Incarceration of Youth Who Are Waiting for Community Mental Health Services in California A report (in Adobe Acrobat format) from the US House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform - Minority Staff Special Investigations Unit - " The U.S. Surgeon General has found that debilitating mental disorders affect one in five U.S. youth, but access to effective treatment is often limited. This report documents what happens to California youth with mental illnesses when treatment is not available. It finds that hundreds of California youth are inappropriately incarcerated every day to wait for community mental health services." The report was brought to our attention at the Open Minds web site.  
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$6.3 Million Available to Fund Family and Juvenile Drug Courts  SAMHSA press release - "The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) today announced the availability of FY 2005 funds for family and juvenile treatment drug courts. These grants will provide funding to be used by treatment providers and the courts to provide alcohol and drug treatment, and services to support treatment, including assessment, case management and program coordination for those in need of treatment drug court services."  
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$22 Million Available for Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families Program SAMHSA press release - "The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) today announced the availability of FY 2005 funds for cooperative agreements to develop integrated home and community-based services and supports for children and youth with serious emotional disturbances and their families. It is expected that approximately $22 million will be available to fund up to 22 cooperative agreements to encourage the development and expansion of effective and enduring systems of care. The annual award amount will be approximately $1 million in total costs (direct and indirect) for year one; $1.5 million for year two; $2 million for year three; $2 million for year four; $1.5 million for year five and $1 million for year six. The actual award amount may vary, depending on the availability of funds. The cooperative agreements will be administered by SAMHSA’s Center for Mental Health Services."  
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Disparities Toolkit The Health Research and Educational Trust "with its partners, is pleased to present this toolkit for collecting race, ethnicity, and primary language information in health care organizations. It is designed to help hospitals, health systems, community health centers, health plans, and other potential users in understanding the importance of accurate data collection, assessing organizational capacity to do so, and implementing a framework designed specifically for obtaining information from patients/enrollees about their race, ethnicity, and primary (preferred) language efficiently, effectively, and respectfully."  
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Rising health costs could bankrupt state, Perry says (Texas) Houston Chronicle story - "Rising health care costs will soon bankrupt Texas and other states without help from the federal government and private employers, Gov. Rick Perry said Monday. Perry said the federal government must increase federal funding for Medicaid and give the states more flexibility over the health care program for the poor. At the same time, he added, Texas needs to find a way for more private employers to purchase health care coverage for their workers..."  
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Senators Question Adequacy of Bush Budget for Veterans New York Times story - "Senators of both parties said on Tuesday that President Bush's budget for veterans' health care would not provide enough money to maintain services at current levels, much less care for thousands of veterans streaming back to the United States from Iraq and Afghanistan. Five veterans groups, including the American Legion, denounced a proposal in Mr. Bush's budget that would double the co-payment charged to many veterans for prescription drugs and require some to pay a new fee of $250 a year for the privilege of using government health care. Senator Larry E. Craig, Republican of Idaho, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, said the Department of Veterans Affairs would need more than the $30.7 billion for medical care in Mr. Bush's budget just 'to maintain current levels of service' in 2006." [Viewing New York Times resources requires registration, which is free].  
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F.D.A. to Create Advisory Board on Drug Safety New York Times article - "Responding to widespread criticism of the government's handling of drug safety problems, the Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday that it was creating a board to advise it on drug complications and to warn patients about unsafe drugs. Dr. Lester M. Crawford, the acting commissioner of the drug agency, said the board would be made up of scientists drawn from throughout the federal government. The board, which is to make its conclusions public on a Web page, will not have independent power to force the withdrawal of drugs but will simply advise the F.D.A., Dr. Crawford said. In addition, he said, the agency will soon tap into large databases, including those at the Medicare agency, to uncover dangerous side effects in drugs already on the market. The agency said it would increase the number of fact sheets that patients receive with prescriptions." [Viewing New York Times resources requires registration, which is free].  
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Inability to modulate affect is associated with many common mood disorders NewsRx.com story at PsycPORT - "Researchers have investigated behavioral, affective, and physiological effects of negative and positive emotional exaggeration. According to published research from the United States, 'Emotion regulation is essential for the production of socially appropriate affect and successful interpersonal functioning. The relative inability to modulate affect, known as emotional dysregulation, is associated with many common mood disorders (such as major depressive disorder or bipolar spectrum disorders). Thus, understanding the physiological processes underlying emotional regulation is extremely important.' "  
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Single Gene Defect Could Drive Some Mental Illness Health Day News story at Yahoo - "A subtle imbalance in the activity of a single gene may be responsible for the multiple symptoms experienced by people with complex developmental disorders like schizophrenia, new research suggests. Symptoms of schizophrenia include paranoia, delusions, antisocial behavior and hallucinations. Previous research suggested that a combination of genetics, prenatal trauma, viral infection and early life experience may predispose people to the illness. However, findings from a Dutch study published in the Feb. 17 issue of the journal Neuron suggest an imbalance in just one gene could turn out to be a major player in seemingly complex conditions like schizophrenia."  
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Going to Extremes: Experts Question Rise in Pediatric Diagnosis of Bipolar Illness February 14 Washington Post story an "a trend that is roiling mental heath: the burgeoning number of children diagnosed with bipolar illness, also known as manic depression, which affects about 2.3 million Americans. The illness, which is usually diagnosed in adolescence or early adulthood, is a serious and disabling mood disorder that, if untreated, carries an elevated risk of suicide. Sufferers typically cycle between manic highs, in which they can go for days without sleep in the grip of grandiose delusions, and depressive lows, marked by a preoccupation with death and feelings of worthlessness..." [Viewing Washington Post stories requires registration, which is free.]  
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