Wednesday, September 24, 2003

Minorities Feel Cheated in Health Care Brief
Reuters Health story at Medscape - "U.S. blacks and Hispanics feel they get worse health care than their white compatriots, according to a study published on Monday. The study, published in Health Affairs, found that blacks and Hispanics are up to three times more likely than whites to feel that minorities receive a lower level of care..." "med"  
  

Mental health facilities see more readmissions (Tennessee)
Chatanooga Times Free Press story reprinted at the NAMI web site - "The number of people returning to Tennessee mental health facilities within 30 days of their discharge has more than quadrupled since 1995, state records show. ... State and local officials said last week they are monitoring the growing number.Joe Swenford, director of the Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disability's office of consumer affairs, said the demand for mental health services is up overall. And the nature of mental health care is not a one-treatment, one-prescription fix, officials said. ... Experts said a strapped mental health system is limiting services for people once they are discharged from Moccasin Bend, leaving them to fend for themselves after emergency care.  
  

"Hospital won't take dangerous patients" (Wisconsin)
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel story - "Citing the 'financial pressure' of providing hospitalization for mental patients, St. Michael Hospital will stop taking emergency detention mental patients Dec. 1, Covenant Healthcare officials said Tuesday. The hospital will continue, however, to use its 23-bed unit to hospitalize mental patients who are not in need of emergency detention, said Jim Gresham, president of behavioral health for Covenant. Emergency detention patients are those considered an immediate danger to themselves or others."  
  

Mental health agency to target most needy (Texas)
Amarillo Globe-News story - "Texas Panhandle Mental Health Mental Retardation is piloting a mental health treatment program that will focus on the sickest clients and move the less sick out of its care. The agency is one of four statewide that began using a technique called disease management to classify clients based on diagnosis and level of functioning and offer them one of five levels of care. The point of disease management and service bundling, called benefit design, is to efficiently target people with chronic mental illness and treat them to prevent relapse and complications."