Wednesday, June 25, 2003
District Failed to Check on Patients (Washington DC) Washington Post article - "The D.C. Department of Mental Health received more than 500 reports of serious incidents affecting the city's mentally ill population over a 12-month period but cannot document that any were investigated, as required, according to a report released yesterday by the D.C. inspector general. The audit, requested almost two years ago by Mayor Anthony A. Williams to ensure that the city's 8,000 mentally ill patients were being cared for, examined 508 incidents from June 2001 to June 2002. Among them were 46 unexpected or unexplained deaths, 128 allegations of abuse or assaults and 28 suicide attempts. The report also shows that the District has lost track of 20 mentally ill patients who were charged with crimes and committed to St. Elizabeths Hospital and who later were allowed to leave the hospital and did not return."
Psychiatric center back in business, picks leader (Ohio) Story in
Columbus Business First - "The hiring of a medical director and lifting of a state-ordered probation are helping a Columbus psychiatric treatment center for youth get back on its feet after a floundering start. Dr. Herman Tolbert, a psychiatry professor at Ohio State University the past 25 years, will start his duties July 1 as full-time medical director at the Residential Treatment Center of Ohio and Ohio Hospital for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry."
Advocates say state does too little for foster children turning 18 (Florida) Sun-Sentinel story on a news conference by teens who - "have been fighting to receive support from the state under a new law called the Road to Independence Act. The law is meant to provide for foster children after they turn 18, but children's advocates say the provisions are so flawed that many young adults ... will be, essentially, homeless. ... The news conference was called by Florida's Children First!, an advocacy group that lobbies on behalf of foster children. Its members want the Legislature, which is meeting in a special session, to take up a bill that would extend foster care services until age 21 for certain children with developmental disabilities and mental health needs."
State gives cost-control incentive for mental care (Massachusetts) Boston Globe story - "... The state of Massachusetts signed a contract that goes into effect July 1 that provides a national for-profit company a financial incentive to keep in check the cost of mental health care for state employees -- joining most major employers and insurers who have used these incentives for years. The state, which estimates it spent roughly $14 million this fiscal year on mental health care for employees who don't belong to health maintenance organizations, will pay United Behavioral Health about $12 million to cover these same 120,000 employees, retirees, and their families next year. If United spends less than $12 million on their care, the company keeps the difference; if it spends more than $12 million, it eats the difference."
Mental-health programs face $10 million cut (California) San Diego Union-Tribune story - "While keeping a nervous eye on state budget negotiations in Sacramento, county supervisors yesterday voted unanimously to approve a tentative county budget that would spend $4 billion in each of the next two fiscal years. The county's two-year budget plan includes $50 million in spending cuts ..... Mental-health programs will sustain the deepest cuts in the budget, losing nearly $10 million. The county gets much of its funding for health and social services from the state, which is dealing with an estimated $38 billion budget shortfall."
Supervisors hear report on privatizing Muscatine County's mental health services (Iowa) Muscatine Journal story - "Still considering privatizing the county's programmed services, the Muscatine County Board of Supervisors learned Monday how such action could affect developmentally disabled residents and the county. ... One prediction seemed to strike home: Without the social work services, mental health relapses, increased hospitalizations, emergency room usage, jail days and homelessness are likely to increase among consumers."
