Tuesday, August 31, 2004
CMS Advises Medicaid Officials to Adopt Measures That Do Not Restrict Access to Psychiatric MedicationsAnnouncement at the NAMI web site - "On August 20, 2004, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a Technical Assistance Paper – 'Psychotropic Medications: Addressing Costs without Restricting Access.' CMS supports several state efforts to control the escalation in prescription drug costs while maintaining access to newer, effective medications. CMS has prepared and circulated this report to state Medicaid Directors and Regional CMS Medicaid Administrators addressing strategies to contain the costs of prescribing psychiatric medications without compromising quality or limiting access. We believe that this report can prove to be an effective tool in the ongoing advocacy fight to prevent restrictive formularies, fail first policies, and related cost containment efforts that compromise quality of care." See also the
CMS report.
APA Launches Redesigned Online Help Center APA press release - "The American Psychological Association (APA) will launch a redesigned online help center on August 23. Consumers will be able to navigate a more user-friendly web site with expanded free information, facts, and tips about mental health issues. The new site is designed to appeal to users with a magazine-like format that gives easy directions to featured topics and articles and information on mental health. Although the American Psychological Association is not able to provide direct referrals, consumers can obtain a referral to a psychologist in their area by calling 1-800-964-2000. The operator will use zip codes to locate and connect people with the referral service used by their state psychological association. Because psychology is relevant to so many areas of everyday life, the site is organized into areas that consumers say make sense for them.." See also the
APA Help Center web site.
Women with Co-Occurring Serious Mental Illness and a Substance Use Disorder Web page indexing a recent SAMHSA report in HTML and
Acrobat formats - "Based on SAMHSA's 2002 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, nearly 2 million women aged 18 or older were estimated to have both serious mental illness (SMI) and a substance use disorder during the past year. Women with co-occurring SMI and a substance use disorder were more likely than men with co-occurring SMI and a substance use disorder to have received treatment for a mental disorder and/or specialty substance use treatment during the past year.."
Teen Drug Treatment Jumps 65 Percent Over Decade, Federal Study Says PR Newswire press release - "The number of admissions to substance abuse treatment for adolescents ages 12 to 17 increased again in 2002, continuing a ten-year trend. These data were released today in the 'Treatment Episode Data Set: National Admissions to Substance Abuse Treatment Services 1992-2002' by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The new data show that the number of adolescents ages 12 to 17 admitted to substance abuse treatment increased 65 percent between 1992 and 2002. In 1992, adolescents represented 6 percent of all treatment admissions. By 2002, this proportion had grown to 9 percent. This report expands upon data published in May in the 'Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) Highlights 2002.'"
Mental Illness Survivors Demand Parity in Medical Coverage Story in the
New Standard - "...a bipartisan group of lawmakers, advocates, doctors and people living with mental illness are calling for passage of a bill that would mandate comprehensive and equal mental health coverage on a national level. Last February, Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM) introduced the Senator Paul Wellstone Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act, which would would require companies with more than 50 employees to provide health insurance plans with equal coverage for mental and physical illnesses. Under the bill, named after the late Minnesota senator, himself a long-time advocate for mental health coverage, health plans that covered physical illness would be required to cover mental illness as well. Although the legislation has 69 Senate and 246 House co-sponsors and the support of over 300 health organizations, including the American Medical Association, it has languished in various committees..."
Michigan children miss needed mental care, expert saysMLive story - "The half-million Michigan children with mental disorders often fail to receive the care they need when they need it, a leading public official says. 'There are many children who could benefit from mental health interventions who don't get it in a timely and appropriate manner,' said Patrick Barrie, who oversees mental health services at the Michigan Department of Community Health. But with no single entry route into the system, pervasive budget woes and insufficient insurance coverage, hundreds of Michigan children instead end up in detention facilities or as wards of the state."
Artist's images indict mental health care's flaws (Massachusetts)Berkshire Eagle story - "Walking through the gallery of Colleen Surprise Jones' paintings is partly a visit to her own troubled mind and partly a voyeur's view of her relationship with her brother, Nathan, who committed suicide July 2 at the age of 28. Jones describes her exhibit, 'Psychiatric Survival,' as a coming-out about her own mental health problems, a discussion of her brother's suicide and an indictment of a broken mental health system that she says has continually failed her and her brother, despite countless trips to psychiatric wards and hospitals and trials of dozens of medications..."
Area mental health unit to close this week (Oklahoma)Story in the
Daily Ardmoreite - "Arbuckle Memorial Hospital will officially close its mental health unit Tuesday, but hospital officials say patient acceptance ceased a week ago and 11 of the unit's 15 remaining employees have already been laid off. ... Hospital officials announced the closing of the mental health unit in July, saying a lack of operating funds was the reason for the closing. Farrel said operational cost increases, decreased Medicaid and the April closing of Mercy Memorial Health Center's Behavior Medical Unit at Ardmore were all factors in the mental health unit budget crunch."
Revisit mental health (Kansas)Editorial in the
Wichita Eagle - "Nearly 15 years after Kansas reformed its mental-health system to focus on treating patients in their communities rather than in state hospitals, how is the system holding up, and is the funding keeping up with the need? Those are important questions for state legislators to look at next year in light of increasing hospital admissions, recent closures of private inpatient units and changing Medicaid rates. Headlines earlier this month have created some serious concerns..."
A mental health emergency (Indiana)Editorial in the
Indianapolis Star on "a crisis for the mentally ill, their families and the criminal justice system. The problems are rooted in decisions made in the 1970s, when the mental health establishment ditched its much-derided institutional model of treatment. The idea was to replace institutions with a grass-roots system in which the mentally ill would be treated in community clinics. State budget cuts, however, in Indiana and elsewhere have made it difficult for the community model to succeed. Too often families of mentally ill adults and children feel isolated, struggling to find support and appropriate treatment..."
County Prepares To Dump Mental-Health Program (California)Story at
The San Diego Channel - "School districts across North County are asking the county to reconsider abandoning a mental-health program serving hundreds of special education students, according to a published report. School officials are also sending an appeal to state lawmakers and the attorney general, saying their districts would have to take on the burden of providing money and care for about 1,200 children now being treated under the county program..."
Better coordination of mental health services for kids needed (West Virginia)Herald-Dispatch story - "West Virginia needs to do a better job of coordinating services for children with mental illnesses and involving families in planning care, according to a report scheduled to be released Tuesday morning. State agencies that serve mentally ill children should be required to work together on a 'system of care' that is regularly reviewed by the Legislature, according to the report, 'System of Care Collaborative: A call to action.' "
Health plan good but needs more, says mental health foundation (New Zealand)Story at
Stuff - "A new draft mental health plan released by the Ministry of Health has been welcomed by the Mental Health Foundation, but the organisation says it must go further. The Second National Mental Health and Addiction Plan builds on existing mental health strategy, taking into account major policy changes over the past several years such as the establishment of district health boards. It involves a sector of health that last year was funded to the tune of $839 million. The foundation's policy and business development director Kayleen Katene praised the Health Ministry for the 70-page draft plan, but said in a statement that more detail needed to be added..."
