Tuesday, July 27, 2004

NAMI Announces STAR Center
Announcement at the NAMI web site on the Support Technical Assistance Resource Center - "NAMI (National Alliance for the Mentally Ill) has inaugurated a new technical assistance center to help improve and increase the capacity of consumer-operated programs to meet the needs of persons living with mental illnesses in diverse communities. 'Self-help is part of recovery,' said NAMI national director Michael J. Fitzpatrick, ' NAMI is committed to recovery, peer support, expansion of consumer opportunities, and multicultural action to meet the needs of underserved communities. The STAR Center is part of that vision. It will be a tremendous engine for progress.' The STAR Center is one of five consumer and consumer supporter technical assistance centers nationwide, funded by the federal Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) to promote self-help in the planning, delivery and evaluation of mental health services." See also the Support Technical Assistance Resource Center web site.  
  

Schizophrenia Drug Maker Clarifies Risks
AP story reprinted at Yahoo - "The maker of a popular medicine for schizophrenia has notified doctors that it minimized potentially fatal safety risks and made misleading claims about the drug in promotional materials. Janssen Pharmaceutica Products sent a two-page letter to the health care community this past week to clarify the risks of Risperdal, Carol Goodrich, a spokeswoman for the Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, said Saturday. The letter stems from a directive issued last year by the Food and Drug Administration, which told several makers of anti-psychotic drugs to update their product labels."  
  

New ER Data Show Huge Jump in Abuse of Oxycodone, Hydrocodone
PR Newswire release reprinted at PsycPORT - "Forty percent of the 119,000 mentions of narcotic pain medications in emergency rooms involved either oxycodone or hydrocodone in 2002, according to a new report released today by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The DAWN Report on 'Oxycodone, Hydrocodone, and Polydrug Use, 2002' is based on data from SAMHSA's Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), which tracks drug-abuse related mentions of various substances in hospital emergency rooms..." See also the SAMHSA report.  
  

Immigrant's Tale of Navigating Tangled Health Care Maze Is Instructive
New York Times story on "...the flaws in a health care system that all too often can seem broken to those without insurance - riddled with cracks and complications that are compounded when cultural taboos and language barriers are thrown into the mix. For the most vulnerable, emergency rooms are the place of first resort. At least there they are assured treatment. Once discharged, they often have no contact in the medical community and become lost in a system that can barely handle the problems on its doorstep looking to come in, much less those already sent back outside. Hospitals feel overwhelmed, and patients feel as if they are treated not as people but as problems. Confusion about coverage is the rule, and basic communication is often imperfect." [Viewing New York Times resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

Checking Up on Children's Health Coverage: A Progress Report on Medicaid and SCHIP
New reports and resources from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured - "At a July 23, 2004 Washington, DC policy briefing two new Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured reports show State Children's Health Insurance Program enrollment declined in the second half of 2003 and examine what led to Texas' enrollment decline." Reports available from this page (all in Adobe Acrobat format) include SCHIP Program Enrollment: December 2003 Update, Children’s Medicaid and SCHIP in Texas: Tracking the Impact of Budget Cuts and Update on the Florida Enrollment Freeze. See also the related press release.  
  

In a Shift, Bush Moves to Block Medical Suits
New York Times story - "The Bush administration has been going to court to block lawsuits by consumers who say they have been injured by prescription drugs and medical devices. The administration contends that consumers cannot recover damages for such injuries if the products have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. In court papers, the Justice Department acknowledges that this position reflects a 'change in governmental policy,' and it has persuaded some judges to accept its arguments, most recently scoring a victory in the federal appeals court in Philadelphia." [Viewing New York Times resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

Where Justice and Mercy Meet (New York)
Village Voice article - "For mentally ill people who commit a serious felony, there have long been just two options: Go to prison, or enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. Defendants who choose the latter have been confined indefinitely at places like Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center, the maximum-security hospital on Wards Island, where they can languish for years, maybe even the rest of their lives. Today, mentally ill people arrested in Brooklyn have a third choice: They can try to get their case heard in Mental Health Court, where the primary objective is to place people in treatment programs—not prison.."  
  

Mental health care a concern (Indiana)
South Bend Tribune story on "...the state's recent move to reduce bed space at its juvenile mental health hospitals, a policy that parallels the closure of adult mental hospitals over the past decade -- in Indiana and nationwide. The idea was to integrate the mentally ill into the mainstream of society. However, a corresponding increase in funding for community-based services has not followed. That, combined with the cost-containment emphasis of managed care, has put mental health care out of reach for many families. The result is more juveniles who don't receive adequate mental health treatment until they commit an offense that forces them into the justice system, when the bulk of the cost for their care falls on the county. Parents are charged fees, often depending on their income, but what they cannot pay is picked up by taxpayers."  
  

State prisoners sue for better mental health care (New Hampshire)
Boston Globe story - "Six New Hampshire State Prison inmates are suing the state for not providing adequate mental health care. They accuse the state of leaving suicidal maximum-security prisoners in empty rooms for more than 24 hours without beds or toilets. They also claim mental health programs are understaffed and that inmates can go for months or years without treatment. The lawsuit also faults the department for failing to create a residential treatment unit for mentally ill inmates and not installing a computerized data management system for the mental health unit."  
  

A father's fight for mental health
Detroit Free Press story on Paul Raeburn, author of Acquainted with the Night: A Parent's Quest to Understand Depression and Bipolar Disorder in His Children (Broadway Books), written "... to bring attention to a topic often shrouded in silence. Bipolar disorder also is known as manic depression. Symptoms include extreme changes in mood, energy levels and behavior. The book is not a step-by-step guide telling parents what to do to miraculously save their mentally ill children. Instead, this is one book, one family's story, to try to say, 'We've got to pay more attention to this,' Raeburn says. 'There are millions of kids and parents out there who are really, really suffering.'"  
  

Gazette editor honored for writing on mental health (Montana)
Billings Gazette story - "Pat Bellinghausen, Gazette opinion editor, has been honored by the American Psychological Association for her years of work in writing about mental illnesses and public policy. The the 2004 News Media Recognition Award will be presented Thursday by the Media Psychology Division at the APA annual convention in Honolulu. The News Media Recognition Award was developed by the News Media, Public Education, Public Policy Committee of the Media Division to recognize excellence in the reporting of psychological research and information. .."