Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Advocacy Guide to Rights Protection for Youths in the Juvenile Justice System  20 page guide, in Acrobat format, from the National Mental Health Association - "Equal justice under the law is a fundamental concept of American jurisprudence, but for youth with in the juvenile justice system, human rights protections are typically inadequate. Even when rights do exist in statute, regulations and case law, loopholes, vague language or lack of enforcement often weakens them. Why does this occur? Unfortunately, fear, misunderstanding and stigma dominate the perception of juvenile crime in this country. Americans have long been ambivalent about the purpose of the juvenile justice system and many states are opting for a more punitive approach to addressing criminal behavior. This trend, coupled with increasingly overcrowded facilities and a lack of sufficient resources, has resulted in the frequent violation of the rights of juveniles."  
  

Privatization and Managed Care in the Juvenile Justice System 36-page report, in Acrobat format, from the National Mental health Association - "Youth in our juvenile justice system, especially those with mental illnesses, are one of our nation's most vulnerable populations. Protecting the public trust in serving them is crucial to building a just, humane, and healthy society that is the driving vision behind all NMHA efforts. Thus the goals of this resource are threefold: To inform you about the current status of this system and its need for reform; To alert you to the pros and cons of privatization and managed care approaches;  To provide you with practical strategies to ensure that when privatization or managed care are implemented, the outcomes are as positive as possible..."  
  

Public education may not reduce schizophrenia stigma British Journal of Psychiatry news item at Psychiatry Matters - "Despite a better understanding of the biological causes of schizophrenia, the general public is still reluctant to socially accept people with the mental health disorder, German study findings show. 'It is a widely shared belief that an increase in mental health literacy will result in an improvement of attitudes towards people with mental illness,' explain Matthias Angermeyer and colleagues from the University of Leipzig. There is the argument that 'if the causes of mental disorders were attributed to factors outside the individual's control, people's reactions to those with mental illness would be less negative,' they add. To investigate, the researchers examined information from two population surveys conducted in the former Federal Republic of Germany in 1990 and 2001..."  
  

Medication adherence reduces recidivism in bipolar juvenile offenders Journal of Clinical Psychiatry news item at Psychiatry Matters - " Juvenile offenders with bipolar disorder who adhere to their antimanic medication are less likely than those who do not to offend again, study findings suggest. 'We wished to determine if mood-disordered serious juvenile offenders, who were stabilized on medication in a correctional setting, would maintain their gains upon return to their community and whether success or failure would be related to medication compliance,' Larry Dailey (Hennepin County Medical Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA) and colleagues explain. The researchers reviewed the probation records of 31 adolescents released during a 1-year period between 1993 and 1994 from a county juvenile corrections treatment facility. All the participants had DSM-III-R bipolar disorder and were stabilized on medication..."  
  

Bed closures create new service gap as old one is filled (Canada) Canada NewsWire press release - "While filling an important gap in the community, Kingston's Providence Continuing Care Centre Mental Health Services may be creating a new one back at the former Kingston Psychiatric Hospital with the closure of 22 mental health beds beginning this month. 'Providence may be a bit too optimistic in thinking that the demand for these beds will be offset by the introduction of a Community Treatment Team later this spring,' says Leah Casselman, President of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU). 'With a traditionally high occupancy rate, we are concerned that chronic mental health patients may be denied beds in favour of a treatment system that may not be fully in place or have adequate and appropriate resources to service them.' Providence is immediately closing 11 of 220 beds, with a further 11 to go as chronic patients vacate them. "  
  

Confronting trauma directly most effective for post-traumatic stress disorder News-Medical.Net story - "For patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, psychological treatments that address the trauma directly are better than more general therapies, according to a systematic review of the subject. The treatment approach known as trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy shows 'a strong positive effect,' the study says. In this type of program, therapists address the distressing thoughts and feelings related to the trauma and help the survivor cope with unpleasant memories and reactions. The analysis suggests that stress-management therapies may also be effective. Limited evidence supports the value of anxiety-management techniques such as relaxation and deep breathing. Least successful are nonfocused treatments such as straightforward counseling or 'psychodynamic' therapies that emphasize the emotional conflicts caused by the traumatic event, particularly as they relate to childhood experiences."  
  

Consumer Ads Boost Doctor Prescriptions ABC News story - "Direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs seems to increase the likelihood that physicians will prescribe those drugs, according to a study in the April 27th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. This can have mixed results in patient care, averting underuse in some cases and promoting overuse in others. To ascertain the effects of patients' requests influenced by direct-to-consumer advertising, Dr. Richard L. Kravitz, of the University of California, Davis, and colleagues used 'standardized patients,' actors trained to present at primary care physicians' offices with symptoms consistent with one of two conditions, major depression or adjustment disorder...."  
  

Number of Uninsured May Be Overstated, Studies Suggest

 LA Times story - "The number of Americans without health insurance — one of the most watched and worrisome indicators of economic well-being — may be overstated by as much as 20%, according to research conducted for the government. That could mean 9 million fewer uninsured, reducing the total to 36 million from the 45 million reported for 2003, the latest year for which data are available. The over-count appears to stem from technical problems with the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey, but its implications could have broad consequences for the healthcare debate and for a federal child health program that uses survey data to allocate hundreds of millions of dollars to the states." [Viewing Los Angeles Times stories requires registration, which is free].