Thursday, January 20, 2005

Conservative Nevada lawmaker plans mental health bill  Las Vegas Sun story - "Lawmakers are increasingly calling for improvements in Nevada's overwhelmed mental health system, and Gov. Kenny Guinn is expected to support such changes in his State of the State address on Monday. Even Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, a fiscal conservative, said he plans to introduce a $50 million bill to aid the state's overworked system. Beers said he has long struggled with the 'humanity' of handing out medication to mentally ill people and forcing them to deal with their problems outside of an institution, often on the streets. He added hospital emergency rooms are increasingly clogged up with mentally ill patients."  
  

Senate discusses mental hospital (Oregon)Story in The Oregonian - "A Senate panel on Wednesday opened hearings into problems at the Oregon State Hospital, including discussion of whether the 121-year-old psychiatric facility should be torn down and replaced with a new hospital. According to testimony before the Senate Committee on Health Policy, state mental health officials are trying to complete a $120,000 study by May that will look at what it would cost to build a new facility, how big it should be and where it should be." See also, at the same source, Senate panel begins look into mental health system.  
  

Testimony favors community mental health program (Montana)   Billings Gazette story - "Scores of people who might otherwise be institutionalized at Montana State Hospital testified before legislators Wednesday in support of expanding a community-based mental health program that has helped them lead more ordinary lives. The Program of Assertive Community Treatment (PACT), which began in Billings and Helena in 1999, helps high-risk patients with severe mental illness to live in their own homes while they receive psychiatric care.  ... The Helena and Billings programs can currently accept 70 patients, but with PACT expanding to Missoula, Kalispell and Great Falls, the state needs additional funding, said Joyce DeCunzo, director of the state's Addictive and Mental Disorders Division. The goal is to reach 350 patients through PACT by 2007, but 80 percent of those slots are for Medicaid patients. "  
  

Community help sought to improve mental health services (Kansas)   Lawrence Journal-World stroy - "Creating a strategy this year to provide mental health services is a major goal of Lawrence Memorial Hospital, but it will need community help to accomplish it, LMH officials said.  LMH board members meeting Wednesday agreed to seek the support of the Community Health Improvement Project to start a broader dialogue on mental health services..."  
  

North Carolina Mental Health Commission Moves to Fix Group Home Staffing Rules   WTVD news story - "State mental health officials have taken their first step toward correcting a mistake that allowed group home operators to collect state payments for workers they didn't employ. The problem was highlighted in a series of stories this week in The Charlotte Observer. The mistake caused the state to pay group homes under a model that assumes there at least two workers for every three children, while state rules require only one worker for every four children. State officials have acknowledged that they changed the reimbursement model without ever changing the rules that governed the ratio of workers to children. They have said the state and Medicaid overpaid group homes by tens of millions of dollars during the past three budget years."  
  

Alarm over police custody deaths (UK)  BBC story - "Half the people dying in police custody are mentally ill, says the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). Officers are being left to 'pick up the pieces' because of failings in health and care services, it says. Police cells should not be used as a 'safe place' for those in extreme mental distress, but all too often are the only places available, it said..."  
  

More Monitoring Needed of Kids in California Mental Health Clinics    Story at Forbes - "Problems with documentation of drug responses and child abuse screening and reporting are among the gaps in quality of care for children in California's public mental health clinics, says a University of California, Los Angeles-led study. Researchers examined the patient records of children treated at the public clinics and identified a number of strengths and weaknesses in quality of care for children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and major depression. The clinics received high marks for the thoroughness of mental health evaluations on the children. But the study said there was moderate to poor documentation of medical monitoring of psychoactive medications, parent consent for children's medication treatment, recommended contact with schools and other health-care providers, and child abuse screening and reporting."