the increasing tendency of doctors to prescribe psychotropic drugs for children. Some of the drugs can have serious side effects, and doctors should take the time to describe them to parents, both to give parents the choice of rejecting them and to make parents alert to side effects if they appear. But making sure this happens is not easy to legislate. A clumsy attempt to do so was approved by the Senate's Health Care Committee before it caught the attention of the state's doctors and mental health officials..."
Advocates seek lost AMHI graves (Maine)Kennebec Journal story - "Maine advocates for the mentally ill have joined efforts in more than 20 other states to identify and honor patients who died and were buried at state psychiatric hospitals such as the Augusta Mental Health Institute -- and often were forgotten later. Identifying those buried at public psychiatric hospitals in other states has brought a sense of worth to those involved who suffer from mental illness, said Patricia E. Deegan, a leader in the national movement of people with psychiatric disabilities to restore graves at state hospitals." See also
A better place to get better in the Portland Press Journal - "After 163 years, the Augusta Mental Health Institute will be moving patients into a new building, called Riverview Psychiatric Center, later this month."
Mental Health Role To Expand At Garner (Connecticut)Newtown Bee story - "Garner Correctional Institution, the state's high-security prison on Nunnawauk Road that has long specialized in housing inmates with mental health problems, will expand that role in the coming months as it becomes the state Department of Correction's (DOC) prime facility for prisoners with serious mental disorders. At a February 26 session at Garner, Warden Giovanny Gomez and other DOC officials described the planned consolidation of mental health services at the 260,000-square-foot institution, which sits on a 118-acre property. The consolidation is intended to concentrate DOC inmates with serious mental health problems in a facility that is staffed with employees specializing in mental health care..."
Proposed mental health cuts at issue (Missouri)Kansas City Star story - "Proposed service cuts at the Western Missouri Mental Health Center could mean that more mentally ill persons will have to be jailed or left on the streets, police warned Friday. 'What will we do with these people? These people are in crisis,' said Jackson County Sheriff Tom Phillips. 'We want to prevent tragedies from happening.' Phillips and other law enforcement officials expressed their concerns at a meeting in Kansas City with Missouri Sen. Mary Bland and Reps. Melba Curls and Sharon Saunders-Brooks."
Mental health introduces changes (California)Times-Standard story - "Humboldt County Mental Health officials unveiled their new medical system to a crowd of at least 50 people Thursday night. Humboldt is one of three counties that recently received a grant to participate in the California Medication Algorithm Project, a system designed to better ensure that mentally ill people receive the right amounts of the right medications. The system was created in Texas, and San Diego mental health agencies were the first in California to use it. Humboldt County Mental Health staff traveled to San Diego recently to receive training. They presented the project at a National Alliance for the Mentally Ill Humboldt meeting."
'Carving out' mental health care (Illinois)News Gazette story on changes to area mental health services - "...PersonalCare, which is part of Bethesda, Md.-based Coventry Health Care, declined to answer questions about its new partnership with MHNet, but its contract with that organization follows a growing, controversial trend among managed care companies to "carve out" the mental health portion of their members' benefits by turning them over to a separate company to administer. 'There are good carve-outs and bad carve-outs. It depends on how they're run,' said Mary Graham, a spokeswoman for the National Mental Health Association. On the positive side, Graham said, it can mean people are dealing with an organization that really understands the mental health system and often has good access to specialists. But on the down side, for some members it often means reduced services and less coordination between their mental health and primary care doctors, she said. ... The American Medical Association says it opposes carve-outs of mental health services in general, but because so many people are now being affected by these arrangements, the organization has established some patient protection guidelines that it encourages managed-care companies to follow."
Willmar mental-health center likely to close (Minnesota)St. Cloud Times story - "The probable closing of a mental-health hospital an hour away from St. Cloud has prompted local officials to prepare to treat some of the state's most-vulnerable patients. Willmar Regional Treatment Center is one of the facilities that is expected to close as part of the Minnesota Department of Human Services' move to "community-based" mental-health services. Some of the regional treatment centers' patients will be sent to other programs, while the rest will be treated closer to their hometowns. The state has asked counties to form plans to deal with these patients locally. That would clear the way for state officials to ask the Legislature for permission to close the regional centers..."
Moseley appointed state mental health director (North Carolina)Story in the
Free Press - "One Lenoir County man's long career in mental health took a significant step forward Friday, following his appointment to the forefront of a massive overhaul of the state system. Mike Moseley will end his tenure March 31 as Caswell Center director. On April 1, he takes over as director of the state's Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services. He will continue to live in Kinston."
