Wednesday, March 26, 2003

Drug argument embroils psychiatrists, pharm cos.
CNN story - "With little fanfare but much passion, a movement has arisen in recent years against what critics regard as a psycho-pharmacetical industry that has slowly undermined the therapeutic foundations of psychiatry with a drug- and profit-driven model for treatment of illnesses, real and -- they say -- imagined."  
  

Long-Term Care Financing and the Workforce Crisis
A white paper (in Adobe Acrobat format) from Citizens for Long Term Care which calls for an overhaul of long-term care financing to create a system "designed around the relationship between the long-term care client and his or her worker." CLTC is a coalition of long-term care providers, insurers, and consumer and worker advocates. Related white papers from the past two years can be downloaded by providing CTLC with your e-mail address.  
  

Mentally ill need advice of doctors, not bureaucrats (Florida)
Opinion column in the Tallahassee Democrat by Lynne Montgomery-Hernandez is executive director of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill-Florida - "...in an effort to achieve short-term savings, the Agency for Health Care Administration is considering a policy to force people with serious mental illnesses to fail on a less expensive medication before granting them access to a medication their doctor believes would be the most effective. Without access to appropriate medications and treatment, many people with severe mental illnesses will become homeless, commit suicide or end up in hospitals or our jail and prison systems."