Friday, September 03, 2004
Back to her roots Article in the latest
APA Monitor - "Psychologist Tawa Witko advocates for the American Indian community and seeks to give urban American Indians a stronger sense of their heritage. ... Witko lives and works with her tribe--the Lakota Sioux--on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, providing counseling for victims of domestic abuse. As chair of APA's Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs (CEMA), she also works to raise awareness in APA of the mental health needs of American Indians and to support other psychologists who want to work with the American Indian community."
Which Medical Conditions Account For The Rise In Health Care Spending?Health Affairs article - "We calculate the level and growth in health care spending attributable to the fifteen most expensive medical conditions in 1987 and 2000. Growth in spending by medical condition is decomposed into changes attributable to rising cost per treated case, treated prevalence, and population growth. We find that a small number of conditions account for most of the growth in health care spending—the top five medical conditions accounted for 31 percent. For four of the conditions, a rise in treated prevalence, rather than rising treatment costs per case or population growth, accounted for most of the spending growth." The article notes that "the prevalence of mental disorders has remained relatively stable over time; however, rates of treatment have been rising.13 The sharp rise in treated prevalence reflects two trends: increasing recognition and diagnosis of mental disorders, particularly depression and a rapid expansion of new psychotropic medications. Given the historical underdiagnosis and treatment of disorders such as depression, this wider use of treatments, and the associated increase in health care spending, is likely to represent benefits that outweigh the cost
Trends in Access to Needed Medical Care, 2001-2003A tracking report from the Center for Studying Health System Change - "Despite sluggish economic growth and rapidly rising health care costs, Americans' access to needed medical care improved between 2001 and 2003, especially among low-income children and adults, according to findings from the Center for Studying Health System Change's (HSC) nationally representative Community Tracking Study Household Survey. In particular, the proportion of low-income, uninsured Americans who reported going without needed medical care fell by 3.2 percentage points to 13.2 percent in 2003, and unmet medical needs for low-income children decreased to the point where income-related differences in access to care for children have disappeared."
Congress Can Preserve $1.1 Billion in Expiring Children's Health Insurance Funds and Help Avert SCHIP CutbacksA report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities - "When Congress returns from its summer recess, it will have the opportunity to enact bipartisan legislation to extend the availability of nearly $1.1 billion in expiring federal funds for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Such legislation would help lessen or defer looming cuts in children’s health insurance enrollment by providing more adequate federal funding to states that will face federal SCHIP funding shortfalls over the next several years...." Also available in
Adobe Acrobat format.
State hospitals overflowing with mental health patients (Kansas)AP story at the
Kansas City Star - "State budget cuts and the growth of the sexual-predator unit at Larned State Hospital are blamed for a backlog of about 50 inmates waiting for admission to the mental health facility. About half of the inmates on the waiting list need court-ordered evaluations to determine whether they are competent to stand trial, as well as for an array of other reasons. The other inmates need mental health treatment, said Mark Schutter, superintendent of Larned State Hospital. The backlog comes as the hospital's security program has lost 40 beds within the last couple years..."
Texas Merges Drug Treatment, Mental Health ServicesJoin Together item based on a
Houston Chronicle story - "Saying their goal is improving public health, Texas government officials are dissolving the state Department of Health, the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, and the Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation to create two new agencies: the Department of State Health Services and the Department of Aging and Disability Services..."
Police mental health training helps families cope (Wisconsin)Journal-Sentinel story on "a new and free training program on mental health issues that is now available to area departments. ... The mental health training program for law enforcement officers grew out of concerns that the judicial route was not always the best path for some of the people ending up in circuit court and subsequently, jail, Racine County Circuit Court Chief Judge Gerald Ptacek told the police chiefs group."
