Monday, June 14, 2004

Mentally ill kids adrift in system
USA Today story reprinted at PsycPORT - "The safety net of care for children with mental disorders is badly frayed and even torn open in some spots, leaving many kids untreated or in a dangerous free-fall on treatments that don't work, mental health experts agree. ...  About one of five Americans younger than 18 has a diagnosable mental disorder, according to the U.S. surgeon general's 1999 report on mental health. About one of 10 have serious, impairing mental illnesses, such as major depression and anxiety disorders, and fewer than 20% of them receive treatment, says the National Institute on Mental Health. Children are just about as likely as adults to have mental illness, but much less is known about childhood disorders and safe, effective treatments for them."  
  

Dizzying shift: Pushing mentally ill into managed care (Florida)
Daytona Beach News-Journal editorial - "On July 1, Florida will start moving 73,000 Medicaid patients with mental illnesses into managed-care programs. It's a giant windfall for the big health-maintenance corporation that backed the move and a nasty surprise for advocates who discovered the change weeks after it had been buried in an appropriations bill. Most of all, it's a gut-wrenching leap into the unknown for these patients, their families and the community mental-health organizations that serve them. The abrupt transition is unplanned for, unnecessary and unjustified. It only takes a calendar to illustrate the lack of preparation. The Florida Substance Abuse and Mental Health Corporation Board, created in 2003, was asked to conduct a study of managed care and mental health. That report is due in December. Yet, the appropriations bill mandated that the change begin in July. That seems to indicate that the lawmakers who sneaked this provision into the budget weren't terribly interested in muddying the issue with facts."  
  

A turf war over mental health
Boston Globe story - "Across the United States, psychiatrists and psychologists are engaged in a bruising battle. Two professions normally focused on respecting emotions and listening are instead hurling barbs, accusing each other of caring more about money and turf than patients. The issue: giving psychologists the authority to prescribe drugs. A long-smoldering debate ignited last month when Louisiana passed a law allowing psychologists there to write prescriptions. Psychiatrists, who as medical doctors can prescribe, bitterly fought the legislation and said they fear it will generate momentum in other states."