Tuesday, June 22, 2004

Bush plans to screen whole US population for mental illness
News story at the British Medical Journal - " A sweeping mental health initiative will be unveiled by President George W Bush in July. The plan promises to integrate mentally ill patients fully into the community by providing 'services in the community, rather than institutions,' according to a March 2004 progress report entitled New Freedom Initiative. While some praise the plan's goals, others say it protects the profits of drug companies at the expense of the public. Bush established the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health in April 2002 to conduct a 'comprehensive study of the United States mental health service delivery system.' The commission issued its recommendations in July 2003. Bush instructed more than 25 federal agencies to develop an implementation plan based on those recommendations... Dr Darrel Regier, director of research at the American Psychiatric Association (APA), lauded the president's initiative and the Texas project model ...  But the Texas project, which promotes the use of newer, more expensive antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs, sparked off controversy when Allen Jones, an employee of the Pennsylvania Office of the Inspector General, revealed that key officials with influence over the medication plan in his state received money and perks from drug companies with a stake in the medication algorithm. He was sacked this week for speaking to the BMJ and the New York Times..." See also the New Freedom Initiative web site.  
  

The U.S. Supreme Court Olmstead Decision: Five Years Later
Page indexing resources from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured - "Five years after the Supreme Court’s landmark Olmstead decision applying the Americans with Disabilities Act to the right of individuals with disabilities to receive health care in a community-based setting, the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured releases two new reports and a video examining what progress has been made and the impact on the Medicaid program." See especially the policy brief Olmstead v. L.C.: The Interaction of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Medicaid and the report - Olmstead at Five: Assessing the Impact.  
  

Medscape Journal Scan - Psychiatry, May 2004
"Journal Scan is the clinician's guide to the latest clinical research findings in The American Journal of Psychiatry, The Lancet, Archives of General Psychiatry, The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, and Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology. Short summaries of feature articles include links to the article abstracts and full text, when available..." "med"  
  

MIND boss backs benzo inquiry (UK)
Oldham Evening Chronicle story - "The head of the mental-health charity MIND is backing the House of Commons inquiry into the pharmaceutical industry. Richard Brook, chief executive of MIND, has welcomed the news that Uppermill campaigner Barry Haslam, and Oldham East and Saddleworth MP Phil Woolas have succeeded in getting a top-level inquiry launched. The Commons Health Select Committee, chaired by David Hinchcliffe — the Labour MP for Wakefield — announced last week that there will be a new inquiry into the influence of the pharmaceutical industry. Pressure from Mr Haslam and support from Mr Woolas helped to convince Mr Hinchcliffe that MPs need to probe allegations that pharmaceutical companies and GPs ignored evidence and guidelines showing highly-addictive tranquillisers were being over-prescribed..." See also the press release at the MIND web site and the related page there, Ineffective UK drugs regulators exposed by Seroxat revelations.  
  

Legal Advocate Cites Ongoing Segregation on Eve of Olmstead Anniversary
US Newswire press release from the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law reprinted at Yahoo - "While many Americans with disabilities have made progress since the Olmstead ruling, people with mental illnesses have been largely left behind in efforts to implement the decision. Most states are enacting Olmstead reforms at a snail's pace, defying the spirit of the ruling and preventing Americans with mental illnesses from participating in their communities. Rhetoric has far outstripped action to promote community services for people with mental illnesses. States are quick to trumpet their limited efforts to implement Olmstead, but these have produced little actual movement of people with mental illnesses into integrated community settings. Budget pressures have closed psychiatric hospitals across the country, but few appropriate community services have been adequately funded to help people with mental illnesses live successfully in the community..."  
  

NHS trust and social services build system to share records across multiple agencies (UK)
Story in Computer Weekly - "Croydon Primary Care Trust and Croydon Council's social services department are developing a multi-agency information sharing system to access residents' health and social care information via a single view on their screens. ... The first phase of the project is to unify data to support the single assessment process for older people. The technology will then be extended to other multi-agency information sharing initiatives such as supporting integrated mental health teams and creating an electronic social care record..."  
  

U.S. Prison Woes For Mentally Ill
CBS News story - "...The interaction of the U.S. law enforcement system with the mentally ill has grown dramatically, with increasingly tragic results — not to mention considerable expense to state and local governments. An estimated 16 percent of U.S. prison and jail inmates are mentally ill, compared to only 5 percent of the general population. A study by the U.S. Justice Department found nearly half the mentally ill inmates were imprisoned for a nonviolent crime. The mentally ill are more expensive to incarcerate, stay behind bars longer and return more frequently..."  
  

Records Examine Guantanamo Suicide Bids
Story in the Guardian (UK) - "Three months after a get-tough general took command of the Guantanamo Bay prison for terror suspects, prisoners began a flurry of suicide attempts, according to military records. ... Between January and March 2003, 14 prisoners at Guantanamo tried to kill themselves, according to Pentagon figures. That's more than 40 percent of the 34 suicide attempts by 21 inmates since the prison was opened in January 2002. ... In a rare public statement about conditions at Guantanamo, the Red Cross expressed qualms last fall about the suicide attempts. Representatives of the international humanitarian organization said they had found a 'worrisome deterioration'' in prisoners' mental health..."  
  

Advocates Praise Efforts to Address Criminalization of People with Mental Illnesses
US Newswire press release - "The Campaign for Mental Health Reform -- a national coalition representing people with mental illnesses, their families, mental health advocates and service providers -- today praised a Congressional hearing on legislation to address the growing numbers of people with mental illnesses in the criminal justice system. 'Far too many people with mental illnesses are ending up in our nation's jails and prisons,' said Ron Honberg, a spokesman for the Campaign for Mental Health Reform and national director of public policy and legal affairs at NAMI. 'Today's hearing underscores the urgent need for federal legislation to address this disturbing trend.' During the House Judiciary Committee's hearing today on "The Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act" (S. 1194, H.R. 2387), committee members will hear testimony from mental health advocates, family members, law enforcement officers and federal officials on the need to enact the bill, which the Senate passed in November of 2003."  
  

Mental-health sufferers lack support (Washington)
Story in The Columbian focused on one woman, whose experiences have "...drawn attention to a mental- health system so fragmented that people in need can easily go untreated. Even those who have private insurance often struggle to get services. And those who successfully navigate the bureaucratic maze sometimes give up on their treatments."  
  

Budget cuts may end mental health court for Metro (Tennessee)
WKRN story - " The latest graduating class from the Davidson County Mental Health Court had 27 graduates in all. But it may also be the last graduation for the program. That's because the grant for the mental health court has expired, and the mayor didn't fund the $127,000 needed to keep the court going. The court keeps the mentally ill facing midseameanor charges out of jail, and puts them into mental health care programs. It's a system that Mental Health Court Judge Andrei Lee says works..."