Friday, October 31, 2003

Mandated Treatment in the Community for People with Mental Disorders
Health Affairs article reprinted at Medscape that "explores the context within which coerced community treatment has arisen and seeks to break the impasse between advocates and opponents by placing mandated treatment within the larger conceptual framework of health care quality. The authors are all part of the Research Network on Mandated Community Treatment, a MacArthur Foundation funded project designed to evaluate programs in which mentally ill patients are instructed by the courts to get community-based treatment." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

Head Games: As mental health services get cut further, the number of people in need grows (California)
Metroactive feature story on Sonoma County's mental health system - "As the healthcare crisis tries to dodge the slings and arrows of recall elections and budget debacles, mental health has fallen to the bottom of most people's priority lists. ... But Sonoma County's mental healthcare is undergoing a crisis of its own. As a state system (which many feel wasn't meeting the mentally ill's needs before there ever was a budget crisis), it has already faced cuts and may see more next year. The problem is that the longer mental health needs go unmet, the more it costs the community as a whole...."