Thursday, December 09, 2004
Private-For-Profit and Private-Non-Profit Substance Abuse Treatment Facilities, 2003 A new report, available in HTML and
Acrobat formats, from SAMHSA/OAS. Among the highlights - "Of the 13,623 facilities responding to SAMHSA's 2003 National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (N-SSATS), 87% were operated by private organizations. Among the private facilities, 26% were operated by for-profit organizations and 74% were operated by non-profit organizations; Private non-profit facilities had an higher average percentage of clients who were being treated for both drug and alcohol abuse (58%) than private for-profits (48%) and were more likely to offer residential treatment (36% vs. 15%)..."
Pfizer To Turn Over Zoloft ResearchAP story reprinted at
InteliHealth - "Pfizer Inc. will turn over some internal research documents on its anti-depressant drug Zoloft to lawyers defending a 15-year-old South Carolina boy accused of murdering his grandparents. A Pfizer spokesman said Tuesday the New York-based drug company will comply with a South Carolina Circuit Court judge's order late last week requiring the drug maker to hand over the documents, which contain medical information from clinical trials."
State works to help mentally ill prisoners (Maine)Morning Sentinel story - "Maine has a higher incidence of mentally ill prisoners in its jails and prisons than most states, an advisory panel was told Wednesday. County jails, in particular, need to do more to channel the mentally ill accused of low-level crimes out of lockdowns and into better treatment programs, state corrections and mental-health officials say. That effort will not be successful, however, until the Maine Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Corrections join forces. Representatives of the two state agencies unveiled a plan Wednesday that they say would provide the help needed to make the system work better."
Mental health company to pay back state (Vermont)Brief
WCAX story - "The state has reached a settlement with a Burlington-based mental health company contracted to provide services to inmates that the state claims the company did not provide.Paul Cotton has agreed to return 143-thousand dollars. Last spring Cotton's firm was the subject of a report by State Auditor Elizabeth Ready. Ready charged that the Corrections Department had paid Cotton's firm in advance and the company never delivered the services."
Task force looks at mental health needs for area (Illinois)Southtown Daily story - "Mental health experts met in Chicago Wednesday to unveil proposals for better services and more funding — and likely no Tinley Park Mental Health Center. The state-appointed task force was asked to develop a plan for adequate services on the South Side of the city and in the Southland and present it to the state Department of Human Services during budget negotiations in the spring. Gov. Rod Blagojevich suggested closing the Tinley Park hospital in February, among other cost-cutting measures in his budget proposal. Human Services Secretary Carol Adams said Wednesday that a role for the Tinley Park hospital remains on the table, although ideas discussed during the 2½-hour meeting excluded that possibility."
Missouri Sees $7.7 Million in Mental Health Services Savings Missouri Department of Mental Health press release - "An innovative program to increase the quality of care that Missouri residents with severe mental illnesses receive while encouraging more efficient use of Medicaid dollars appears to have achieved both its goals, a recent analysis shows. The Missouri Mental Health Medicaid Pharmacy Partnership Program (MHMPP), the first program of its kind in the United States, evaluates Medicaid mental health prescribing practices. The program seeks to improve care for Missouri residents by educating doctors about evidence-based best practices for mental health medications and reducing inefficient and ineffective prescribing patterns."
New mental health unit to run Wayne County plans (Michigan)Detroit Free Press story - "State lawmakers took final steps Wednesday to wrest Wayne County's embattled mental health system from the county and create an independent authority, which supporters said will stabilize services and allow a direct flow of Medicaid grants. The legislation, passed by the House and expected to get final approval from the Senate today, would create a 12-member governing board with six members appointed by the county executive and six by the mayor of Detroit. That is the same composition as the board governing the current Detroit-Wayne County Community Mental Health agency. The big difference under the authority is that $530 million in Medicaid grants would go directly to the authority for mental health programs rather than routing first through the county government."
