Tuesday, July 06, 2004

Mental health reform plans meet resistance (Texas)
Houston Chronicle story - "Joe Lovelace credits the public mental health system in Texas as the safety net that stabilized his son, Corley, after an eight-year struggle with schizophrenia. But now, as executive director of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Texas, Lovelace is under attack from other mental health advocates for selling lawmakers a business-minded system that runs on less money, demands more and serves fewer. The 'disease management' model, that begins a yearlong statewide rollout Sept. 1 is, in theory, an approach that rations ongoing outpatient care to only the sickest -- those with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or severe clinical depression. Those with other mental illnesses will receive treatment only in times of crisis. Tax-averse lawmakers like the plan's promise of savings while critics object to cuts to an already starved system..."