Wednesday, July 21, 2004

Combining Forces Called Best Strategy to Reform MH Care
Psychiatric News article - "Children and minorities are two of the specific populations who will benefit from a long-awaited action agenda on mental health by several federal agencies. By collaborating with a number of federal agencies that administer policies related to labor, education, and criminal justice, federal mental health officials are one step closer to achieving the goals set forth in the 2003 report of the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. A. Kathryn Power, M.Ed., director of the federal Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS), spoke recently about the steps she and others are taking to make this vision a reality..."  
  

Clinical Trials Controversy Spotlights Flawed System
Psychiatric News story - " The ongoing controversy surrounding SSRIs in children is now threatening the very foundations of clinical drug research on the efficacy and safety of all of the drugs physicians prescribe. Under the frequent—and often hyperbolic—headlines in major newspapers throughout the United States, the debate on whether SSRIs really cause children and adolescents to become suicidal has boiled down to a critical realization: Physicians now face a crisis of confidence in the American-bred system that conducts clinical research and, it would seem, publishes only the most marketable results..." See also, at the same source, AMA Backs All-Inclusive Clinical Trials Registry.  
  

Takeover of State Prisons Is Threatened (California)
KTLA-TV story - "Criticizing the Schwarzenegger administration for a 'business as usual' attitude toward reforming California's $6-billion prison system, a federal judge warned the state Tuesday he may appoint a receiver to take over the state Department of Corrections. If U.S. District Judge Thelton E. Henderson were to make good on that threat, it would be a blow to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a beleaguered system reeling from a string of scandals. Prison oversight by federal judges is not unheard of. But experts said placing day-to-day operation of an entire correctional system under an outsider may be unprecedented..."  
  

Advocates seeking treatment with drugs, as ordered by a court (Ohio)
Cincinnati Enquirer story - "Every year the refusal to take medication to treat a mental illness leads to assaults, killings and suicides that could have been prevented, while a legal tool to enforce treatment is seldom used, advocates say. ... Ohio is one of 42 states with some type of law allowing court orders to comply with treatment without commitment to a hospital, according to the Arlington, Va.-based Treatment Advocacy Center. But many family members and even judges aren't aware of the ability, said Mary Zdanowicz, director of the Treatment Advocacy Center. Dwindling resources and court challenges also uphold use of the laws."  
  

No stars for NHS hospital trust (UK)
BBC story - "Mid-Staffordshire General Hospitals NHS Trust is one of only 10 acute trusts in England not to have received any stars in this year's NHS ratings. ... Other zero-star awards went to the mental health trusts in Wolverhampton and Worcestershire. Health bosses in Wolverhampton were deemed to have failed to integrate mental health teams into the community, while child protection and crisis management were areas for concern in Worcestershire." See also the NHS star ratings and the BBC's summary of ratings for mental health trusts.  
  

Mental Health hires law firm (North Carolina)
Fayetteville Observer story - "The Cumberland County Mental Health board has hired a law firm to provide an opinion on a public records request made by The Fayetteville Observer. ... On June 4, the newspaper requested copies of the Qualified Provider Network applications the Mental Health Center received this year. The applications were required of anyone who wanted to provide services through the Mental Health Center, such as a group home operator. The applications ask for background information about the provider, including financial and employment information and a history of any policy violations. ... John Tally, the Mental Health board's lawyer, sent a letter to Mental Health Director Hank Debnam on June 16 with his opinion on the request. Tally's letter said, 'You are required by law to provide this information to any person requesting it.' ... Mike Tadych, a lawyer for the N.C. Press Association, said Debnam and the board may be held personally liable for the newspaper's legal expenses because they did not follow Tally's advice. "  
  

Bustling mental-health call center might expand (Minnesota)
St. Cloud Times story - "A program in which mental-health counselors answer after-hours calls for help has been busy in its first few months and soon may expand beyond the immediate St. Cloud area. The crisis-response team is run from the Central Minnesota Mental Health Center. Crisis counselors take calls from 4 p.m.-1 a.m. weekdays and weekends, and if the case is extreme enough, go to the person's home..."  
  

Abused, Neglected Youth Do Not Receive Needed Mental Health Services
Newswise press release - "Each year, more than 600,000 children seen in the U.S. child welfare system for alleged maltreatment do not receive mental health care for significant emotional and behavioral problems, reports a study in the August Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. The findings are based on NIMH-funded analyses of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being, a nationally representative study funded by the US DHHS’s Administration on Children and Families. ... Dr. Burns and colleagues analyzed nationwide data on children and adolescents investigated by child welfare agencies for reported abuse or neglect. A standard child behavior checklist suggested that 48 percent of the children had "clinically significant" emotional or behavioral problems." At the journal web site, a brief abstract is available at no charge, with full text available for a fee.