Monday, September 27, 2004
Southern Oregon group may restructure provision of mental health servicesStory in
The Oregonian - "The group that provides regional mental health coverage for six Southern Oregon counties is restructuring its administration after an investigation into a controversial nonprofit with which it had a $45,000 per month contract. The group, Jefferson Behavioral Health, provides services to Josephine, Jackson, Douglas, Klamath, Coos and Curry counties, and has an annual budget of $24 million..."
Reduction in mental health payments not without costs (Indiana)Column in the
Indianapolis Star by Ruth Holladay - "Marjorie Towell just got the news late Thursday -- Medicaid is cutting its reimbursement for patients in psychiatric facilities in Indiana. In the past, the federal, state-run program paid $408 a day to provide services. Beginning Nov. 1, she says, Medicaid will cut that figure to $309. 'That represents a huge cost reduction,' says Towell, executive director of the Marion County Mental Health Association and a veteran in the mental health wars now raging across the land. The state already has closed down so much and reduced care for people with mental health needs, she adds. Now, she is trying to calculate: How will this latest move affect the services still in play? It is a rhetorical question. She knows the answer, and so, very likely, do you...."
Mental-health treatment gets its ACT together (Pennsylvania)Delaware Daily Times story - "...The Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) service initiative was recently enacted through the Delaware County Office of Behavioral Health in Upper Darby and Connecticut-based Magellan Health Services, Inc. The initiative is based on nearly 30 years of research and takes a proactive approach to mental illness by visiting clients in their homes and communities instead of having them come out to traditional office settings. The program will be handled through the Philadelphia-based non-profit agency Horizon House Inc. and is intended keep the mentally ill from slipping through the cracks of traditional care systems that might land them in hospitals, jails, or even on the street."
Mental health center's closing strands patients (Pennsylvania)Story in
Chambersburg Public Opinion on the closing of the Cumberland Valley Mental Health Center - "The board of directors decided Wednesday to close due to lack of revenue and frequent patient cancellations and no-shows, according to Executive Director Don Waters. ... The center provides outpatient therapy, medication management, a partial hospital program, life skills training for clients moving back into the community, and group settings. The center also offers a student assistance program, where staff members are in school working with students with emotional problems and drug/alcohol issues. Waters said his main concern in dealing with the impact of closure is with the center's crisis intervention."
Propositon 63: A tax for mental health (California)Long Beach Press Telegram story - "As the pressures increase on California's mental health system, its workers and advocates say they are forced to do more with a supply of money that seems to shrink each year. 'The number of people who need services is growing. The cost of the services is growing. The revenue source is not growing,' said Patricia Ryan, executive director of the California Mental Health Directors Association. The solution? A measure on the November ballot that would dramatically bolster the flagging system by pouring in hundreds of millions of dollars and asking the wealthy to pick up the tab.
