Thursday, June 17, 2004

Using Medicaid to Support Healthy Mental Development in Young Children
A report in Adobe Acrobat format from the National Academy for State Health Policy, available at the Open Minds web site - "Recent research documents how and why social-emotional development may be as important as cognitive (intellectual) development. Children who are viewed by others as "sad, mad, or bad" are far less likely to experience school success and may be unable to use preschool intervention. Recent research also documents the important role Medicaid can play in supporting young children’s healthy mental development. This report examines both why and how Medicaid can support children’s healthy mental development, including a discussion of how states can use Medicaid to better support young children’s social/emotional development even in the current economic climate."  
  

North Carolina overhaul of mental health services is lagging
Wilmington Star story - "Plans to change the state's mental health system, including closing wards at Dorothea Dix hospital, have fallen behind because patient demand is up and private services are refusing to take more difficult patients, officials say. Patient numbers in the geriatric ward at Dix were supposed to be cut nearly in half by July 1, but the new date to move some of the 33 patients has been pushed to next July. The child and adolescent unit was supposed to close in January, but it will remain open until Dix closes in 2007 because of an increase in patients. Dix Director Terry Stelle, in a memo about the delays, said 'community services have not come on line to serve many of these patients, and it may be several years before specialized facilities are developed.' " [Viewing Washington Post stories requires registration, which is free.]  
  

Mental health emergency room crisis to get funding relief (South Carolina)
Story in The State - "Mental health patients waiting in emergency rooms for proper treatment are getting roughly $11.5 million in funding to help remedy an impending crisis, health officials said Wednesday. The new money, announced as a collaboration between the state Mental Health Department and Health and Human Services, will be used to add 70 new treatment beds as well as fund law enforcement officers and medical teams to handle situations involving mental health patients."  
  

Critical Ingredients of Consumer Run Services: Results of a National Survey
Adobe Acrobat version of a report published in the February 2004 Community Mental Health Journal - "Fidelity criteria are increasingly used in program monitoring and evaluation, but are difficult to derive for emerging models (i.e., those not based on theory or a research demonstration project). We describe steps used to develop and operationalize fidelity criteria for consumer-run (CR) mental health services: articulating and operationalizing criteria based on published literature, then revising and validating the criteria through expert judgments using a modified Delphi method. Respondents rated highest those structural and process components emphasizing the value of consumerism: consumer control, consumer choices and opportunities for decision-making, voluntary participation (and the absence of coercion), and respect for members by staff."