Saturday, March 12, 2005

Medicaid Alert: House and Senate Move Forward With Budget Resolutions Cutting Medicaid Alert at the NAMI web site - "Both the House and Senate Budget Committees acted this week on separate versions of the FY 2006 budget resolution that include cuts to the Medicaid program. When the full Senate takes up its version next week, Senators Gordon Smith (R-OR) and Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) will be offering an amendment to reject these cuts and instead authorize a bipartisan commission on the future of the program..." The alert also includes links to background information regarding Medicaid cuts, information on the Medicaid program and its importance to children and adults with severe mental illnesses and information on the Smith-Bingaman Amendment.  
  

Operational Stress Injury Social Support Project (Canada) The web site of the OSISS project - "The Operational Stress Injury Social Support (OSISS) Project was created in May 2001 and received Armed Forces Council (AFC) endorsement on 23 Oct 2001 and is currently mandated to: Create a national peer support network for members, veterans and their families; Validate the development of education packages and pre-deployment training modules in partnership with health care professionals and the CF environments; Take a leading role to develop the methodology required to effect an institutional cultural change pertaining to the stigma associated with operational stress." Includes a clickable map of peer support network sites across Canada.  
  

Award-Winning Documentary on Schizophrenia to be Screened at Mental Health Meeting in San Francisco  PR Newswire press release - "The award-winning documentary Out of the Shadow, which illuminates the national plight of schizophrenia through one family's struggle, will be shown at the annual training conference of the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare on Monday, March 14 at 4:30 p.m. PST. The audience at this national conference will consist of more than 1000 mental health and substance abuse providers. The making of Out of the Shadow was a personal journey for director/producer Susan Smiley, whose mother Millie lives with schizophrenia. The film, an official selection at the Vancouver Film Festival and SILVERDOCS: the AFI/Discovery Channel Film Festival, offers a frank look at this complex disease, dispels stigmas and misconceptions surrounding schizophrenia, and presents the challenges Smiley's family has faced while navigating the public health system."