Tuesday, March 22, 2005

SAMHSA Issues Group Therapy Guide for Substance Use Disorders Treatment SAMHSA press release - "The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) today unveiled a comprehensive guide on the use of group therapy in the treatment of substance use disorders. The consensus panel that created 'Substance Abuse Treatment: Group Therapy' emphasized that group therapy is effective treatment and is a cost effective way to deliver treatment. The guide, Treatment Improvement Protocol #41 in SAMHSA’s Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) series, is designed to aid substance abuse counselors who employ group therapy in the treatment of substance use disorders..." Despite what the press release says, the publication is not yet available at NCADI's TIP publications order form, but readers may want to save the link and check back. Please note, however, that TIP #42, Substance Abuse Treatment for Persons With Co-Occurring Disorders (Adobe Acrobat format), announced last month, is now available online.  
  

Nevada mental health programs discussed Las Vegas Sun story - "An Assembly panel voted Monday to add $17.8 million to Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn's proposed $100 million in new spending for mental health care programs. The Health and Human Services Committee voted unanimously Monday to approve AB175, a bill supporters said "fills the gaps" that are aggravating a mental health care crisis in Las Vegas. There are only 131 psychiatric beds in facilities other than general hospitals in the Las Vegas area, a shortage that led Clark County to declare an emergency last July."  
  

Senate approves insurance for mental health (Oregon) Bend.com story - "The state Senate today approved a measure to provide full parity in health care coverage for those with mental illness, with several senators calling current practices discrimination against the mentally ill. Senate Bill 1 requires health insurers to provide the same level of coverage for mental health and chemical dependency treatment as they provide for other medical treatments. It prohibits insurers from imposing treatment limitations unless similar limitations or requirements are imposed on coverage of other medical conditions."  
  

Mental-health providers relieved (Washington) Seattle Times story - " Community mental-health providers who were fearing the worst were relieved — even a little surprised — that Gov. Christine Gregoire included an extra $80 million in her budget to restore almost all of the $82 million lost in federal Medicaid cuts. ... If the Legislature goes along with Gregoire's plan, Gaylord said, the money will help keep 1,600 severely mentally ill people in residential services and help pay for mental-health services for 43,000 people with low incomes who are not on Medicaid. "  
  

Quarter of US Adults Have Received Mental Health Treatment Over Two-Year Period Medical News Today story - "A national survey of the general adult population and of adults who have needed or received some form of mental health treatment(1) find that more than a quarter (27%) of all adults have received some form of mental health treatment over a two-year period. Among those patients who have received treatment in the past two years: Approximately one-third (34%) received both therapy and drugs; approximately half (47%) of patients used prescription drugs but did not receive therapy; approximately one-fifth (19%) of patients received therapy but did not use prescription drugs..."