Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Screening Teens for Suicidal Ideas Not a Risk - Study Reuters story at Yahoo - "Asking teenagers if they think about suicide does not increase the risk they will act on it and may actually help adolescents who suffer from depression, researchers said on Tuesday. More than 2,300 students at six suburban New York high schools filled out questionnaires with half answering questions about whether they thought about suicide while the other half did not. Neither group exhibited increased distress or suicidal thoughts after participating, including at-risk individuals with a history of suicide attempts, depression, or drug abuse. "  
  

Tough Lessons from TennCare A report, in Adobe Acrobat format, from the Council for Affordable Health Insurance - " ennCare — a managed care program that replaced and expanded Medicaid in Tennessee — has been troubled from its inception. Hastily implemented so as to minimize evaluation and opposition, Tennesseans have been paying the high price for an ill-conceived program ever since. ... Now, 11 years after implementation, Tennessee is a poorer, but wiser, state..."  
  

Eastern vs Western Perspectives on Depression: An Expert Interview With James C.-Y. Chou, MD Interview in Medscape Psychiatry & Mental Health - "...the concept of psychological depression in Eastern cultures is not as well accepted as it is in Western cultures. In fact, the whole idea of illness in Eastern cultures is based on physical illness. In the last 15 or 20 years, there has been an improvement as Asian people are thinking more about psychological illness, but by and large, either you have physical illness or you're not sick. So the idea of psychological illness is not culturally well-accepted. This leads to the frequent presentation of depression as somatic complaints, because it's much easier for patients to have a physical complaint than to have a psychological complaint; if they have a psychological illness, then they are perceived as being a persistently mentally ill patient as you would see in a state hospital. So the 2 things I think about are somatization and stigma..." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

New Report on Washington Mental Health Crisis PR Newswire story at Yahoo - "The Washington chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) and partners from medical, law enforcement, education and other communities have released a new report on the state's budget crisis and mental healthcare needs, while launching a statewide campaign to address the costs of untreated mental illness..." See also the full report, Can Crisis Beget Opportunity? Washington State's Response to the Mental Health Funding Quandary (Adobe Acrobat), and other, related resources at the NAMI web site.  
  

House panel OKs mental health bill (South Carolina) Brief Island Packet Online story - "A bill aimed at increasing mental health insurance coverage for many South Carolinians was approved by the state House of Representatives' Labor, Commerce and Industry Committee Tuesday. In a voice vote, the committee approved the measure that would require companies with more than 50 employees to provide insurance coverage for specific mental illnesses for up to 45 days of inpatient care and up to 60 outpatient visits a year."  
  

Omaha leaders offer to raise money for mental health facility (Nebraska) Sioux City Journal story - "Concerns over what impact a proposed mental health treatment facility in Omaha will have on services provided to people across the state was to be discussed at a private meeting Wednesday with Gov. Dave Heineman and those working on reforms. The meeting comes as work continues to make the long talked about Omaha facility a reality. Concerned community leaders has pledged to raise between $15 million and $20 million to build the new center, said Nebraska Chief Medical Officer Dr. Richard Raymond on Tuesday. Getting the center started, which has been in the works for two years, is moving ahead, he said..."  
  

Grilling for Health Ministry officials over ECT (New Zealand) New Zealand Herald story - "Health Ministry officials have been grilled on consent discrepancies in the administration of electro-convulsive therapy (ECT). The therapy has been the focus of a full review after a petition to the Health Select Committee. Officials were quizzed on data showing 59 per cent of cases in Counties-Manukau and 40 per cent in Waitemata are given without consent..."  
  

Obituary: Mental Health Advocate Jay B. Cutler Washington Post obituary - "Jay B. Cutler, 74, whose advocacy over 30 years helped secure better treatment for people suffering from mental illness and substance abuse, died of lung cancer March 4 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Mr. Cutler is credited with reducing the stigma appended to mental illness and helping people receive better care. Early in his career as a Senate aide, he helped change the perception of national policymakers towards alcoholism and the effects of alcohol abuse. Working with then-Sens. Jacob Javits and Harold Hughes, he played a pivotal role in the drafting and passage of the landmark Comprehensive Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation Act of 1970, which established the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism." [Viewing Washington Post stories requires registration, which is free.]  
  

Mental health cuts put public at risk (UK) Evening Standard story - "Proposed cuts to mental health services in London could put patients and the public at risk, health bosses warned today. The health service in west London faces a raft of cutbacks in a bid to plug £9 million of debt. But today doctors attacked further cuts to mental health services, saying reduced funding could mean dangerous patients are released into the community. In a letter to the North West London Strategic Health Authority, a committee representing 100 psychiatrists warned health chiefs that forcing £1million cuts in the area of mental health was 'potentially dangerous and unlikely to save money.' "