Friday, May 13, 2005

Patients' and health professionals' views on primary care for people with serious mental illness: focus group study  British Medical Journal article - "Most health professionals felt that the care of people with serious mental illness was too specialised for primary care. However, most patients viewed primary care as the cornerstone of their health care and preferred to consult their own GP, who listened and was willing to learn, rather than be referred to a different GP with specific mental health knowledge. Swift access was important to patients, with barriers created by the effects of the illness and the noisy or crowded waiting area. Some patients described how they exaggerated symptoms ("acted up") to negotiate an urgent appointment, a strategy that was also employed by some GPs to facilitate admission to secondary care. Most participants felt that structured reviews of care had value. However, whereas health professionals perceived serious mental illness as a lifelong condition, patients emphasised the importance of optimism in treatment and hope for recovery. "  
  

Medicaid Commission Draws Unusual Interest Reuters Health story at Medscape - "When it comes to the Medicaid health program for the poor, the question in Washington has moved from whether to cut the program to how. The budget blueprint approved by the US Congress late last month calls for legislation to trim Medicaid spending by $10 billion over 5 years. But, in a compromise with moderate Republicans in the Senate, the deadline for that legislation to be written was pushed back to September, and the Bush administration agreed to appoint a bipartisan commission to make recommendations for how the program should be restructured. Now, however, the debate has turned to what type of commission will be created -- and how seriously Congress will take those recommendations." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

Congressional Briefings Call for Early Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of Children’s Mental Disorders Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law press release - "A school superintendent whose daughter once attempted suicide, a college student, a social worker, a board-certified child psychiatrist, and a member of President Bush’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health warned today that children’s lives will be lost without programs for early identification, evaluation and treatment of mental disorders. In briefings for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, the Campaign for Mental Health Reform (CMHR) addressed misinformation and distortions surrounding a critical need identified by the Surgeon General and the President’s Commission—as well as by the medical and public health communities." See also A Public Health Crisis: Children and Adolescents with Mental Disorders at the NAMI web site.  
  

Report on the Medical and Mental Health Programs of the Dallas County Jail February 2005 report (in Adobe Acrobat format) called to our attention by the Open Minds web site - "In December of 2004, the Dallas County Commissioners Court contracted with Health Management Associates (HMA) to perform a comprehensive review of the medical and mental health services at the Dallas County Jail. HMA, in order to assure a highly qualified and comprehensive review, subcontracted with Dr. Michael Puisis, a specialist in the correctional health with significant experience in both operating jail health services and reviewing such programs across the country, to perform the on-site analysis..."  
  

Agencies Often Overlook Need To Assess Trauma in Children May 6 Psychiatric News story - "The mental health needs of children who have experienced trauma and are in the child welfare system require consistent, ongoing attention of all the agencies involved. A number of public agencies charged with serving youth who have experienced trauma fail to gather information systematically about those traumatic experiences, including factors that trigger responses related to past trauma. An additional shortcoming appears to be a failure to assess children consistently for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to a report released in March by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. The report, titled 'Helping Children in the Child Welfare System Heal From Trauma: A Systems Integration Approach,' found that children who have been removed from their homes due to abuse and neglect and placed in the public system 'have an extremely high risk for mental health problems, especially traumatic stress.' " See also the full report (41 pages, Adobe Acrobat format), as well as other resources at the web site of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network.