Tuesday, May 10, 2005

PBS Frontline Report On Criminalization Airs On May 10 Story at the NAMI web site - "On May 10, PBS will broadcast a documentary entitled 'The New Asylums', an in-depth look at the realities of mental illness filmed inside the Ohio state prison system. The documentary will portray in moving and disturbing detail a reality that NAMI members are all too familiar with – our nation’s jails and prisons have become de-facto psychiatric treatment facilities. Check your local listings for the time that this important documentary will air in your community..." Related PBS web resources will be available after 9 PM May 10.  
  

NAMI To Participate in Congressional Briefing on Children’s Mental Health Story at the NAMI web site - "There is a critical need for our nation to improve the early identification of mental disorders in children and adolescents and to ensure early and appropriate intervention. This has now been well documented by the U.S. Surgeon General, President Bush’s New Freedom Commission and by numerous national experts in children’s mental illnesses. Yet, there is currently a destructive campaign of misinformation underway about President Bush’s New Freedom Commission (NFC) report and mental health screening..."  
  

Onset of antipsychotic action may occur within first 24 hours  Psychiatry Matters item on a study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry - "Investigators have found that the onset of antipsychotic action can occur within the first 2 to 24 hours of treatment, contradicting the belief that there is a "delayed onset" of antipsychotic response. The antipsychotic response is considered to be around 2 to 3 weeks, with any earlier improvements thought to reflect nonspecific behavioral drug effects, such as agitation, excitement, and uncooperativeness, note Shitij Kapur and colleagues from the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada."  
  

Serotonin's Effects Extend Far Beyond Brain  HealthDay News story at Yahoo - "The brain chemical serotonin is present in embryos long before neurons form and plays a role in determining the position of organs during embryonic development, scientists report. These findings about serotonin, which is involved in the transmission of signals between neurons and plays a role in anxiety and mood disorders, could have a potential impact in many fields, including neuroscience, developmental genetics, evolutionary biology and human teratology -- a branch of pathology and embryology that focuses on abnormal development and congenital malformations, the researchers said."  
  

Crackdown urged on Medicaid fraud Washington Times story omn a Medicaid forum hosted by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and the American Public Health Association- "Health policy analysts yesterday suggested clamping down on Medicaid fraud and abuse to offset expected cuts to the federal health care program for the needy. ... The panelists, who expect Congress to cut Medicaid funding over the next several years, recommended ways to contain program spending, such as capping eligibility, covered services and reimbursement. They also suggested linking federal reimbursement to states with economic performance. During a recession, for example, states could expect a greater reimbursement."  
  

Some Senators Say Institute of Medicine Should Have Role in Commission To Study Medicaid Item in the Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report - "A bipartisan group of senators is urging HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt to allow the Institute of Medicine to lead the Medicaid study commission, CongressDaily reports. The commission, called for in the fiscal year 2006 budget resolution approved by Congress last month, will recommend ways to cut $10 billion from Medicaid over five years and propose longer-term solutions to slow the program's rising costs. A spokesperson for Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), who spearheaded the effort to create the panel, said Smith wants Leavitt to give IOM a 'big role' in crafting the commission's recommendations."  
  

Should the mental health evaluator decide child custody? Blackwell Publishing press release - "The current issue of Family Court Review addresses the controversy surrounding the role of the mental health evaluation in child custody cases, led by an article by Timothy Tippins and Jeffrey Wittmann which argues that the child's best interests are a legal and socio-moral construct, not a psychological one. Tippins and Wittmann write that psychologists have no valid, reliable methods for determining custody plans for children, yet often do. 'There is no empirically supportable method or principle by which an evaluator can come to a conclusion with respect to best interests entirely by resorting to the knowledge base of the mental health profession,' the authors assert. Their article proposes a model for what clinicians can ethically present in custody matters, carving the psychological evaluation process into four layers which work toward the core issue: the best interest of the child."  
  

NAMI to honor University of Texas Medical Branch psychiatrist Galveston County Daily News story on Grace Jameson, who "has been a clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Texas Medical Branch for more than 50 years. What that means, she said, is that she taught students at UTMB while making her living in the private practice of psychiatry. Because of Jameson’s efforts, UTMB had one of the first two psychiatric units for adolescents in Texas, and she participated in developing a treatment program for troubled youth that came to be copied throughout the country."  
  

Group seeks solutions to mental health crisis (Texas) Galveston County Daily News story - "A task force has been working for months to find ways to rebuild a mental health and drug treatment system that has been devastated by budget cuts. Ben Raimer, vice president of community outreach at the University of Texas Medical Branch, summed up the problem. 'There just isn’t access in an outpatient setting,' he said. 'You pretty well have to walk into an emergency room and threaten suicide to get any treatment.' Ted Hanley, executive director of The Jesse Tree, said treating mental illness and substance abuse was never cheap. 'And we have a much more complicated task here in Texas because we have such limited dollars,' he said. The Mental Health Association in Texas says the state ranked 49th in the nation in mental health spending in 2002, shelling out $38.46 per client. The association calculates that after adjusting for inflation, the state spent nearly 15 percent less on mental health that year than it did in 1981. And things have gotten worse..."  
  

Health care cuts to close mental health clinics (Louisiana) Shreveport Times story - "The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals plans to close 17 mental health care clinics and shut down 100 psychiatric beds in order to help balance the budget. Health Secretary Fred Cerise outlined the budget woes Monday to the House Appropriations Committee, which made no decisions but will consider possible changes in the next few weeks. The mental health clinic closures are part of $295 million in cuts that are necessary already." See also Health-care options depress panel (Advocate, Baton Rouge LA).  
  

Mental health workers seek support for programs (North Carolina) Goldsboro News-Argus story - "Mental health workers told lawmakers Monday the community needs help from the Legislature to prepare to take on a larger portion of the burden for caring for people with mental illnesses. 'The state needs to give counties more flexibility with funds,' said Dr. Jack St. Clair, the director of Eastpointe, which provides services for people with mental health and substance abuse problems and developmental disabilities in Wayne, Duplin, Sampson and Lenoir counties. St. Clair's remarks came at legislative breakfast attended by state Reps. Louis Pate and Stephen LaRoque and state Sen. John Kerr. "