News: As economy takes toll, mental health budgets shrink
Writing in Stateline.org, staff writer Christine Vestal assesses how states have met mental health budgets and what this means for people needing psychiatric services in today's fiscal crisis. "The drop-off is translating into a reduction in the number of psychiatric hospital beds, as well as fewer services for mental health emegencies and longer waiting lists for housing," says Vestal. . .
Full Story | Topics: budget impacts, children, community programs, Medicaid, mental health, states | Comments (0)

News: PBS airs documentary during Mental Illness Awareness month

Consider This: Taking recovery from ideal to actual (Part 1)
. . .creating the change
Full Story | Topics: community programs, consumers, recovery | Comments (1)

News: Mental health faces cuts in Britrain's National Health Service

News: Passing health reform energizes advocates
Historic, jubilant, transformative were among the adjectives enunciated in the on-going celebrations of Sunday's historic pass of health reform in America. Recalling his mother who battled insurance companies on her deathbed, Pres. Barack Obama said passing this law represents the "core principles that everybody should have security." . .
Full Story | Topics: children, community programs, Congress, insurance, Medicaid, Medicare, politics, reform | Comments (0)

News: State news: Florida, Illinois, MInnesota
Illinois was ordered ordered to move people out of a state hospitals and nursing homes and into the community by the end of the year. A similar decision was made in New York. According to the the Chicago Sun Times. Illinois spends more to keep adults in institutions than any other state. . .
Full Story | Topics: addiction, budget impacts, community programs, legal | Comments (0)

News: Judge scolds NY: adult homes unacceptable
A New York judge ruled that adult homes are unacceptable when it comes to finding the least restrictive housing for people with a mental illness. Within four years all current residents must be afforded a placement . . .
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, community programs, housing, legal | Comments (0)

News: For-profit Chicago nursing home threat to mentally ill
Physical abuse, over-medication, inappropriate patient population, and neglectful care to 300 mentally ill patients led the federal government to halt Medicaid funding from a for-profit nursing home. The courts, and the Department of Health and Human Services agree that the residents of Somerset Place in Chicago have been ill served by the partially family-owned company. . .
Full Story | Topics: community programs, housing, legal, Medicaid, scandal, treatment programs | Comments (0)

Commentary: Whistleblower says Prop 63 not working in Cal.

News: Review of psycho-social interventions for schizophrenia

News: Clubhouses spared in Mass.

Did You Know: Re-arrest for people with a mental illness is higher than for ex-inmates generally.
Read more about restoring benefits and re-establishing life in a community: LIFELINES: Linking to Federal Benefits for People Exiting Corrections published by the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law....
Full Story | Topics: community programs, jails, prisons | Comments (0)

Did You Know: Medicaid spent $137 for a day of home health service compared to $1447 for one day in the hospital.
Read more from a report titled Olmstead. from the Bazelon Center for Mental Health...
Full Story | Topics: community programs, housing, Medicaid, recovery | Comments (0)

Commentary: A little money helps a lot of kids
Numbers do not tell the story about real lives affected by budget cuts. Carla Lisio, clinical director at MHA of Westchester (New York) describes a low-cost, high-impact program for kids which was eliminated when budget cuts were imposed on this New York agency.
Full Story | Topics: adolescents, budget impacts, community programs | Comments (0)

News: Budget debate consumes Calif.
An intense campaign is being pitched in California where voters will decide next week whether to take from children and people with a mental illness to plug a budget hole. The heat is turning high while local politicians appear on YouTube and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger enumerates what will happen if the measures that were hammered out in a political deal should be voted down. Words like desperate, grim, and bleak convey the concern. Some are recommending splitting the ballot,...
Full Story | Topics: budget impacts, community programs, mental health, politics | Comments (0)

News: Stabenow wants $100 million more for community programs
Demand is outstripping capacity for community mental health services leading Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) to ask fellow senators to sign on to an additional $100 million for the appropriation bill. In a letter circulated last month, she says: "CMHCs serve 8 million low-income Americans with mental health and addiction disorders. At present, fully 25% of these individuals have no health insurance. But in the past few months, these safety net providers are reporting spikes in their uncompensated care with increased...
Full Story | Topics: budget impacts, community programs, policy | Comments (0)

News: Montana considers hospital diversion
Three proposals to divert people experiencing a mental health crisis from Warm Springs, the state hospital, into community treatment have widespread support but face a veto from Gov. Brian Schweitzer, reports the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. The debate is positioned between those who want to hold the line on spending money for programs for people with mental illness while other budget items have been held in check, versus potential future savings in a state with consistently high suicide rates....
Full Story | Topics: community programs, hospitals, suicide | Comments (0)

News: Mental health clinics stay open in Chicago
The persistence of citizen groups, a mayor willing to negotiate, and a boost from the federal stimulus package add up to keeping four city-run mental health clinics open in Chicago, writes Chi*Town Daily News....
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, community programs | Comments (0)

Did You Know: More than 470,000 people sought mental health services from community health centers.
Read more about community health centers and Recovery Act grants....
Full Story | Topics: community programs, reform | Comments (0)

Consider This: State budget fixes
. . .some will hurt more than others
Full Story | Topics: community programs, depression, hospitals, jails, medication, mental health, politics, states, suicide | Comments (0)

News: Answering machines delay follow-up appointments
Phone answering machines are a barrier for people trying to make a follow-up appointment with a clinic for psychiatric services. A study from the University of Pennsylvania finds that two-thirds of those seen initially in an emergency room for depression did not speak to an appointment secretary when calling for a follow-up visit. This compares to about 20 percent who encounter an answering machine when calling for a follow up to physical symptoms....
Full Story | Topics: community programs | Comments (0)

News: Calif. budget crisis
Proposals to close a $41 billion gap in the Calif. budget include revisiting Prop 63. Prop 63, known as the millionaires' tax because it is levied on those earning millions, creates new mental health programs and services. It is one of five that would appear on a ballot for a special election in May. Voters would be asked to divert $460 million into existing programs for two years. All this depends on lawmakers passing a budget and as of last...
Full Story | Topics: community programs, politics, treatment programs | Comments (0)

From Our Readers: From Louisiana, Daily Dupre` asks where the money goes for services
Increased funding for Nicola Law; decreased in-patient beds in New Orleans...hmmmn...is this a disconnect? "Those vicious, atrocious, mental patients need to be off the streets, so our FAMILIES, can rest well at night." View the videos and see what the New Orleans police spokesperson, & Bobby Jindal, LA. Governor, etc. have to say about we who are mentally ill. Much is made of that horrible 'paranoid schizophrenic' who committed the 'atrocious' or horrible 'crime'. What is not being said, what...
Full Story | Topics: community programs | Comments (1)

News: Local mental health programs cut
Services are being curtailed for severally ill children and adults while states slash budgets. Programs slated for downsizing or closing have been reported in: A one-of-a-kind 8-bed program serving about 600 people a year closed in Boise, Idaho . For local residents needing a couple of nights of shelter, the Franklin House helped them avoid using an emergency room and/or hospitalization.The Franklin House budget ran $325,000 but observers guess ER services will cost more. Eleven of 21 clinics in rural...
Full Story | Topics: community programs, economy, emergency room, hospitals | Comments (0)

News: Drug treatment to reduce crime recidivism
The criminal justice system has five gateways for helping offenders with an addictive disorder get treatment. Informed by neuroscience and the biology of addiction and treatment, authors of an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) urge they become opportunities for interventions. Research has shown that chronic drug use alters the brain's circuitry which affects behavior. Treatment upon returning to the community is a key to reducing recidivism, say these authors who are part of the National...
Full Story | Topics: addiction, community programs, courts, jails, prisons | Comments (1)

News: Re-entry programs needed after jail
Finding a better way to work with mentally ill people leaving jail and prison needs to be addressed, said Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) during a meeting at the Brookings Institution discussing re-entry programs. He also called attention to the failure to distinguish between crime and illness: "It's not a crime to be mentally ill. It's not a crime to be addicted to drugs. It is a crime to live by violence and to extort money from people who are trying...
Full Story | Topics: community programs, housing, jails, prisons | Comments (0)

Commentary: Overcrowded psychiatric emergency rooms

News: Facing deficits, states cut health budgets
Numerous states have announced cuts to mental health programs, many of which are funded by Medicaid. Maine is asking for a $25 enrollment fee, Florida froze rates to nursing homes, and California reduced its reimbursement rate for a 15-minute physician visit to $21.60, reports the Christian Science Monitor. Earlier this week New York cut local assistance by six percent, a blow to funding which has been the "lifeblood for many individuals with psychiatric disabilities in the community," said the Mental...
Full Story | Topics: community programs, drug use, Medicaid, politics, states, treatment programs | Comments (0)

News: Linking medical and mental health services
Access to the full spectrum of health needs for people with a psychiatric diagnosis is the focus of the August issue of Psychiatric Services (subscription required). Articles address the obstacles encountered by people with a psychiatric disorder in gaining access to primary care; the screening and services available in community mental health centers; and Canadian and Norweigan programs linking mental health and physical health services....
Full Story | Topics: chronic illness, community programs | Comments (0)

News: North Carolina patches mental health system
After reports that North Carolina spent $400 million on shoddy mental health services, the legislature passed new laws requiring professional services and local accountability. This is an attempt to correct problems resulting from outsourcing to companies with dubious track records....
Full Story | Topics: community programs, reform, treatment programs | Comments (0)

Commentary: A proposal for transitional crisis beds
by Sol Wachtler

The opportunities afforded by court diversion programs could be enhanced with stable community housing. Judge Sol Wachtler writes about an innovative proposal to transform vacancies in closed hospitals into housing, enabling mentally ill defendants to move forward with their court-supervised treatments.
Full Story | Topics: community programs, diversion programs, housing | Comments (0)

News: North Carolina budget for mental health
North Carolina’s Gov. Mike Easley seeks additional money to expand services and psychiatric staff following last year’s failed and heavily criticized reform privatizing services. A tax on cigarettes would generate the $68 million requested in a proposed budget of $21.5 billion. North Carolina ranks 43rd in per capita spending on mental health....
Full Story | Topics: community programs, politics, states | Comments (0)

News: Reauthorizing community centers likely
A bill (H.R. 1343) reauthorizing community health care centers through 2012, a major source of medical care for 17 million uninsured people living in areas with few medical services, was approved by a congressional sub-committee reports CQ. The centers date from the 1960s, and the Senate approved a similar bill (S 901) last year. To follow H.R. 1343 through the House of Representatives, click here. To follow S. 901 through the Senate, click here....
Full Story | Topics: community programs, Congress, policy, politics | Comments (0)

Track Legislation: S. 901
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) introduced the Health Care Safety Net Act of 2007 on March 14, 2007: “To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide additional authorizations of appropriations for the health centers program under section 330 of such Act.”
Full Story | Topics: community programs, Congress | Comments (0)

Track Legislation: H.R. 1343
Rep. Gene Green (D-TX) introduced the Health Centers Renewal Act of 2007 on March 5, 2007: “To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide additional authorizations of appropriations for the health centers program under section 330 of such Act.”
Full Story | Topics: community programs, Congress | Comments (0)

Commentary: Access to care: training consumers and case managers
by Jack Carney

Ignoring the side effects of antipsychotic drugs has led to metabolic syndrome and chronic illnesses known to shorten life expectancy. Yet, this can be addressed by helping consumers and case managers learn how to identify the symptoms and to seek medical care This is the guiding principle of a project Jack Carney, program director of a social service agency, describes in "Access to care: training consumers and case managers."
Full Story | Topics: community programs, consumers, medication, treatment programs | Comments (2)

MIWatch webcasts: Harvey Rosenthal, panelist, AHCJ conference
Harvey Rosenthal, executive director of NYAPRS, addresses journalists at the Association of Health Care Journalists, Washington, DC, March 28, 2008....
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, community programs, recovery, treatment programs, violence | Comments (5)

News: Katrina's legacy: outpatient commitment?
Will the legacy of Hurricane Katrina become a mandate for involuntary outpatient commitment? According to the New Orleans Times-Picayune: "Mandating treatment -- and checking on patients to ensure they are complying with court orders -- would require a massive expansion of the outpatient services available in the New Orleans area, which have been significantly lacking since Hurricane Katrina" An infusion of $26 million was announced last month, and one official said the creation of new services might be able to...
Full Story | Topics: community programs, disaster, legal, states, treatment programs | Comments (0)

News: Fla. drug treatment threatened
Three of Florida’s agencies –- Departments of Corrections, Juvenile Justice, and Children and Families -- are considering cuts to drug programs to trim $2 billion from the state budget. As yet, there have been no estimates to show how costs will increase as a result of the recidivism associated with continued drug use, or the added expense for social service programs or addiction related criminal offenses....
Full Story | Topics: addiction, community programs, treatment programs | Comments (0)

News: North Carolina questions services
North Carolina is learning that many private companies hired to deliver mental health community support services have dubious practices including preying on the poor, charging excessive fees, and at least $4.2 million in questionable Medicaid charges. The North Carolina News Observer reports that during one three-month period in 2006, “277 companies received taxpayer money to provide community support.” One of them, Dominion Healthcare Services, charged $61 an hour to take clients to charities for free clothes. Aggressive canvassing techniques in...
Full Story | Topics: community programs, investigation, Medicaid, states | Comments (0)

News: Discharge planning
In Germany, doctors stumbled over something they think useful to promoting recovery – sending discharge letters to caregivers....
Full Story | Topics: community programs, family, recovery | Comments (0)

News: Medicaid cuts to vulnerable
The Center on Budget Priorities released a revised report about the snowball effects of proposed budget cuts to Medicaid. The Bush policy aims to continue shifting federal responsibility to states, started during the Reagan administration with block grants, and the reduction in supports for vulnerable people. The current proposals for Medicaid, which the administration is trying to impose despite bipartisan opposition, will cut rehab programs for people with serious mental illness, and will weigh heavy on children with special needs,...
Full Story | Topics: children, community programs, Medicaid, policy | Comments (0)

Commentary: Meeting family needs: Alameda County's new program

A new program will offer flexible help for families in northern California. Rebecca Woolis, author of When Someone You Love Has a Mental Illness, describes the service she helped design to meet diverse cultural and ethnic needs.
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, community programs, family, treatment programs | Comments (0)

News: Paradoxical priorities for youth
With the release of new reports about the devastating effects of poverty on the growth of infant brains, a study from The National Center for Children in Poverty is particularly disturbing. Towards Better Behavioral Health for Children, Youth and their Families suggests that despite record funding for children and adolescents, it is disproportionately spent on residential treatment and psychiatric hospitals instead of the community-based interventions for families and children that could help avert later mental health problems....
Full Story | Topics: adolescents, children, community programs, hospitals | Comments (0)

Consider This: The other 398,150
by Phyllis Vine

How does strengthening commitment laws help people who need service in the community? Budget shortfall or not, Virginia needs to do more than pay lip service to needed reforms.


Full Story | Topics: community programs, hospitals, human rights, legal | Comments (0)

Consider This: Florida calls for end of trans-institutionalization
by Phyllis Vine


A bold report to Florida's governor recommends sweeping changes to address failures in the criminal justice and mental health system. “Transforming Florida’s Mental Health System" can guide significant reform.


Full Story | Topics: advocacy, community programs, courts, diversion programs, housing, human rights | Comments (1)

News: Poor screening for metabolic syndrome in United Kingdom
An audit of the clinical records of 1996 patients in mental health services across the United Kingdom slammed doctors for “suboptimal” screening “for aspects of the metabolic syndrome in routine clinical practice in psychiatry.” Inadequate attention to people taking antipsychotic medications associated with metabolic syndrome was apparent in an analysis of prescriptions. Barriers to screening – confusion over who is responsible (primary care or psychiatry), and a lack of equipment (tape measures and scales) – will be addressed in an...
Full Story | Topics: chronic illness, community programs | Comments (0)

News: Pumping up community services
A bill to bolster community mental health centers with primary care services was introduced by Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI). The Community Mental Health Services Improvement Act (S. 2182) reduces or forgives loans to professionals who serve medically under served communities, and recognizes chronic medical illnesses exist alongside mental illness. It is co-sponsored by Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR) and is now making its way through committees, starting with the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Additional links: National Council for...
Full Story | Topics: chronic illness, community programs, Congress | Comments (0)

Commentary: Succeed like Seabiscuit: the promise of a New York job training program
by Tom Malamud
People with mental illness are often under-employed despite their huge potential. New York City's Fountain House developed an employment program to guarantee that, like the race horse it's named after, Seabiscuit, members not only get to the starting gate, but they finish as winners.
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, community programs, recovery, workplace | Comments (0)