Wednesday, October 20, 2004

Culturally Sensitive Community Care Reduces Hospital Admissions for Severe Mental Illness
Medscape Medical News story - "Providing easily accessible community-based care to ethnic minorities with severe and persistent mental illnesses can help reduce hospital admissions and improve quality of life, particularly if care is provided in an appropriate linguistic and cultural context, according to a presentation at the 54th annual meeting of the Canadian Psychiatric Association. Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) teams provide community-based care and support to individuals with severe and persistent mental illnesses, and they have been implemented all over Canada and the U.S. A typical ACT team involves a multidisciplinary group with expertise in areas that include psychiatry, nursing, social work, occupational therapy, addiction, peer support, and mental health. Services they offer range from prescribing and dispensing medication to teaching life skills, helping find housing, and providing a place to drop in." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

Cognitive Enhancement, Enriched Supportive Therapy Helpful in Schizophrenia
Medscape Medical News story - "Cognitive enhancement therapy is more beneficial than state-of-the-art enriched supportive therapy in reducing disability from schizophrenia, according to the results of a two-year randomized trial published in the September issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry." "emd"  
  

Patient Opinions on the Benefits of Treatment Programs
Aryicle in the September Canadian Journal of Psychiatry - "In recent years, patient needs and satisfaction with psychiatric care have been increasingly studied. This research has generated information that is useful for improving the quality of care and for implementing therapeutic programs based on evidence-based criteria and on patients’ subjective experiences. A relatively new research area is represented by studies exploring patient opinions on the benefits of treatment provided in both inpatient and outpatient services..."  
  

Prevalence and Outcomes of Pharmaceutical Industry–Sponsored Clinical Trials Involving Clozapine, Risperidone, or Olanzapine
Article in the September issue of the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry - "Since the introduction of the atypical antipsychotics into the clinical practice of psychiatry, clinical trials have increased in number, size, and of course, cost. With limited private funding available to conduct independent studies, it is not surprising that the number of clinical trials sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry continues to grow. It follows that there should also be an increase in the number of partnerships developed between the pharmaceutical industry and clinicians or academics. Although skepticism in regard to this alliance has been and continues to be expressed, the many benefits of the new reality have also been acknowledged. This study investigates the prevalence and outcomes of pharmaceutical industry–sponsored clinical trials involving the atypical antipsychotics clozapine, risperidone, and olanzapine."  
  

Controlling Health Care Costs
Article in the New England Journal of Medicine - "Every year, without fail, spending for services covered by private health insurance increases. Sometimes health care spending grows slowly, as it did in the mid-1990s during the managed-care boom. But more often, it increases rapidly, as it is doing now — in part because of the managed-care bust. Presidential candidates do not want to venture beyond platitudes concerning costs because they risk being accused of taking things away from people. Both President George W. Bush and Senator John F. Kerry have served up proposals designed to ease voters' angst about the affordability of health care, but neither proposal, as it has been elaborated through September, gets at the core issues involved in controlling the growth of health care costs. .."  
  

Cost, Stigma Are Barriers to Depression Treatment
Reuters Health story at Yahoo - "Some people with depression may refuse treatment because of the associated stigma, but the majority may go untreated simply because it is too expensive, according to the findings of an international study. ... Data from the United States and Western Europe suggest that improvements are needed in how depression is managed in the primary care setting, according to report published in the American Journal of Psychiatry. "  
  

ValueOptions Awarded SAMHSA Grant to Explore EAP Services for Young Adults
ValueOptions press release - "ValueOptions and its partners, Health and Performance Resources (HPR) and George Washington University (GWU) announced today that they have been awarded a Young Adults in the Workplace (YIW) grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to create Employee Assistance Program (EAP) services designed to more effectively reach younger workers. Despite the fact that young workers have the highest rates of substance abuse, EAP programs currently do not address the unique issues and special needs of this population..."  
  

Future uncertain for Laura's Law (California)
Story in the Union - "Without the money to make it work, the future looks dim for the mental health bill 'Laura's Law' - named for a slain Nevada County teen. Nevada County Supervisors agreed Sept. 28 to support the bill if money became available, but tempers mounted Tuesday over whether the idea of taxing the rich to generate this money is the right solution..."  
  

Rep. Khan receives Positive Impact Award (Massachusetts)
Story at TownOnline.com - "The Parent/Professional Advocacy League has announced that Rep. Kay Khan is the recipient of the Positive Impact Award for 2004. Khan has been a long time champion for children and adolescents with mental health needs. She is the founder of the legislative Mental Health Caucus and has played a pivotal role in advocating for funding and legislation to benefit children and adolescents with mental health needs and their families."  
  

Bredesen Announces New Western Mental Health Institute (Tennessee)
Fayette County Review story - "Governor Phil Bredesen last Wednesday announced that the State of Tennessee will construct a new $56 million facility to replace the aging Western Mental Health Institute in Bolivar. The Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities (TDMHDD) will build the new facility on existing property owned by the institute in Bolivar, which has served 21 counties in West Tennessee since 1889. Governor Bredesen, joined by Lt. Governor John Wilder, Representative Johnny Shaw and TDMHDD Commissioner Virginia Trotter Betts, announced the project this morning in a ceremony on the institute's front lawn."  
  

County may cut mental health programs (Missouri)
St. Louis Post Dispatch story - "Hundreds of St. Louis County residents will lose mental health services under the county's proposed 2005 budget. County Executive Charlie A. Dooley will formally present the budget to the County Council on Nov. 1, but employees and clients have already been informed that the county's Family Mental Health program is on the chopping block. The program provides mental health services for children and adults in St. Louis County. Employees include social workers, psychologists and psychiatrists..."  
  

DCF official resigns, another demoted after inquiry into no-bid contract (Florida)
Sun Sentinel story - "A senior administrator at the Florida Department of Children & Families resigned Tuesday and another top DCF official was demoted as a result of a scathing internal investigation of the agency's handling of a lucrative, no-bid contract with an institute at Florida State University. The actions were the latest fallout from a months-long DCF scandal that has rattled Gov. Jeb Bush's administration this election year and was a factor in the late August resignation of the department's former chief, Jerry Regier. The new findings, stemming from a whistleblower investigation that began in secret in December, show an assortment of questionable -- and potentially illegal -- state spending practices, many of them involving James Bax, the former head of the Institute of Health and Human Services Research at FSU..."