Thursday, April 24, 2003

Studies: Workforce Challenges Cut Across Human Service Program
Article in Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Weekly at Medscape on a comprehensive study that examined the challenges facing front-line human service workers released last month by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. [Viewing resources requires registration, which is free]. Please note that the full report, The Unsolved Challenges of System Reform: The Condition of the Frontline Human Services Workforce, is available in Adobe Acrobat format from the Human Services Workforce Initiative section of the Annie E. Casey Foundation web site.  
  

Drug Makers Expand Their Medicaid Role
This New York Times article doesn't specifically reference mental health treatment, yet it identifies an important trend in the role of pharmaceutical companies in the American health care system - "A growing number of pharmaceutical companies are offering to take on prominent public health roles in helping to care for the sickest poor patients in some states. Under the agreements, the drug companies create guidelines for treating Medicaid patients with chronic conditions like asthma and diabetes. ....The drug companies say the programs save taxpayers millions of dollars by keeping Medicaid patients out of the hospital. But critics of the programs say the drug companies are sponsoring them to persuade state governments to drop efforts to demand lower drug prices." [Viewing New York Times resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

School-based psychotherapy (Maine)
Courier Gazette story on the work of school-based therapists - "experienced, licensed Master's level clinicians affiliated with a mental health agency and working several days a week in an elementary, middle or high school. School based therapists work closely with a variety of school professionals, abide by school policy and procedure and follow specific federal and state regulations having to do with the rights of mental health recipients. They are also bound by the rules of their agency and the limits and guidelines of their licensing board and professional association. It is their charge to care specifically for childrens' mental health and well-being, by providing assessment, diagnosis, a treatment plan, collaboration and consistent parameters of therapy."  
  

Study: Michigan mental health care fails
Story at The State News - "After Michigan was the only state to receive all failing grades in a recent national study of mental health care, state officials are saying improvements are in the works. The National Mental Health Association report, which was released Wednesday, examined parity in services provided by private insurance plans and government programs, access to medications and protection against declining services that may result from managed care. Michigan's services were reported inadequate in all three categories." The story notes that the National Mental Health Association is scheduled to release an executive summary of its report next month.