Thursday, April 10, 2003

Pennsylvania Case Holds Symbolic Importance on the Confidentiality of Patient Records
Article in Mental Health Weekly at Medscape - "A Pennsylvania county judge has ruled that improper efforts were made to terminate a Pittsburgh psychiatrist from a provider network for refusing to release patient records to a managed behavioral health care company. ... The case has more moral significance than legal precedent-setting value because of the low level of the court in which it was decided." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

American Psychiatric Association Unveils Blueprint to Save America’s Crumbling Mental Health System
Press release (in Adobe Acrobat format) from the APA - "The American Psychiatric Association unveiled today a far reaching blueprint to reform and rebuild our crumbling mental health system—A Vision for the Mental Health System—amidst the deepening funding crisis in state and local mental health services. The report was prepared by a blue-ribbon task force of psychiatrists from the public and private system. APA President Paul S. Appelbaum, M.D., in a stinging assessment of our nation’s mental health system, noted that deeper cuts in mental health services, particularly in state Medicaid programs, are leading to a “wholesale collapse of our mental health system.” The report's recommendations are based on 12 critical principles, and were prepared in anticipation of the Final Report of the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health due in late April. See also the full report (also in Adobe Acrobat format).