Friday, December 03, 2004

Nine Partners Join in Effort to End Long-Term Homelessness
Announcement at the web site of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation - " The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and eight other national philanthropic, nonprofit and financial organizations are forming a partnership to stimulate an effort to end long-term homelessness. The Partnership to End Long-Term Homelessness will dedicate more than $37 million in grants and loans to the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH), the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) and other groups." See also the related report from the Lewin Group, Costs of Serving Homeless Individuals in Nine Cities (Adobe Acrobat format).  
  

The Provision of Mental Health Services in Managed Care Organizations
Department of Health and Human Services report, in Adobe Acrobat format, called to our attention by Open Minds - "This study reports on a nationally representative survey of managed care organizations (MCOs) regarding how mental health services were provided in 1999, and how the provision varies by product type and contracting arrangement."  
  

How to Improve Drug Safety
Opinion column by a former FDA deputy commissioner in the Washington Post - "It has been a tough three years for the Food and Drug Administration, which until recently was credited with providing the United States with the safest drug supply in the world. In September, Merck withdrew Vioxx from the market after a study showed that the drug significantly increases the incidence of strokes and heart attacks in patients who use it for more than 18 months. Three years ago Bayer withdrew Baycol, a cholesterol-lowering drug that causes a rare muscle disease that was responsible for about 30 deaths and thousands of serious injuries. Fortunately, several lessons can be learned from recent drug tragedies..." [Viewing Washington Post stories requires registration, which is free.]  
  

Vermont Medicaid faces growing fund deficit
Burlington Free Press story - "Vermont's Medicaid headaches just keep growing. Lawmakers were told Monday to expect a $15 million to $20 million hole this year in the $600 million fund that pays health care bills for 146,000 low- and moderate-income Vermonters. Next year, spending might outpace Medicaid revenue by as much as $70 million -- nearly $20 million more than projected this summer..."  
  

Lack of mental health facilities decried (Louisiana)
Times-Picayune story - "St. Tammany and surrounding parishes lack enough facilities to treat mental patients, according to elected officials who are forming a task force with local and state health officials to find a solution to what they say is a growing problem. The lack of facilities is straining emergency rooms at the parishes' major public and private hospitals, which are not staffed to handle mental patients, and turning local jails into de facto mental wards, state Sen. Tom Schedler said."  
  

Mental health partnership initiates integrated care (Colorado)
Story in the North Forty News - " A new approach to mental health and substance abuse is on the horizon in Larimer County. Set to begin early in 2005, the program is called 'integrated care.' It's designed to make treatment for conditions such as depression and addiction more effective and efficient by having specialists available at two local primary care clinics. Integrated care means that mental health professionals work in the family clinic, instead of across town in their own offices, making them and their expertise readily available to both patients and family physicians. The project is one of many being undertaken by a local consortium called the Community Mental Health and Substance Abuse Partnership, which is concerned with mental health and substance abuse issues..."