Wednesday, June 30, 2004

Behavioral Health/Primary Care Integration — Environmental Assessment Tool for State Level Policy and Financing
This Assessment Tool (in Adobe Acrobat format) from the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare "is intended to assist state level agencies and provider associations in a review of their state level policy and financing environment and the extent to which it supports effective collaboration among behavioral health and primary care providers, especially regarding the Medicaid and 'safety net' populations."  
  

HHS Conference Seeks to Jump-Start IT Adoption in Healthcare
Medscape Medical News story - "To jump-start the adoption of electronic health records and other major elements of health information technology (IT) among physicians and hospitals, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will host a conference on July 21 in Washington, D.C., to discuss how the private and public sectors can address long-standing cost and standardization barriers." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

Prevalence Studies of Substance-Related Disorders: A Systematic Review of the Literature
Article in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry - " Studies using rigorous and comparable methodologies report significant variability in rates of alcohol and other substance use disorders. These data suggest that different policies and regional practices are associated with variability in rates of disorders. Policy-makers and health planners require regular, regionally sensitive estimates of prevalence rates to respond effectively to unique patterns of need in their constituencies."  
  

End-of-Life Care and Mental Illness: A Model for Community Psychiatry and Beyond
Article in Adobe Acrobat format (click on the "PDF" link) in Community Mental Health Journal - "End-of-life care is often influenced by the stereotyping of patients by age, diagnosis, or cultural identity. Two common stereotypes arise from the presumed incompetence of many patients to contribute to end-of-life decisions, and the fear that the discussions themselves will be de-stabilizing. We present a model for end-of-life discussions that combines competence assessment with healthcare preferences in a psychiatric population that faces identical stereotypes. The model, which draws on clinical research in competence and suicide risk assessment, has important implications for all patients in the community who are marginalized or stereotyped during discussions of end-of-life treatment."  
  

Advocate and ally (Virginia)
Daily Press editorial on Harriet Storm, who has served for 25 years on the Hampton-Newport News Community Services Board - "...Since 1979, the board, which handles mental health, mental retardation and substance abuse services for the two cities, provided the channel through which Storm put her energy, enthusiasm, commitment and compassion to work for people who need help."  
  

Mental health board agrees to limit use of Medicaid (Washington)
Bellingham Herald story - " Hundreds of Whatcom County residents are likely to lose access to mental-health services over the next few months now that a five-county mental-health board has agreed to stop using federal Medicaid funds for non-Medicaid patients. The change, forced by a change in federal policy, will move some people out of residential treatment centers and also require non-Medicaid patients to pay a fee to use the administration's crisis phone line. Board members of the North Sound Mental Health Administration said Tuesday they regretted having to make moves that will hurt people, but they risked losing Medicaid funds, which help pay medical costs for low-income people, if they failed to comply with the new federal policies."