Thursday, April 08, 2004

Courts can't mandate mental care for kids (Michigan)
Detroit Free Press story reprinted at PsycPORT - "Family court judges have no authority to order mental health treatment for children who have been found incompetent to stand trial, the Michigan Court of Appeals has ruled. The March 30 ruling announced last week exposes a loophole in both the state Mental Health Code, which prohibits the involuntary commitment of mentally retarded children to mental health facilities, and the state Juvenile Code, which is supposed to afford children charged with crimes the same protections adults have..."  
  

Alcohol Agencies Announce Academic Emergency Medicine Department Collaboration
Press release at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism web site - " The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), today kicked off a major collaborative study that will investigate ways to screen, identify, and treat patients in hospital emergency departments for alcohol problems. Academic emergency medical departments (EDs) at 14 institutions throughout the U.S. will participate in the study, the first to rely solely on ED personnel, rather than research staff, to conduct the screening and intervention."  
  

Mental health cuts could affect 3,000 locally (Washington)
Daily News story - "Cuts to mental health care coming next year could reach up to 3,000 Cowlitz County residents, making some more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol, land in hospitals, commit crimes and lose their jobs and homes, experts said Tuesday. In the past month, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service (CMS) cut Medicaid-funded mental health services that had been available to some low-income Washington residents not otherwise insured by the federal- and state-funded program..."  
  

Budget cuts put federal drug abuse aid at risk (Massachusetts)
April 5 Boston Globe story - "With New England in the midst of an epidemic of heroin use, Massachusetts is on the verge of forfeiting more than $9 million in federal aid for treating drug users, a penalty for three years of reductions in state spending on substance abuse services. Since the 2001 budget year, the state Department of Public Health has cut nearly $11 million from what it devotes to treating drug users and preventing narcotic and alcohol abuse. Governor Mitt Romney is proposing $2 million in additional reductions for the next budget year, although a representative of the governor said those cuts would not imperil essential services. Executives who run treatment centers and health care advocates said that the Department of Public Health cuts in combination with reductions in other state programs, particularly the MassHealth Basic insurance plan for the poor, have already spawned deep reductions in services..."