Prescriptive Authority Bill for Hawaii Psychologists

"With the stroke of a pen, Hawaii lawmakers have the power to improve access to mental health care for tens of thousands of people -- an estimated 55,000 -- served by nonprofit community health centers in our state's poorest and most underserved rural areas."

Study Backs Equal Coverage for Mental Ills - New York Times

"Providing insurance coverage for mental illness equal to that for physical illness does not drive up the cost of mental health care as many insurers feared, a new study of health benefits for federal employees says. President Bill Clinton ordered such equal coverage for federal workers in 1999, and the changes took effect in 2001. Under the policy, known as parity, insurers were forbidden to charge higher co-payments or impose stricter limits on psychiatric care or treatment for alcohol and drug abuse. The new study of those changes, being published Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine, concludes that if mental health care is properly managed, expanding the coverage of it 'can improve insurance protection without increasing total costs' beyond those paid by insurers that do not offer parity."

Woman With Perfect Memory Baffles Scientists

"James McGaugh is one of the world's leading experts on how the human memory system works. But these days, he admits he's stumped.
McGaugh's journey through an intellectual purgatory began six years ago when a woman now known only as AJ wrote him a letter detailing her astonishing ability to remember with remarkable clarity even trivial events that happened decades ago.
Give her any date, she said, and she could recall the day of the week, usually what the weather was like on that day, personal details of her life at that time, and major news events that occurred on that date."

Personality and Politics

"Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints? Chances are he grew up to be a conservative."

WHO | mental health Global Action Programme (mhGAP)

"Mental health has become a major international public health concern and WHO has placed high profile focus on the importance of mental health. During 2001 the World Health Day (7 April 2001) was devoted to mental health and 155 countries celebrated the event.":

Depression (Unipolar) - After SSRI Fails, Switching Antidepressants May Help

"A proportion of patients with major depression who are unresponsive to the selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitor citalopram may benefit from taking an alternate antidepressant, according to two studies reporting results from the Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) trial in the March 23 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine."

Shock therapy seen to improve quality of life

"Most severely depressed patients who are given electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) -- commonly known is electroshock therapy -- experience improved health-related quality of life that lasts for at least 6 months, a new study shows."

Video Catches Hospital 'Dumping' Incident

"For many months, Los Angeles city officials have complained that regional hospitals are dropping off their indigent patients in the city's tough Skid Row area. On Wednesday, officials at a homeless shelter released a videotape that allegedly catches one hospital in the act."

Saint Louis State Hospital

The Commonspace > July 2002 >"High on a hill, looming over South St. Louis, the St. Louis Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center / St. Louis State Hospital sits silent. Located at 5400 Arsenal, the hospital first opened in 1869 as the St. Louis County Insane Asylum."

Should Psychologists Prescribe Medications?

"Like in many rural areas of Hawai'i, people on Moloka'i have limited access to psychiatric care and often rely on primary-care physicians or psychologists for help with stress, depression, anxiety or more severe mental disorders. But, unlike psychiatrists and other doctors, psychologists such as Oliveira are not allowed to prescribe medication for patients because they lack medical education and training. 'I've been working on Moloka'i for four years and the access to quality psychiatric care has not changed,' Oliveira said, 'so I'm dedicated to make something different.' In a close vote, the state House agreed this month to give psychologists the limited ability to prescribe antidepressants to patients at 13 federally qualified community health centers and at health clinics in areas where there is a shortage of mental health professionals. The bill now goes before the Senate, where similar legislation failed last session in an unusual deadlock after one supporter missed the vote because of illness."

Physician Charity Care Declines

"Continuing a decade-long trend, the proportion of U.S. physicians providing charity care dropped to 68 percent in 2004-05 from 76 percent in 1996-97, according to a national study from the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC). The ongoing decline in physician charity care is alarming given the increase in the number of uninsured people, particularly during the first half of the decade. Declines in charity care were observed across most major specialties, practice types, practice income levels and geographic regions. Increasing financial pressures and changes in practice arrangements may account in part for the continuing decrease in physician charity care."

A Warning From South Dakota - New York Times

"When President Bush's Supreme Court nominees were asked about abortion and Roe v. Wade, their answers ranged from vague to opaque. But the state legislature in South Dakota felt it heard the underlying message loud and clear. Now, South Dakota has thrown down the gauntlet. It adopted a law last week that makes every abortion that is not necessary to save the life of the mother a crime. The law is clearly unconstitutional under existing Supreme Court rulings. But its backers are hoping that the addition of John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the court will be enough to change things."

Stem Cell Proposal Divides Missouri Republicans - Yahoo! News

"A ballot proposal promoting embryonic stem cell research is turning conservatives against each other and threatening to tear apart Missouri's Republican Party at the very height of its modern-day influence. The measure -- sponsored by a coalition of medical groups, researchers, businesses and patient advocates -- would make Missouri the only state besides California to enshrine the right to stem cell research in its state constitution."

Pharmacy refusals to fill prescriptions sets debate

"The Washington State Board of Pharmacy is considering a policy that would outline if and when pharmacists could refuse to fill prescriptions due to moral, religious or ethical objections.
The discussion is clearly aimed at clarifying whether pharmacists can turn away prescriptions for Plan B, the emergency contraceptive that has caused controversy nationwide, although such a conscience clause could pertain to other areas as well."

A Wrongful Birth? - New York Times

"As in many other realms, from marriage and its definition to end-of-life issues, those ethics and standards are being hashed out in the courts, in one lawsuit after another. And what those cases are exposing is the relatively new belief that we should have a right to choose which babies come into the world. This belief is built upon two assumptions, both of which have emerged in the past 40 years. The first is the assumption that if we choose to take advantage of contemporary technology, major flaws in our fetus's health will be detected before birth. The second assumption, more controversial, is that we will be able to do something � namely, end the pregnancy � if those flaws suggest a parenting project we would rather not undertake." [Free Registration Required]

Study: Drugs Better for Elderly Depression - Yahoo! News

"For elderly people who suffer bouts of depression, drugs work surprisingly better than psychotherapy at keeping these black spells from returning, suggests the longest study ever in patients so old. The findings from the two-year study may encourage some doctors to prescribe antidepressants for longer periods, perhaps even for life, in patients who have been depressed."

Use of Implanted Patient-Data Chips Stirs Debate on Medicine vs. Privacy

"When Daniel Hickey's doctor suggested he have a microchip implanted under his skin to provide instant access to his computerized medical record, the 77-year-old retired naval officer immediately agreed. 'If you're unconscious and end up in the emergency room, they won't know anything about you,' Hickey said. 'With this, they can find out everything they need to know right away and treat you better.'" [Free Registration Required]

Sex and Safety - Los Angeles Times

"Los Angeles County's 11 known sex clubs and bathhouses have long been popular places where gay men (and to a lesser extent heterosexual couples) go to have casual or public sex. Although perfectly legal as long as money doesn't change hands between partners, the steamy meeting points are also a major concern for public health officials because they can be breeding grounds for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases."

Campaign for Mental Health Reform

"The Campaign for Mental Health Reform is a collaboration of 16 national health organizations, representing millions of Americans, to make health a national priority and early access, recovery and quality in mental health services the hallmarks of our nation�s mental health system."

Medicare Rights Center Part D Monitoring Project

"The frustration levels of my clients have been unimaginable! I have actually had clients burst into tears trying to understand the Part D program. As difficult as that process was, it was nothing compared to trying to explain to my clients after they had done everything they were supposed to do, they couldn't get their medications on January 1, 2006."

Racial Disparities & Prescription Surveillance

"Health policies designed to curb inappropriate medication prescribing can have the unintended effect of increasing racial disparities in access to appropriate care, reports a study by the Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention (of Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care). . . 'This is the first well-controlled study to show that health policies designed to reduce drug costs and abuse can increase racial disparities in access to effective care for those with chronic illnesses, like schizophrenia,' said Pearson."

Kweisi Mfume: We Must Do More to Address Crime at its Roots Before a Generation's Lost

"For years, criminal justice policies have reflected the conservative view of lock them up and throw away the key without reflecting on the fact that many reactionary policies have caused more harm than good. Such policies have helped to increase -- not decrease -- the number of felons and the number of victims. Some of the once hailed and triumphed criminal justice policies such as 'three strikes - you're out' have proven to be -- as we knew they would -- a nightmare for criminal justice administrators and policy makers across the nation."

GWU Suit Prompts Questions Of Liability

"About 2 a.m. one sleepless night, sophomore Jordan Nott checked himself into George Washington University Hospital. He was depressed, he said, and thinking about suicide."

Politics and Medicine

"For many of the doctors, involving themselves in the political process is a new experience but one they find themselves having to do as political decisions increasingly affect how they practice. Many of the nation's most pressing domestic policy issues deal with health and medicine -- prescription-drug costs, Medicaid's impact on state budgets, growing numbers of uninsured, etc. -- and doctors want to be part of the conversation."

The Mythology of Health Care Reform?

"Health care is once again moving to the top of the national political agenda. The early evidence is that this debate will be dominated by misinformation and misconceptions. Advocates of a government-run, national health-care system will do everything they can to frighten Americans and discredit consumer-directed health care. But we would be advised to look at the facts and not the scare tactics." (Note: I am providing this link to the CATO Institute website because I want you to be familiar with some of the arguments AGAINST many of the positions I take in class. It will behoove you to spend some time on the CATO site; for a more elaborate analysis of conservative concerns about health care reform, go to http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=1044.)

The Fix-It Myth

"Almost everyone agrees that we ought to 'fix the health care system' -- a completely meaningless phrase despite its popularity with politicians, pundits and 'experts.' Indeed, it is popular precisely because it is meaningless. The people who proclaim it rarely tell you the discomforting choices it might involve. Instead, they focus on a few specific shortcomings of our $1.9 trillion health-industrial complex and imply that, if we correct these often serious flaws, we'll have 'fixed' the system or at least made a good start. This is rarely true, and so most forays into 'health reform' end with disillusion."

Should Health Care be the Business of Business?

"It wouldn't be a major leap to put all Americans on an expanded version of Medicare. We'd pay higher taxes but no insurance charges. Employers would no longer be saddled with health care. Workers would no longer worry about health care for themselves or their children. And we could toss the disgraceful private health insurance industry, with its wasteful bureaucracy and inscrutable coverage rules, into the Dumpster."

New Research on "Plan B" Contraception

"Recent studies justify the conclusion that Plan B does not produce a 'hostile uterus.' Rather, it prevents conception by delaying ovulation."

The Health Care Crisis and What to Do About It

"{T]he evidence clearly shows that the key problem with the US health care system is its fragmentation. A history of failed attempts to introduce universal health insurance has left us with a system in which the government pays directly or indirectly for more than half of the nation's health care, but the actual delivery both of insurance and of care is undertaken by a crazy quilt of private insurers, for-profit hospitals, and other players who add cost without adding value. A Canadian-style single-payer system, in which the government directly provides insurance, would almost surely be both cheaper and more effective than what we now have. And we could do even better if we learned from 'integrated' systems, like the Veterans Administration, that directly provide some health care as well as medical insurance."

Supreme Court has unusual chance to step into prescription drug fight

"Fifteen states are urging the Supreme Court to take the unusual step of immediately intervening to resolve a dispute between states and the federal government over the costly new Medicare prescription drug program. Justices were told Friday that states should not be forced to help fund the program, which could cost them billions of dollars over the next two years."

Missouri Senate bill targets consulting contracts

"The consulting contract between House Speaker Rod Jetton and state Sen. Jason Crowell would be illegal under a bill introduced this week by a St. Louis Democrat. Jetton, R-Marble Hill, receives $1,000 a month to act as a political consultant for Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau. Crowell's campaign fund pays the money to Jetton's firm, Common Sense Conservative Consulting LLC. The contract has paid Jetton $33,000 since the consulting firm was created in June 2004. 'The perception is just terrible,' said state Sen. Rita Days, D-St. Louis. 'It doesn't pass the smell test.'":

Mental Health and Marriage

"Within a handful of years, marriage equality has catapulted from an obscure social concept to a polarizing political issue on par with abortion, stem cell research, and the death penalty. Yet while the political debate has raged about the meaning of marriage and who should have the right to marry, little is known about the effect denial of same-sex marriage has on the gay and lesbian population."

Bush, Chertoff Warned Before Katrina

"In dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, put lives at risk in New Orleans' Superdome and overwhelm rescuers, according to confidential video footage."

"Don't ask, don't tell" won't help teens

"No responsible person wants to encourage teenagers to have sex; no one has to. That's what makes a bill moving through the Missouri Legislature so dangerous."

Support for Civil Commitment Ceremonies

"'We suggest you decline an invitation to a civil commitment ceremony,' Melissa Fryrear told a group of parents. Some busily took notes; a few others wiped away tears. 'So many Christians are yielding on this part,' she said."

How Did Your State Do?

NAMI's Grading the States 2006 Report