Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Cost-Effectiveness Data Prove MH Care Won't Break Bank  Psychiatric News story - "New analytical methodologies demonstrate that treatment for psychiatric disorders can be cost-effective. Members of APA's Council on Healthcare Systems and Financing took a new look at a long-standing problem at APA's 2005 annual meeting in Atlanta in the session 'Funding for Psychiatry: From the Irrational to the Rational.' That intractable problem is what former APA President Paul Appelbaum, M.D., called the 'systematic defunding of the mental health system.' Edward Maxwell, M.D., opened the session with an overview of the funding trends and issues that have resulted in a serious discrepancy between the costs to provide needed mental health and substance abuse (MH/SA) services and resources devoted to them. Maxwell is an APA/Bristol-Myers Squibb Fellow at Brown University..." See also Where Does the Money Come From? And Where Does It Go? at the same source.  
  

Collaboration Overcomes Resistance To Use of Practice Guidelines  Psychiatric News story - "Local opinion leaders are the most important factor in ensuring that any new technology or practice—such as incorporation of practice guidelines—is widely adopted. Rory Houghtalen, M.D.: 'If you look at the science, you know that a patient with two or more episodes of major depression is a candidate for maintenance antidepressant treatment.' David Hathcox Despite resistance and skepticism, practice guidelines can be implemented into routine clinical care in large organized systems of care. Moreover, they can be used to inform and facilitate staff and resident education and training, raise standards of care, stimulate research in areas where guidelines are deficient, and reduce public and professional stigma surrounding mental illness."