Tuesday, May 10, 2005

NAMI To Participate in Congressional Briefing on Children’s Mental Health Story at the NAMI web site - "There is a critical need for our nation to improve the early identification of mental disorders in children and adolescents and to ensure early and appropriate intervention. This has now been well documented by the U.S. Surgeon General, President Bush’s New Freedom Commission and by numerous national experts in children’s mental illnesses. Yet, there is currently a destructive campaign of misinformation underway about President Bush’s New Freedom Commission (NFC) report and mental health screening..."  
  

Serotonin's Effects Extend Far Beyond Brain  HealthDay News story at Yahoo - "The brain chemical serotonin is present in embryos long before neurons form and plays a role in determining the position of organs during embryonic development, scientists report. These findings about serotonin, which is involved in the transmission of signals between neurons and plays a role in anxiety and mood disorders, could have a potential impact in many fields, including neuroscience, developmental genetics, evolutionary biology and human teratology -- a branch of pathology and embryology that focuses on abnormal development and congenital malformations, the researchers said."  
  

Crackdown urged on Medicaid fraud Washington Times story omn a Medicaid forum hosted by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and the American Public Health Association- "Health policy analysts yesterday suggested clamping down on Medicaid fraud and abuse to offset expected cuts to the federal health care program for the needy. ... The panelists, who expect Congress to cut Medicaid funding over the next several years, recommended ways to contain program spending, such as capping eligibility, covered services and reimbursement. They also suggested linking federal reimbursement to states with economic performance. During a recession, for example, states could expect a greater reimbursement."  
  

Some Senators Say Institute of Medicine Should Have Role in Commission To Study Medicaid Item in the Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report - "A bipartisan group of senators is urging HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt to allow the Institute of Medicine to lead the Medicaid study commission, CongressDaily reports. The commission, called for in the fiscal year 2006 budget resolution approved by Congress last month, will recommend ways to cut $10 billion from Medicaid over five years and propose longer-term solutions to slow the program's rising costs. A spokesperson for Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), who spearheaded the effort to create the panel, said Smith wants Leavitt to give IOM a 'big role' in crafting the commission's recommendations."  
  

Should the mental health evaluator decide child custody? Blackwell Publishing press release - "The current issue of Family Court Review addresses the controversy surrounding the role of the mental health evaluation in child custody cases, led by an article by Timothy Tippins and Jeffrey Wittmann which argues that the child's best interests are a legal and socio-moral construct, not a psychological one. Tippins and Wittmann write that psychologists have no valid, reliable methods for determining custody plans for children, yet often do. 'There is no empirically supportable method or principle by which an evaluator can come to a conclusion with respect to best interests entirely by resorting to the knowledge base of the mental health profession,' the authors assert. Their article proposes a model for what clinicians can ethically present in custody matters, carving the psychological evaluation process into four layers which work toward the core issue: the best interest of the child."