Wednesday, September 10, 2003

Can Medical Researchers Ask Patients to Waive Their Privacy Rights?
From the "HIPAA Compliance Ask The Expert" series in Medscape Money and Medicine - "The identification of potential patients for enrollment in clinical trials is a critical step in carrying out vital research that can lead to significant advances and improvements in medical treatment. The HIPAA medical privacy rule recognizes the legitimate needs of researchers to access and use patients' protected health information (PHI) to identify appropriate candidates for specific health research protocols and projects while maintaining strong protections for the privacy of patient information." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

Mental Illness and Informed Consent: Seeking an Empirically Derived Understanding of Voluntarism
Current Opinion in Psychiatry article at Medscape - "... Over four decades, there have been extensive efforts to understand consent processes, giving emphasis to information-related and decisional capacity considerations. In this time, relatively little attention has been given to the cardinal element of voluntarism, defined minimally as the expression of authentic choice in the absence of coercion. The past year, however, has witnessed the emergence of a handful of promising evidence-based papers seeking to present a more nuanced, substantive understanding of voluntarism, which is at the heart of the informed consent process." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

Supreme Court rules on cases that drew APA interest and input
An overview, in the September APA Monitor of four cases decided in June by the US Supreme Court ("spanning affirmative action, forced medication for trial competency, sexual contact in same-sex couples and the prosecution of child sexual abuse...") in which the APA had filed amicus curiae briefs.  
  

U.S. mental health system needs less stigma, more consumer input
Article in the September APA Monitor - "President Bush's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health has recommended strategies to improve the quality of mental health services, including making early mental health screening common practice."  
  

Working Minds Toolkit
Created by Mind Out (UK), "This comprehensive, practical guide contains useful material to help employers make positive changes to policy and practice surrounding mental health. It has been designed as a flexible, stimulating resource and will be particularly useful to managers and human resource professionals." This page at the Mind Out web site in turn provides links to the full 122 page toolkit and to individual sections, all in Adobe Acrobat format. Mind Out is "...is an active campaign to stop the stigma and discrimination surrounding mental health."