Thursday, April 07, 2005

FY 2006: A funding squeeze A "Public Policy Update" in the April APA Monitor - "President George W. Bush sent Congress a $2.57 trillion federal budget for fiscal year (FY) 2006 in February that calls for the deepest domestic reductions proposed since the 1980s. The president's budget eliminates 99 programs (a reduction of $8.8 billion) and substantially reduces 55 others (a reduction of $6.5 billion) for a total decrease of $15.3 billion. Many of these cuts were proposed in previous budgets and then rejected by Congress. However, 68 of the 154 programs were not targeted by this administration in earlier budgets. They represent mostly education, health and social services programs that the administration has determined to be ineffective or inessential. The Department of Education bears the largest burden for the budget reductions..."  
  

A new kind of war Article in the April APA Monitor - "In her work with U.S. veterans, psychologist Kaye Baron, PhD, may be seeing the opening salvos of a new war--one for mental health. The private practitioner in Colorado Springs, Colo., near the Fort Carson Army Base, serves a lot of military families affected by U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. She is also a contract psychologist for a local government agency for which she has evaluated more than 75 military personnel who have returned from Iraq showing depression and irritability and reliving intense emotional trauma--some of the classic signs of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). ... Baron's contacts through her evaluations and work with military families are among the first of what at least one study says could be many more military personnel returning from Iraq suffering--or who will later suffer--from PTSD. While the majority of troops show resilience from the stresses of war, some do or will need help with PTSD symptoms."  
  

Mental health plan assailed (North Carolina) News-Observer story - "Advocates for mentally ill children don't like some pieces of the state's proposed plan for services, saying they will mean less oversight and monitoring for those who need extensive help. The state Division of Mental Health is moving from having government offer mental health care toward building private networks to provide it. The plan, which has been submitted to the federal government for approval and which officials hope to have in place by July, lays out what services would be offered in the state and who would be able to do the job. Critics say the plan for children eliminates the case manager, who coordinates services. It would leave to private companies that offer direct 'community support' the job of coordinating assistance for children and families in homes, schools and courts."