Monday, May 03, 2004

Adding a mental health care team to a primary care clinic increases on-site treatment
Item in CMHA/Ontario's Mental Health Notes based on an article in the April issue of Psychiatric Services - "Intergrating a mental health care team within a primary care clinic improved the clinic’s ability to evaluate and stabilize patients’ psychiatric disorders and reduced referrals to specialized services, according to a study for the Department of Veterans Affairs..."  
  

A Health Care Needs Assessment of Federal Inmates in Canada
Adobe Acrobat version of a study coordinated by Correctional Service Canada and published as a supplement to the Canadian Journal of Public Health. As noted in the CMHA/Ontario newsletter Mental Health Notes, the study finds that "Canadian federal inmates have higher rates of psychosis, depression, anxiety and personality disorders than the general population" and concludes that the country "needs a comprehensive strategy for detecting and managing the high levels of mental health disorders among federal inmates."  
  

Depression, post-tramautic stress increased soldiers sick leave (Canada)
Canadian Press story reprinted at PsycPORT - "Canadian soldiers' use of sick leave is increasing, with depression and post traumatic stress disorder playing the largest role in troops' medical absences, according to documents obtained by The Canadian Press. The strain put on a smaller Canadian Forces is listed among the potential factors that has led to the increase, according to briefing notes prepared for Canada's top general..."  
  

Hidden cost of depression in seniors: $9 billion in care from spouses, children
University of Michigan Health System press release - "A new study reveals that depression among senior citizens carries a huge unrecognized cost: many extra hours of unpaid help with everyday activities, delivered by the depressed seniors' spouses, adult children and friends. Even moderately depressed seniors, the University of Michigan study finds, require far more hours of care than those without any symptoms of depression, regardless of other health problems they may have. If depressed seniors' 'informal' caregivers were paid the wages of a home health aide, the cost to society would be $9 billion a year, the researchers estimate. That puts depression second only to dementia in the national annual cost for informal caregiving, based on previous studies of the same data. And the findings illustrate the major impact of depression on both seniors and their loved ones. The findings, which will be published in the May issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, are based on data from the U-M's Health and Retirement Study, a long-term survey of older Americans conducted by the U-M Institute for Social Research."  
  

Mental health reform hinges on rerouting funds for services (North Carolina)
Herald Sun story - "The success of the state's mental health reform efforts depends on funding, officials said Saturday at the annual Durham/Orange Legislative Breakfast for Mental Health. ... The state-mandated reform, which the General Assembly enacted in 2001, is intended to change local mental health agencies into contract overseers, who would not provide direct assistance but instead work much the way managed-care companies do, by authorizing other providers to render services. The challenge is to figure out how to redirect about $2 billion to the service providers, said Lanier Cansler, deputy secretary for the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. A variety of services should be available in a community before the health agency divests and downsizes. But in some communities, the services won't appear until money from that same downsizing becomes available..."  
  

PSI quietly joining ranks of top mental health-care firms
Story in The Tennessean - "When 2003 began, PSI had just five inpatient facilities and 700 beds. By the end of the year, it had added 18 facilities and had a total of 2,900 beds. Today, the company owns 22 inpatient psychiatric facilities and leases four more with a total of 3,200 beds in 15 states. Of those beds, 55% are for acute-care hospital patients. The rest are for patients who need longer-term residential stays. Last week, PSI signed an agreement to buy four more facilities with a total of 360 beds as part of a $47 million deal. Psychiatric Solutions also manages 43 inpatient behavioral facilities inside hospitals that are owned by others. In addition, PSI manages 11 government-owned facilities..."  
  

Mental health reform left holes in safety net (Kansas)
Lawrence Journal-World story - "Seven years after lawmakers closed Topeka State Hospital with the understanding that patients would be cared for in community situations instead of a state institution, most agree that reform has worked." This story, however, focuses more on "...the ugly side of the well-intended reform movement that led to the closing of Topeka State Hospital: Those who don't fit end up in jail or prison. ...State officials aren't sure how -- or whether -- to create a nonprison, noncommunity alternative ..."  
  

Mental health care improvement comes with risk (Texas)
Houston Chronicle story - "After a dismal legislative session that resulted in devastating budget cuts for people with mental illness, there is a beacon that potentially offers hope for a better day to come. A managed-care concept called disease management that the Legislature mandated in HB 2292, its reorganization of the state's health and human service agencies, could greatly improve the provision of mental health services in Texas. People with mental illness often live with a chronic disease. Symptoms and crises can be minimized through effective use of medication and treatment, and through patient and family education. In a nutshell, that's disease management. Such an approach may sound obvious, but the mental health system's resources are so limited that today it is more likely that the inadequate level of services received fail to promote recovery, and in fact may leave people with mental illness vulnerable to a perpetual cycle of crisis and inpatient care..."