Webhealth
Webhealth has been specifically developed to provide access for people to
connect with Health and Social Services. This web-based approach builds on
the strengths of people and families to determine their support needs. Within the Webhealth website is Linkage. Linkage is a
partnership between an NGO, Pathways; primary health care, Pinnacle; and a
secondary provider/hospital, Health Waikato. It offers early intervention
services with a “one stop shop” in central Hamilton and New Plymouth.
Friday, February 13, 2004
National Panel Challenges Purchasers to Improve the Quality of Addiction Treatment
Press release at Join Together - "A national panel of experts has called for a fundamental change in the payment system for treating drug and alcohol disorders. The group, chaired by Dr. Jerome Jaffe, the nation's first 'drug czar,' says that payment should be based on the results achieved. Treatment programs that do a better job helping their patients improve would be paid more, while programs with poor results would be paid less and might be forced to change or close."
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Press release at Join Together - "A national panel of experts has called for a fundamental change in the payment system for treating drug and alcohol disorders. The group, chaired by Dr. Jerome Jaffe, the nation's first 'drug czar,' says that payment should be based on the results achieved. Treatment programs that do a better job helping their patients improve would be paid more, while programs with poor results would be paid less and might be forced to change or close."
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The Impact of Managed Care: Comparison of Case Rate and Fee-for-Service Financing for Persons With Severe Mental Illness
Article in Drug Benefits Trends at Medscape - "Changes in treatment outcomes were examined using 4.5 years of data from 2 groups of severely mentally ill (SMI) patients—219 patients participating in the Case Rate Pilot (CRP) project and 219 in a fee-for-service program—whose behavioral care was publicly funded. These SMI patients were served by 6 community mental health centers in Ohio. Treatment outcomes were statistically significantly worse for patients in the CRP project. Outcomes of both groups improved after the CRP project was discontinued. Results of this study raise concerns about the desirability of capitation or capitation-like financing mechanisms for publicly funded SMI patients and, in particular, its long-term effect on illness recovery." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].
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Article in Drug Benefits Trends at Medscape - "Changes in treatment outcomes were examined using 4.5 years of data from 2 groups of severely mentally ill (SMI) patients—219 patients participating in the Case Rate Pilot (CRP) project and 219 in a fee-for-service program—whose behavioral care was publicly funded. These SMI patients were served by 6 community mental health centers in Ohio. Treatment outcomes were statistically significantly worse for patients in the CRP project. Outcomes of both groups improved after the CRP project was discontinued. Results of this study raise concerns about the desirability of capitation or capitation-like financing mechanisms for publicly funded SMI patients and, in particular, its long-term effect on illness recovery." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].
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A Plea for Biased Information
"Medscape Psychopharmacology Today" column by Thomas A. M. Kramer, MD in Medscape General Medicine - " There is increasing concern and disdain among practitioners of psychopharmacology about information provided to us from the pharmaceutical industry as a function of their marketing efforts. Some practitioners will not talk to pharmaceutical representatives for fear of receiving biased information. I struggle with this attitude. Although it is clearly true that the accuracy and integrity of information varies and some sources are better than others, I have always found that more information is better when one is trying to make decisions about anything, including prescribing psychotropics. I have never been impressed that ignorance is bliss, or even useful or protective of something. To a certain extent, all information is subject to some bias from its source. The only questions are how much bias, and what it is biased toward or against." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].
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"Medscape Psychopharmacology Today" column by Thomas A. M. Kramer, MD in Medscape General Medicine - " There is increasing concern and disdain among practitioners of psychopharmacology about information provided to us from the pharmaceutical industry as a function of their marketing efforts. Some practitioners will not talk to pharmaceutical representatives for fear of receiving biased information. I struggle with this attitude. Although it is clearly true that the accuracy and integrity of information varies and some sources are better than others, I have always found that more information is better when one is trying to make decisions about anything, including prescribing psychotropics. I have never been impressed that ignorance is bliss, or even useful or protective of something. To a certain extent, all information is subject to some bias from its source. The only questions are how much bias, and what it is biased toward or against." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].
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Dispelling Myths of An Untapped Workforce: A Study of Employer Attitudes Toward Hiring Individuals with Disabilities
A report in Adobe Acrobat format by The Center for Information, Training & Evaluation Services at Florida State University, made available at the Open Minds web site - "People with disabilities represent a largely untapped labor pool for employers today. Yet despite laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, the unemployment rate for citizens with disabilities remains at a staggering 65% nationwide. Florida is home to over 2 million people with disabilities, of which more than five hundred thousand still remain jobless. Many job seekers with disabilities feel that employers’ attitudes and misconceptions are the major barriers that keep them from working. And employers today who do hire people with disabilities often consider these employees some of the most loyal and hardworking members of their workforce. This research report, A Study of Employer Attitudes Toward Hiring Individuals with Disabilities, provides information about perceptions employers in Florida have about working with people with disabilities, as well as the challenges they face in recruitment, developing policies and finding support systems."
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A report in Adobe Acrobat format by The Center for Information, Training & Evaluation Services at Florida State University, made available at the Open Minds web site - "People with disabilities represent a largely untapped labor pool for employers today. Yet despite laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, the unemployment rate for citizens with disabilities remains at a staggering 65% nationwide. Florida is home to over 2 million people with disabilities, of which more than five hundred thousand still remain jobless. Many job seekers with disabilities feel that employers’ attitudes and misconceptions are the major barriers that keep them from working. And employers today who do hire people with disabilities often consider these employees some of the most loyal and hardworking members of their workforce. This research report, A Study of Employer Attitudes Toward Hiring Individuals with Disabilities, provides information about perceptions employers in Florida have about working with people with disabilities, as well as the challenges they face in recruitment, developing policies and finding support systems."
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Operationalizing the North Carolina State Plan
Adobe Acrobat version of an internal staff document made available via the Open Minds web site - "State fiscal year 2003-2004 calls for the completion of the operational detail with extensive attention to system transition. Specific outcomes and major product deliverables have been articulated. The following outlines the process to initiate operationalization of the Mental Health State Plan. These steps are the business rules or guidelines for plan implementation. They are created to provide order to the process and help the leadership of the Division of MH/DD/SA and other Divisions within the Department to meets its goal of transitioning the design and structure of the system through discrete operational developments which are tasks, activities and deliverables..."
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Adobe Acrobat version of an internal staff document made available via the Open Minds web site - "State fiscal year 2003-2004 calls for the completion of the operational detail with extensive attention to system transition. Specific outcomes and major product deliverables have been articulated. The following outlines the process to initiate operationalization of the Mental Health State Plan. These steps are the business rules or guidelines for plan implementation. They are created to provide order to the process and help the leadership of the Division of MH/DD/SA and other Divisions within the Department to meets its goal of transitioning the design and structure of the system through discrete operational developments which are tasks, activities and deliverables..."
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States cut back on prescription aid
Page at the NAMI web site - "Recent reports show that some states are looking to cut back on prescription drug assistance for the elderly and to encourage the use of the Internet to import prescription drugs from Canada—as cost cutting measures. With all states facing pressure to improve their economic condition by tightening budgets, these quick-fix measures are under consideration across the U.S.; however, the long term effects of these proposed budget solutions may in fact negate any short-term gains." The material at the NAMI site is in turn based on a summary in the February 9 Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report.
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Page at the NAMI web site - "Recent reports show that some states are looking to cut back on prescription drug assistance for the elderly and to encourage the use of the Internet to import prescription drugs from Canada—as cost cutting measures. With all states facing pressure to improve their economic condition by tightening budgets, these quick-fix measures are under consideration across the U.S.; however, the long term effects of these proposed budget solutions may in fact negate any short-term gains." The material at the NAMI site is in turn based on a summary in the February 9 Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report.
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Antidepressant test sees fifth suicide
Brief AP news story reprinted at PsycPORT - "Drug maker Eli Lilly has been ordered to stop taking new patients for the trial of an antidepressant after a fifth person committed suicide. The New York Times reported Traci Johnson, 19, hanged herself during the weekend at the company's Indianapolis dormitory-like laboratory. She did not leave a note. She was one of 25 healthy patients at the clinic who were being given larger than therapeutic doses of duloxetine, which will be known as Cymbalta if it is introduced as an antidepressant. Four days before her death, Johnson was taken off Cymbalta and given a placebo." See also the AP story Nearly One-Fifth Drop Out of Lilly Antidepression Drug Tests, reprinted at InteliHealth, and the story in the New York Times, Student, 19, in Trial of New Antidepressant Commits Suicide. [Viewing New York Times resources requires registration, which is free].
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Brief AP news story reprinted at PsycPORT - "Drug maker Eli Lilly has been ordered to stop taking new patients for the trial of an antidepressant after a fifth person committed suicide. The New York Times reported Traci Johnson, 19, hanged herself during the weekend at the company's Indianapolis dormitory-like laboratory. She did not leave a note. She was one of 25 healthy patients at the clinic who were being given larger than therapeutic doses of duloxetine, which will be known as Cymbalta if it is introduced as an antidepressant. Four days before her death, Johnson was taken off Cymbalta and given a placebo." See also the AP story Nearly One-Fifth Drop Out of Lilly Antidepression Drug Tests, reprinted at InteliHealth, and the story in the New York Times, Student, 19, in Trial of New Antidepressant Commits Suicide. [Viewing New York Times resources requires registration, which is free].
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Mental health – checks on restraint and care planning (UK)
Brief news item at Health and Care - " A Government inquiry into the death of an African-Caribbean hospital patient is recommending a range of improvement in mental health services. Designed to make provision more sensitive to ethnic minorities, the reforms proposed by the team examining the case of David ‘Rocky’ Bennett, who died in the Norvic Clinic in Norwich in 1998, will have wide implications for work with all service users who have mental health problems in a variety of care and treatment settings..." See also Sympathy but no promises from Reid in The Guardian - "The government refused yesterday to accept the three key recommendations of an inquiry into the death of David "Rocky" Bennett which identified a "festering abscess" of institutional racism in the NHS. John Reid, the health secretary, told MPs he agreed there was unacceptable discrimination against black mental health patients. But his statement avoided giving the promise demanded by the inquiry that 'there should be ministerial acknowledgment of the presence of institutional racism in the mental health services'."
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Brief news item at Health and Care - " A Government inquiry into the death of an African-Caribbean hospital patient is recommending a range of improvement in mental health services. Designed to make provision more sensitive to ethnic minorities, the reforms proposed by the team examining the case of David ‘Rocky’ Bennett, who died in the Norvic Clinic in Norwich in 1998, will have wide implications for work with all service users who have mental health problems in a variety of care and treatment settings..." See also Sympathy but no promises from Reid in The Guardian - "The government refused yesterday to accept the three key recommendations of an inquiry into the death of David "Rocky" Bennett which identified a "festering abscess" of institutional racism in the NHS. John Reid, the health secretary, told MPs he agreed there was unacceptable discrimination against black mental health patients. But his statement avoided giving the promise demanded by the inquiry that 'there should be ministerial acknowledgment of the presence of institutional racism in the mental health services'."
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Copyright 2003 © Bill Davis.
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