Tuesday, February 10, 2004

Editor's note: daily email subscriptions
Readers who have subscribed to the daily email service have no doubt noticed that they have not been receiving daily updates for some time now. The issues which created the problem seem to have (finally!) been resolved, and that service should resume tomorrow. If you have signed up for the daily email service and continue to not receive it, please contact me directly. My apologies for the inconvenience...... Bill Davis, Editor.   
  

Wisconsin Counties Begin Charging Copayments for Behavioral Health Medications
Item at the highly recommended Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, based on reporting in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel - "Some Wisconsin counties are requiring copayments for prescription drugs to maintain programs that provide mental health treatment to low-income residents who do not qualify for Medicaid or Medicare, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. Waukesha County, which provides mental health medications to more than 500 patients, on Feb. 1 implemented a copay of $15 for each mental health prescription or refill, which patients previously received without charge...."  
  

Systematic Case Studies in Program Evaluation
This link leads to the table of contents for the current issue of Evaluation and Program Planning, where summaries, abstracts and full text are listed for Part Two (published this month) of a special section on Systematic Case Studies in Program Evaluation (see the rationale and introduction). At the moment, full text is available at no charge for all the articles listed, many of which will be of interest to PULSE readers. See especially (these links go to the "Summary Plus" for each article - the abstract and hypertext links to full text) Using key component profiles for the evaluation of program implementation in intensive mental health case management; The substance abuse services cost analysis program (SASCAP): a new method for estimating drug treatment services costs, and Publishing systematic, pragmatic case studies in program evaluation: collatoral on a `promisory note'.  
  

CSC Welcomes Report on Federal Women Offenders (Canada)
Government of Canada press release, called to our attention by the CMHA newsletter Mental Health Notes - "The Government of Canada welcomed today the release of the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) report entitled Protecting Their Rights, A Systemic Review of Human Rights in Correctional Services for Federally Sentenced Women. The CHRC proceeded with this review of the treatment of women offenders as a result of issues raised by various non-governmental organizations." See also, at the Canadian Human Rights Commission web site, two background documents (Release of the Report and Recommendations of the Special Report) and the full report itself, Protecting Their Rights, A Systemic Review of Human Rights in Correctional Services for Federally Sentenced Women, which is available in both a web version and in Adobe Acrobat format.