Is your therapist a little behind the times?

Washington Post Editorial
A young woman enters a physician's office seeking help for diabetes. She assumes that the physician has been trained to understand, value and use the latest science related to her disorder. Down the hall, a young man enters a clinical psychologist's office seeking help for depression. He similarly assumes that the psychologist has been trained to understand, value and use current research on his disorder.

The first patient would be justified in her beliefs; the second, often, would not.

This is the overarching conclusion of a two-year analysis that we recently published on the views and practices of hundreds of clinical psychologists. . . .

But we can change this situation, and a new accreditation system will help. The Psychological Clinical Science Accreditation System is designed to recognize only graduate programs that deliver high-quality, science-based, doctoral clinical training. This system, which we are all working with, is intended to "brand" clinical psychologists so that the public, licensing boards and others can identify those who have been trained to use scientifically validated treatments.

Drug Companies Increase Prices in Face of Change

Drug Makers Raising Prices Before Reform - NYTimes.com

Even as drug makers promise to support Washington’s health care overhaul by shaving $8 billion a year off the nation’s drug costs after the legislation takes effect, the industry has been raising its prices at the fastest rate in years.
In the last year, the industry has raised the wholesale prices of brand-name prescription drugs by about 9 percent, according to industry analysts. That will add more than $10 billion to the nation’s drug bill, which is on track to exceed $300 billion this year. By at least one analysis, it is the highest annual rate of inflation for drug prices since 1992.

Supportive Housing Bill Needs Senate Sponsors

Action Alert on Supportive Housing

The Senate is currently considering a bill to significantly broaden and improve the Section 811 program. The Frank Melville Supportive Housing Investment Act of 2009 (S. 1481) would spur creation of thousands of new 811 units every year by streamlining the competition process for new projects and authorizing a new and innovative investment program that fulfills the promise of true community integration as envisioned in the Americans with Disabilities Act (see the Bazelon Center's August 5 Mental Health Policy Reporter).

The new program, a demonstration, would provide rental subsidies to create small set-asides of supportive housing units (e.g., 5%) for people with disabilities and SSI-level income in the hundreds of thousands of high-quality affordable rental housing developments produced routinely by state and local governments. The legislation would change the basic Section 811 model, which for 30+ years has produced small group homes and single-population independent living facilities but no longer responds to the housing needs and choices of most people with disabilities, who prefer to live in housing that is truly integrated in local communities

The International Burden of Mental Illness

WHO | Chapter 2: Burden of Mental and Behavioural Disorders

Mental and behavioural disorders are common, affecting more than 25% of all people at some time during their lives. They are also universal, affecting people of all countries and societies, individuals at all ages, women and men, the rich and the poor, from urban and rural environments. They have an economic impact on societies and on the quality of life of individuals and families. Mental and behavioural disorders are present at any point in time in about 10% of the adult population. Around 20% of all patients seen by primary health care professionals have one or more mental disorders. One in four families is likely to have at least one member with a behavioural or mental disorder. These families not only provide physical and emotional support, but also bear the negative impact of stigma and discrimination. It was estimated that, in 1990, mental and neurological disorders accounted for 10% of the total DALYs lost due to all diseases and injuries. This was 12% in 2000. By 2020, it is projected that the burden of these disorders will have increased to 15%. Common disorders, which usually cause severe disability, include depressive disorders, substance use disorders, schizophrenia, epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease, mental retardation, and disorders of childhood and adolescence. Factors associated with the prevalence, onset and course of mental and behavioural disorders include poverty, sex, age, conflicts and disasters, major physical diseases, and the family and social environment.

WHO Mental Health Web Site

WHO | Mental health

If you're interested in international mental health, it will be good for you to become familiar with this site.

Opinion Piece by a Houston Psychologist (Example of Effective Communication of Science)

As they look for ways to pay for health care reform, members of Congress are considering a tax on sugary soft drinks. The logic is straightforward: Sugary drinks add substantial calories to people's diets and those calories contribute to the large number of people in the United States who are overweight and obese. Because obesity often causes expensive health problems, a tax on soft drinks has two possible benefits: It may provide revenue that can be directed toward health care and healthy eating, and it might dissuade people from drinking sugary beverages.

There are many good arguments against adding another tax to the rolls in the United States. As a psychologist, though, I'm more interested in one bad argument that is often made against such sin taxes: the willpower argument.

The Strange Career of the Public Option (Time)

The public option had been kicking around for a while, however, in policy-wonk circles. Giving the uninsured an opportunity to purchase coverage through a Medicare-like health plan was seen as a useful means of putting competitive pressure on private insurers to provide decent coverage at low prices.
But as the debate has progressed, the public option has become an ideological flash point, igniting fears on the right that it will be the precursor to a government-run system like Canada's and some European countries'. Which is the same reason that many on the left like the public option so much.
What is getting lost in all the shouting, though, is that its effects would be limited. The vast majority of Americans--those who get their coverage through larger employers--would not even be eligible to participate at first. And it wouldn't be free: those who enrolled would have to pay premiums, just as they would to a private insurance company.