Wednesday, April 07, 2004

Improving Depression Care Has Long-Lasting Benefits for African Americans and Hispanics
US Newswire press release reprinted at the NAMI web site - "Quality improvement programs that encouraged depressed patients to undergo standard treatments for depression (psychotherapy or antidepressant medication) and gave them and their doctors up-to- date information and resources to increase access to treatments reduced depression rates among African Americans and Hispanics 5 years after the start of the 6 to 12 month programs. The study, supported by the National Institute of Mental Health and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, is published in the April issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry."  
  

SCHIP Changes in a Difficult Budget Climate: A Three-State Site Visit Report
A report (in Adobe Acrobat format) from the National Academy for State Heath Policy - " The National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) conducted site visits to three states— Texas, Utah and Virginia—between December 2003 and February 2004 to gather information about programmatic changes to SCHIP in the wake of recent budget debates. The site visits were two days long and included meetings with SCHIP staff, consumer advocates, health plan representatives, and lawmakers. The purpose of the site visits was to gain a deeper understanding of issues and challenges confronting states in the current fiscal environment."  
  

Medicaid: A Lower-Cost Approach to Serving a High-Cost Population
A policy brief from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Unisured that "brings new analysis to the debate concerning the efficiency of Medicaid versus private health insurance as a mechanism for covering low-income children and adults."  
  

A 'Flip-Flop' on Patients' Right to Sue?
April 5 Washington Post story - "On Oct. 17, 2000, in a presidential debate against Democratic candidate Al Gore, then-Gov. George W. Bush of Texas promised a patients' bill of rights like the one in his state, including a right to sue managed-care companies for wrongfully refusing to cover needed treatment. ... Today, legislation for a federal patients' bill of rights is moribund in Congress. And the Bush administration's Justice Department is asking the Supreme Court to block lawsuits under the very Texas law Bush touted in 2000..."  
  

Drug makers lobby, state does U-turn (North Carolina)
April 4 Raleigh News Observer story - "Carmen Hooker Odom, secretary of the state Department of Health and Human Services, announced two years ago that she would restrict the rise in Medicaid costs by making it more difficult for doctors to prescribe some expensive drugs. It never happened. Key lawmakers quietly cut a deal with pharmaceutical companies to block Hooker Odom's plan, four current or former legislative leaders say. In exchange, the companies made donations -- totaling $6.1 million in cash and pledges so far -- to a little-known foundation within Hooker Odom's department. Since then, the cost of Medicaid drugs in North Carolina has continued to climb -- and taxpayers have continued to pay more to support the program. This fiscal year, it's expected to go up another 21.7 percent, to an estimated $1.5 billion..."  
  

Monitored Care Decreases Gap in Depression Treatment Between Whites, Minorities
Item in yesterday's Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report - "Increasing patient education and monitoring can decrease the gap in treatment outcomes among whites and minorities with depression, according to a study published in the April issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, the Wall Street Journal reports. The study, led by researchers from the University of California-Los Angeles and RAND, followed 1,356 patients with depression who were enrolled in the Patients in Care study and divided them among 46 randomly selected clinics to receive one of three depression treatments..."  
  

FDA Sat on Report Linking Suicide, Drugs
LA Times story - "Ten months ago, when concerns arose about a possible link between children taking antidepressant drugs and suicide attempts, senior officials at the Food and Drug Administration ordered their leading expert to head up an examination of the evidence. When the government scientist filed his report last winter, however, his bosses decided to keep it secret — even though it found that children who took the drugs were twice as likely to be involved in serious suicide-related behavior as those who did not..." [Viewing Los Angeles Times stories requires registration, which is free].  
  

More mental health services needed: Children's Advocate (Canada)
CBC Saskatchewan story - "Saskatchewan's Children's Advocate says more needs to be done for children with mental health problems.Deborah Parker-Loewen released a special review of mental health services for Saskatchewan children on Tuesday. She says there isn't nearly enough information about what services are available, or how well they're working..."  
  

Mental health bill reaches final hurdle (Nebraska)
Omaha World Herald story - "Once viewed as one of the most controversial measures of the 2004 legislative session, Gov. Mike Johanns' mental health restructuring proposal needed only a voice vote for second-round approval Tuesday. Only one more vote remains before Legislative Bill 1083 is sent to Johanns' desk. The bill calls for closing two of Nebraska's three mental hospitals, in Norfolk and Hastings, after more community-based services are developed across the state. Lawmakers from the Norfolk and Hastings areas at first opposed the measure, but they relented after proponents agreed that the two hospitals would not be closed before their populations were reduced to 20 percent - and a final sign-off was obtained from legislative leaders."  
  

Mental health still 'in turmoil' (UK)
BBC story - "Mentally ill patients are being subjected to "harrowing conditions", a group of charities and psychiatrists have said. Psychiatric wards remain overcrowded, unhygienic and run-down, according to Rethink, SANE, the Zito Trust and doctors. Some patients were also being denied latest drugs which have less side effects, the group said. They added government reforms were not happening fast enough..." See also resources at the SANE, Zito Trust and Rethink web sites.

  
  

Other Voices: Funding can't ignore mental health (Virginia)
Opinion piece in the Daily Press by Richard Kaye, director of the behavioral medicine program at Obici Hospital and public affairs representative for the Psychiatric Society of Virginia - "Deinstitutionalization, that is, moving the mentally ill from state hospitals to the community for services, is based on two premises: First, treatment in the community improves the quality of life for the individual, and second, the shift of care from state institutions to the community saves the taxpayer money. Despite the popularity of plans to close state hospitals, evidence from deinstitutionalization efforts across the United States shows that neither of these assumptions is correct..."