Monday, February 28, 2005

In City's Jails, Missed Signals Open Way to Season of Suicides Feature article in today's New York Times on the suicides of six inmates and how "government investigators reached a stinging judgment about one or both of the authorities responsible for their safety: Prison Health Services, the nation's largest for-profit provider of inmate medical care, and the city correction system. In their reports, investigators faulted a system in which patients' charts were missing, alerts about despondent inmates were lost or unheeded, and neither medical personnel nor correction officers were properly trained in preventing suicide, the leading cause of deaths in American jails." See also the related story, Private Health Care in Jails Can Be a Death Sentence - "The examination of Prison Health also reveals a company that is very much a creature of a growing phenomenon: the privatization of jail and prison health care. As governments try to shed the burden of soaring medical costs - driven by the exploding problems of AIDS and mental illness among inmates - this field has become a $2 billion-a-year industry." [Viewing New York Times resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

Mental-health parity: Sort of (Iowa) Des Moines Register editorial - "Iowa is one of the few states with no mental-health parity law requiring insurance companies to provide the same coverage for mental illness as for physical ailments. Mental illness is a real disease needing real treatment. So on the surface it's encouraging to see mental-health parity legislation advancing. However, the details of bills tell a different story. ... Here's what needs to happen: Iowa lawmakers should pass a comprehensive mental-health parity law that includes coverage for substance abuse and eating disorders and extends to as many types of health-insurance plans as possible. About 20 lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats, support Senate File 174, which would require coverage for eating disorders and substance-abuse treatment. That's a step in the right direction..."  
  

Wake Forest Baptist launches mental health program for elderly (North Carolina) Business Journal story - "Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center is launching a program to provide psychiatric services to frail, elderly people in their homes. The program, modeled on successful efforts in the United Kingdom and Canada, is believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, hospital officials said in a news release. The idea is to treat homebound patients for their mental illnesses sooner, before they become so severe as to require more expensive hospitalization or nursing home care. "  
  

Mental health problems driving up prison costs (Oklahoma) Tahlequah Daily story - "People don't like to hear their government is wasting money. But according to a report by the Governor's and Attorney General's Blue Ribbon Task Force on Mental Health, Substance Abuse and Domestic Violence, the state of Oklahoma is facing an $8 billion mental health problem that is driving up prison costs. 'Untreated and under-treated people with mental illness, substance abuse or addictions and survivors and perpetrators of domestic violence and sexual assault represent a significant portion of those entering the state's criminal justice system,' the report states. The report indicated mental health and substance abuse problems lead to a direct cost to the statem exceeding $3 billion a year. It pegged the loss in human productivity at more than $5 billion." See also the Task Force Recommendations (Adobe Acrobat format).   
  

Are Utah's mentally ill getting short shrift? Deseret News story - "Advocates say Utah lawmakers lit the fuse on a time bomb and planted it at the doorstep of families, hospital emergency rooms and the correctional system in their refusal so far to fund a $3 million shortfall affecting community mental-health centers. 'I don't know whether to laugh or cry,' said Vicki Cottrell, head of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, Utah. 'I'm just amazed.' Cottrell's reaction comes after the House and Senate released lists of their funding priorities. Each chamber had $2 million to divvy up among various needs, including $1 million in ongoing money and $1 million in one-time funds, for a total of $4 million to satisfy requests not yet approved in a draft of the 2006 fiscal year budget."  
  

State's mentally ill face big cuts in care (Washington) Seattle Post-Intelligencer story - "Thousands of people across the state will lose mental health services on July 1 unless the Legislature comes up with $82 million to restore federal Medicaid cuts. Already, hundreds of mentally ill people have been turned away from community services. Experts say many will end up in jail, on the streets or in emergency rooms if they can't get help anywhere else. ... The Legislature and the governor are facing a $2.2 billion shortfall over the next two-year budget cycle. Even lawmakers sympathetic to the mentally ill say restoring the full $82 million is unlikely."  
  

Union County forms mental health unit (New Jersey)Brief Asbury Park Press story - "The Union County Prosecutor's Office has formed a special mental health unit that will work to identify defendants who may be mentally ill. The plan is to create a mental health court in Union County where defendants go before a special judge who considers alternatives to jail, similar to drug courts that have been set up around the country..."