Thursday, July 29, 2004

Advocate for Access to Medical Data
Washington Post story - "Ellen Berty first stumbled across the ClinicalTrials.gov Web site while researching treatments for the Type 1 diabetes that has dogged her since the age of 13. Months later, after receiving an islet cell transplant in a clinical trial at the National Institutes of Health, she couldn't wait to tell her neighbors about the Web site that had pointed her in the right direction. ... ClinicalTrials.gov was the brainchild of Alexa McCray, director of the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications, an intramural research division of the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health. Taking the lead from the Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act 1997, which called for the establishment of a clinical trials registry that would be available to the public, McCray turned to the Internet to ensure an accessible and user-friendly resource for everyone from patients to health care professionals." See also ClinicalTrials.gov. [Viewing Washington Post stories requires registration, which is free.]  
  

New Knowledge and New Conceptions
Article in the July Psychiatric Times - "Our evolving understanding of borderline personality disorder and its treatment includes the surprising evidence that this disorder has more significant genetic determinants and many patients have a far better prognosis than had previously been thought. Treatment approaches have also become less intensive and more diverse and specific. This is a disorder that, despite the considerable gains, remains one of psychiatry's most vexsome problems and one of society's major health care priorities..." See also, in the same issue, Psychodynamic Psychotherapy for Personality Disorders, Borderline Personality Disorder: An Overview, Beyond 'Handholding': Supportive Therapy for Patient With BPD and Self-Injurious Behavior, and Assessing Suicide Risk in Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder.  
  

Ohio juvenile girls prison under investigation
Ohio News Network story - "Allegations of sexual assault, beatings and inadequate medical care at Ohio's only juvenile prison for girls have prompted two independent investigations, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported Thursday. ..." Investogator Fred Cohen "recommended some immediate changes after finding that girls were not allowed to talk during meals and were forced to walk in lines with their hands behind their backs. He also said guards were using a physical restraint never intended to be used on children and the only mental-health care available was when girls were in crisis..."  
  

Panel schedules meeting on mental hospital funds (Nevada)
Reno Gazette-Journal story - "The state Board of Examiners plans a special meeting Friday to vote on an emergency $2 million appropriation for a temporary 30-bed psychiatric hospital in Las Vegas to handle mentally ill people now crowding hospital emergency rooms. The state Division of Mental Health and Developmental Services says the $2 million would cover costs of operating the temporary hospital at the Desert Regional Center from Aug. 1 until next February when the 2005 Legislature will be in session. The division will then ask the Legislature for $1.3 million to operate the temporary hospital through June 30, the end of the fiscal year."  
  

NAMI Names Michael J. Fitzpatrick as New National Director
PR Newswire press release reprinted at Yahoo - "The NAMI (National Alliance for the Mentally Ill) Board of Directors formally announced today the appointment of Michael J. Fitzpatrick as the national organization's executive director. Since 1999, Fitzpatrick, a former Maine legislator, has served on NAMI's national staff. Most recently, he served in a dual role as Director of NAMI's Policy Research Institute and Policy Team. Since January 2004, he has been NAMI's Acting Executive Director."  
  

Readers write in on mental health screening initiative (Illinois)
Illinois Leader compilation - "The revelation of a mental health screening plan for all children in Illinois through age 18 and all pregnant women continues to spark an unprecedented number of letters to IllinoisLeader.com. As a sampling of the outrage Leader readers are expressing, eight letters have been selected from those pouring in. More will be featured in the upcoming days...."  
  

Center opens to serve mental health in community (Vermont)
Bennington Banner story - "A center for a full array of counseling services opened last week. The building for therapists, support groups, job counselors and administrators working to help people with serious mental diseases opened July 23 after a two-year remodeling process that added 2,000-square-feet to accommodate 185 clients. ... Vermont was one of the first states to pay for programs that rehabilitate people with mental health problems rather than medicate them and lock them away... Keeping with that tradition, the state has continued efforts to aid afflicted persons and help them find a sense of self-worth..."  
  

State to pay $1.3M for guardsmen’s mental health (Connecticut)
New Britain Herald story - "More than $1.3 million in state funding will finance programs to research and aid the mental health of returning National Guardsmen. According to legislative documents, about $530,000 of the funding will be used to support a Yale University study of the 'behavioral health aftereffects of service ..on Connecticut soldiers and also their families.' The study will target problems faced by members of the National Guard and the Reserves, officials said. The state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services will also receive $810,000 to fund a 'transitional behavioral health benefit program' for returning guardsmen."