Monday, May 03, 2004

Adding a mental health care team to a primary care clinic increases on-site treatment
Item in CMHA/Ontario's Mental Health Notes based on an article in the April issue of Psychiatric Services - "Intergrating a mental health care team within a primary care clinic improved the clinic’s ability to evaluate and stabilize patients’ psychiatric disorders and reduced referrals to specialized services, according to a study for the Department of Veterans Affairs..."  
  

A Health Care Needs Assessment of Federal Inmates in Canada
Adobe Acrobat version of a study coordinated by Correctional Service Canada and published as a supplement to the Canadian Journal of Public Health. As noted in the CMHA/Ontario newsletter Mental Health Notes, the study finds that "Canadian federal inmates have higher rates of psychosis, depression, anxiety and personality disorders than the general population" and concludes that the country "needs a comprehensive strategy for detecting and managing the high levels of mental health disorders among federal inmates."  
  

Hidden cost of depression in seniors: $9 billion in care from spouses, children
University of Michigan Health System press release - "A new study reveals that depression among senior citizens carries a huge unrecognized cost: many extra hours of unpaid help with everyday activities, delivered by the depressed seniors' spouses, adult children and friends. Even moderately depressed seniors, the University of Michigan study finds, require far more hours of care than those without any symptoms of depression, regardless of other health problems they may have. If depressed seniors' 'informal' caregivers were paid the wages of a home health aide, the cost to society would be $9 billion a year, the researchers estimate. That puts depression second only to dementia in the national annual cost for informal caregiving, based on previous studies of the same data. And the findings illustrate the major impact of depression on both seniors and their loved ones. The findings, which will be published in the May issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, are based on data from the U-M's Health and Retirement Study, a long-term survey of older Americans conducted by the U-M Institute for Social Research."  
  

PSI quietly joining ranks of top mental health-care firms
Story in The Tennessean - "When 2003 began, PSI had just five inpatient facilities and 700 beds. By the end of the year, it had added 18 facilities and had a total of 2,900 beds. Today, the company owns 22 inpatient psychiatric facilities and leases four more with a total of 3,200 beds in 15 states. Of those beds, 55% are for acute-care hospital patients. The rest are for patients who need longer-term residential stays. Last week, PSI signed an agreement to buy four more facilities with a total of 360 beds as part of a $47 million deal. Psychiatric Solutions also manages 43 inpatient behavioral facilities inside hospitals that are owned by others. In addition, PSI manages 11 government-owned facilities..."