Tuesday, July 06, 2004

The outline emerges (Nebraska)
Story in the Omaha World Herald - "A draft version of a mental- health plan for Nebraska may prove to be a good guide toward the flexible, progressive future the state so sorely needs for its mentally ill population. Some of the goals of the reform, ordered by the Legislature last session, are to decentralize the system, rationalize the distribution and use of mental-health services around the state and provide services in a more efficient, convenient way. Perhaps its most noticeable effect: The closing of the Hastings and Norfolk Regional Centers in favor of community-based care and treatment, including such services as group homes, crisis intervention and emergency treatment."  
  

Justice gaps for mentally ill closed (New Jersey)
Story in the Gloucester County Times on the "frightening gap between the criminal justice system and the mental health community," advocacy efforts by the local NAMI chapter and the Gloucester County Mental Illness and Intervention Committee, which was formed to address the area's criminal justice service for the mentally ill.  
  

Mental health court may get OK (South Carolina)
Story in The State - "Anderson County could begin a court program designed for mental health patients if the state’s chief justice approves the idea next week. The mental health court would divert defendants in some misdemeanor cases from traditional trials to a special hearing at the area’s mental health center. ... The county has $100,000 to cover the costs — the bulk of that is a grant from the state Public Safety Department and the rest is coming from the mental health center. Officials hope to have the court running as early as this month."  
  

Mental health reform plans meet resistance (Texas)
Houston Chronicle story - "Joe Lovelace credits the public mental health system in Texas as the safety net that stabilized his son, Corley, after an eight-year struggle with schizophrenia. But now, as executive director of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Texas, Lovelace is under attack from other mental health advocates for selling lawmakers a business-minded system that runs on less money, demands more and serves fewer. The 'disease management' model, that begins a yearlong statewide rollout Sept. 1 is, in theory, an approach that rations ongoing outpatient care to only the sickest -- those with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or severe clinical depression. Those with other mental illnesses will receive treatment only in times of crisis. Tax-averse lawmakers like the plan's promise of savings while critics object to cuts to an already starved system..."  
  

N.Y. Disability Coverage for Mental Health Upheld
Story in Insurance Journal - "New York state law does not require disability insurance policies to include the same benefit levels for physical injuries and for disabling mental and emotional conditions, the state's highest court ruled last week. The Court of Appeals ruled 7-0 that Charlene Polon is not being discriminated against because her disability policy provided her with 24 months of coverage for the chronic depression that forced her off the job in March 1994. Had she suffered a physical injury, the policy would have covered her up to 22 more years, until she reached age 65, or until her condition improved enough to allow her to return to work..."  
  

Striking mental health workers win backing (New Zealand)
Story at Stuff - "Striking mental health workers deserve a pay rise because of overflowing workloads and increasing violence in the workplace, a Hamilton community group working with mentally-ill people says. About 350 central North Island mental health nurses, including about 220 from the Waikato, walked off the job on Friday morning for a planned six-day strike after negotiations between their union – the Public Service Association – and the health boards broke down. .."  
  

Mental health court helping kids (Ohio)
Cincinnati Enquirer story on mental health courts, focusing on those in Ohio - " Mental health courts for adults are popping up across the country. Seven counties in Ohio, including Hamilton and Butler, have them. But similar courts in the juvenile system remain rare. Experts say juvenile court might be the first place officials spot a mentally ill child. That's important, they argue, because detecting and treating mental illness early can prevent children from ending up in prison or a mental hospital - saving taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. The juvenile justice system has become a warehouse for mentally ill children, according to the Coalition for Juvenile Justice in Washington, a federally funded group that studies juvenile justice in an attempt to make it better..."  
  

Hope and mental health
Story in the Arizona Republic on the Institute for Mental Health Research, "a non-profit created in 2001 after raising more than $4 million in private and public funds. Housed at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, the institute will focus on child and adolescent mental health, brain disease and injury, schizophrenia and mood disorders. It wants to be a place where scientists can work with psychiatrists and psychologists in developing treatments and getting patients enrolled in clinical trials..." See also the IMHR web site.