Monday, March 07, 2005

Treating Inmates' Drug Use Cost-Effective in Long Run Psychiatric News story - "While treating inmates for substance abuse problems is expensive, it is less expensive than leaving them untreated when the costs associated with recidivism are factored in. Inmates in Connecticut prisons who received substance abuse treatment while incarcerated were significantly less likely to be rearrested, thus resulting in reduced costs to taxpayers. This is the major finding from a study conducted by researchers from Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., who estimated that cost savings associated with providing substance abuse treatment of inmates ranged from $20,098 to $37,605 per prisoner, depending on the type of substance abuse treatment program implemented. The results of the study appeared in the February Journal of Offender Rehabilitation."  
  

Follow-Up Found Lacking In Public MH Services  Psychiatric News story on report appears in the February Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry - "A review of 813 patient charts reveals good evaluations of children with mental health problems but inadequate documentation of medication monitoring and coordination of care. California's public mental health clinics evaluate children well but do only a 'moderate to poor' job of sticking to quality indicators for patient care, said a study commissioned by the state's Department of Mental Health." See also the abstract of the study, which is available for a fee.  
  

States Try Diverse Strategies To Reform Health Care  Psychiatric News story - "Elected officials in every state recognize that health care is an unavoidable issue, and every sort of option—from limited benefit packages and mandate-free benefits to health savings accounts—is under consideration. In a season of dire austerity, and with little or no help from Washington, states are scraping together a variety of means for addressing health care access and quality within their borders. Most prominent among these efforts are 'premium-assistance' programs in which a state uses public funds to pay for a portion of the premium costs of employer-sponsored insurance for eligible populations, said Alan Weil, executive director and president of the National Academy of State Health Policy (NASHP), at last month's Health Action conference in Washington, D.C., sponsored by Families USA. Somewhat less common, given the thin margin with which states are working, are expansions of Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program. But some states are finding cost-cutting measures allowing them to grow those programs."  
  

Senator Sounds Alarm On Medicaid's Future  Psychiatric News story - "America's public health safety net is under assault, said Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). Keynoting a conference sponsored by Families USA in Washington, D.C., in January, Clinton sounded a chord that would reverberate throughout the meeting—a combination of grim foreboding about the intentions of a second-term Bush administration toward the public health systems that have been the legacy of the liberal Democratic establishment and a defiant resolve to protect those systems against Republican efforts to privatize and downsize. 'These are perilous times for America's health care infrastructure,' the former first lady told a crowded ballroom at Washington's Mayflower Hotel. 'We are about to experience one of the most aggressive assaults on the structure and funding of public health programs in our history.' Clinton focused especially on administration proposals to cap Medicaid funding through block grants to states—effectively overturning the system of matching funding that has been in place since the program began 40 years ago—and the new prescription drug benefit under the Medicare Modernization Act..."  
  

APA Applauds Congressional Members for Reintroducing Federal Legislation to Address the Tragedy of Parental Relinquishment of Custody... APA press release - "Every year, thousands of families across the country are forced to choose between keeping their child and obtaining access to the health care and services he or she desperately needs. To help address this national tragedy, Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) has introduced the bipartisan 'Keeping Families Together Act,' legislation to support statewide systems of care for children and adolescents with serious mental and emotional disorders so parents are no longer forced to give up custody of their children to state agencies for the sole purpose of obtaining mental health services for them. ... The APA applauds these congressional leaders for reintroducing this vital legislation and for their ongoing leadership on children’s mental health policy."  
  

Mental health chief resigns (Arizona) Arizona Republic story - "The chief of the state's mental-health system is resigning after months of criticism over patient care. The move by Leslie Schwalbe comes little more than a week after her boss, state Department of Health Services Director Catherine Eden, announced her own retirement. Schwalbe has been with the DHS about five years, and has overseen the behavioral health services division since 2001. The departures of Schwalbe and Eden follow the retirement of Jack Silver as chief executive officer of the Arizona State Hospital. He left last year as the hospital was hit with critical reviews of patient treatment and other issues. On Friday, before Schwalbe's announcement, the DHS was in court to report on a longstanding lawsuit aimed at improving care for seriously mentally ill people in Maricopa County. At the hearing, the DHS and plaintiffs' attorneys agreed that some progress is being made. Another hearing was set for June."  
  

Mental health agency faces more cuts (Missouri) Story in The Missourian - "Providers of mental health services face a loss of state funding under Gov. Matt Blunt’s budget plan that would cut about $50 million in state funds from the Department of Mental Health. Roland Meinert, chairman of the Boone County Mental Health Board of Trustees, said state mental health funding has decreased from 10 percent of the total state budget to 5 percent of the total state budget during the past 10 years, creating waiting lists for services and overextending the staffs of providers. Further cuts would exacerbate the problems, Meinert said. 'It’s obviously going to have devastating effects,' he said."  
  

Obstacles block path to mental health (Florida) Miami Herald story - "Like other immigrant groups who leave their homelands in search of a new life, Caribbean Americans are often traumatized by the experience of uprooting their lives, the journey itself and the difficulties they encounter in a new environment. Cultural barriers, along with the stigma associated with mental illness and a lack of culturally sensitive programs, make it difficult for them to address mental health issues in the community, experts say. Many Caribbean Americans see going to a psychologist or a psychiatrist as a luxury they can't afford, literally or time wise, while others shy away because of the stigma attached to mental health services in their country of origin."  
  

Law broadens parental control over teens' mental health treatment (Pennsylvania) Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story on "a new law took effect that gives parents more authority to direct their teenage children into inpatient mental health care. The law allows parents and legal guardians to consent to inpatient treatment recommended by a doctor for children ages 14 to 17, even if the teenagers disagree. ... The state's practice of giving teenagers as young as 14 the right to consent to inpatient mental health care dates to the 1970s and arose from litigation that claimed children had been hospitalized inappropriately, said Joan Erney, deputy secretary for the state Department of Public Welfare's Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. Supporters of the new law, including a group representing the state's psychiatrists, said it will help some teenagers get needed mental health care. But others said the law could pose problems and may be a step backward, utilizing resources for inpatient treatment that would be better used for other types of care."  
  

Increase in prison suicides blamed on understaffing, poor health care (New York) AP story at Newsday - "The state correction officers' union says understaffing and poor mental health care contributed to an increase in prisoner suicides last year. 'You have a generalized staff shortage that's quite serious and, on top of that, you have a crisis on how the mental health issues are handled,' said Wayne Meyers, president of Local 1565 of the American Federal of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents 2,500 state prison guards. According to state Correction Department reports on seven inmate suicides last year, the agency determined that guards falsified log books at least two times, responded slowly to some suicide attempts and, according to prisoners, were grossly indifferent to human life in some cases."  
  

Mental health program helps some, denies others (Texas) Houston Chronicle story on "a new system for treating Texans with mental illnesses: Resiliency and Disease Management. The system categorizes clients and dictates the kind of treatment they receive at state-financed community mental health centers. It is meant to give the most severely mentally ill people meaningful care that allows them to become healthy and self-sufficient. ... But there is a cost. Thousands of people are being turned away from the centers because they don't meet the more stringent eligibility criteria. Since Sept. 1, about 17,000 of the approximately 130,000 people who were receiving care at the centers have been deemed ineligible for services. Statistics from some centers show large numbers of potential clients also are being turned away. Experts say many of those people are ending up in emergency rooms because they have nowhere else to go..."