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California Removes Barrier to Brief Intervention

"The [CA] Uniform Policy  Provision Law (UPPL) stated that insurers "shall not be liable for any  loss sustained or contracted in consequence of the insured's being intoxicated  or under the influence of any controlled substance unless administered on the  advice of a physician." . . . Addiction treatment advocates argued that  "alcohol exclusion laws" like UPPL present a major roadblock to  implementation of screening and brief intervention programs (SBIRT) in hospital  settings because they effectively discourage doctors from testing patients for  alcohol and other drug use."

http://www.jointogether.org/news/headlines/inthenews/2008/calif-removes-barrier-to.html


Don't ask, don't tell [about substance use] doesn't work in prenatal care

While obstetrical care providers are doing a good job working with their patients on smoking cessation, they are not doing as well on abuse of other substances that can harm a woman's unborn baby. A new study appearing in the September 2008 issue of the journal Patient Education and Counseling reports that patients don't volunteer information about substance abuse unless specifically queried.

 http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-09/iu-dad093008.php 


New Mexico Men's Council for Boys and Young Men

http://www.nmboys.org/


NM Governor's Women's Health Advisory Council

 "Mission: Develop and promote policy to improve the health and well-being of women and girls in New Mexico, integrating race/ethnicity, age, ability and sexual orientation, using a woman-centered, social justice, interdisciplinary framework that incorporates sex and gender analysis and the influences of social determinants of health"

 http://www.nmwellwoman.com/ 


After the Crisis:  Peer Support Training for Healing from Trauma after Disasters 



 "Many people in communities across the country have histories of trauma. . . Even for people who have never before experienced a severe trauma; post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety reactions, increased substance abuse, and many other reactions are common. . . . the behavioral health and criminal justice systems need to know how to identify and respond to the traumatization and retraumatization that can happen after a major disaster."

 http://www.gainscenter.samhsa.gov/atc/ 


Web sites of possible interest




 New NM Prevention Network web site:

www.NMPreventionNetwork.org


"A Place in the Community ... and Beyond" 

 "The inaugural conference, designed to provide the highest standard of information, experiences and skill enhancement, focuses on comprehensive, cutting edge, systems of care and the best practices embedded within these systems. Nationally recognized leaders, in the behavioral health field will partner with skilled New Mexico programs and providers to create the optimal learning experience."

http://www.kessjones.com/events/BHC08/BHC08.html 


SAMHSA Awards More Than $6 Million to Support Children’s NM Systems in American Indian/Alaska Native Communities, including San Felipe Pueblo 

 "Known as the Circles of Care, the program’s purpose is to provide tribal and urban Indian communities with tools and resources to plan and design a holistic, community-based system of care to support mental health and wellness for their children, youth and families. . . . 


"Pueblo of San Felipe Children's Mental Health Systems of Care Development Project, San Felipe Pueblo, N.M. -- $292,440 for the first year to build on the progress already made toward improving health care programs by assessing, designing and implementing a system of care for children with serious emotional and mental health problems."

http://www.samhsa.gov/newsroom/advisories/0809183958.aspx 


Compromise Language in Wellstone-Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act

 The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the Wellstone-Domenici bill as early as Monday.  The following link is to a summary of the compromise language developed in conference and in the current version of the bill.  More information can be found at www.nccbh.org and www.facesandvoicesofrecovery.org, among others. 

  http://www.facesandvoicesofrecovery.org/pdf/parity_compromise_summary.pdf 


UK Study:  Young girls think self harming is a normal way of managing stress

"One girl who took part in the research said: 'I think cutting your arm the first time you do it is OK - it might just be stress.'  Not until someone had cut themselves deliberately three times would it be considered a mental health issue, she added."

 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article4327233.ece


Washington Post: What Teens Are Hearing About Drugs - Some Messages Help, Others Are Troubling

"Experts blame a cavalier attitude toward drugs for a growing incidence of prescription drug abuse by teens. . . . At the same time, many teens fail to stick with a prescribed drug regimen for a chronic condition such as asthma, depression or diabetes."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/05/AR2008090503089_pf.html 


NY Times recent stories on mental health and youth/children


  The Bipolar Puzzle (on children diagnosed with bipolar disorder):  "Fifteen years ago [James’] condition would probably not have been called bipolar disorder, and some doctors might hesitate to diagnose it in him even now, preferring other labels that more directly address James’s rage and aggression: Oppositional Defiant Disorder or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder — both of which have been applied to James as well. But since the mid-1990s, a revolution has occurred in the field of child psychiatry, and a mental illness characterized by episodes of mania and depression, which once was believed not to exist before late adolescence, is now being ascribed rather freely to children with mood problems, sometimes at very young ages."  

  Risks Found for Youths in New Antipsychotics:  "The [NIMH-financed] study compared two of the newer antipsychotics . . . with an older medication and found that all three relieved symptoms of schizophrenia, like auditory hallucinations, in many young patients. Yet half of the children in the study stopped taking their drug within two months, either because it had no effect or was causing serious side effects, like rapid weight gain. "

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/health/research/15drug.html?ref=health


NIMH Study news release:

http://nimh.nih.gov/science-news/2008/newer-antipsychotics-no-better-than-older-drug-in-treating-child-and-adolescent-schizophrenia.shtml


Forbes.com: Healing Voices (Will Hall, co-founder of the Freedom Center in MA)

"I might be different than most people around me, but being different also means being creative and sensitive. I stopped seeing myself as a broken person with no chance for recovery. Most importantly, I reached out to other people who had also been diagnosed as mentally ill, and we began supporting each other in discovering our own pathways to healing. For too long I had been trying to do this all on my own."

 http://www.forbes.com/2008/08/28/mentalhealth-schizophrenia-pf-philo-in_rm_0829philanthropy_inl.html


States adopt Missouri youth justice model

http://www.stateline.org/live/printable/story?contentId=288904


NY regional newspaper: Proposed [Medicaid] cuts worry health care workers

"A proposed federal rule would dramatically reduce Medicaid funding for school-based health centers, family planning centers, dialysis clinics, substance abuse counseling and mental health clinics throughout New York, and health care professionals and advocates are warning that the effects would be devastating, with clinics forced to close or reduce staff and services." Click here for full report.


Free Online CE Course:  "Depression as a Mind-Body Disorder in Minority Populations"

"Despite the availability of clinical guidelines for the identification and treatment of patients with major depression, studies consistently report that patients with depression are not diagnosed or treated as often as necessary. This is especially true when it comes to patients of racial or ethnic minority. . . . there is a critical need to educate clinicians to screen, diagnose, and treat minority patients with depression within the context of cultural sensitivity and to provide clinicians with the skills to overcome any cultural issues that may impede diagnosis and successful treatment of minority patients with depression. . . ."

 http://www.neurosciencecme.com/cmea.asp?ID=327 


Information on Medicaid and Mental Health Services

http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MHS/
  


Witness Justice

 "Founded in 2002, Witness Justice is a national, grassroots, non-denominational 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to empower and assist victims of violence and their loved ones in healing from trauma and in navigating the criminal justice process."

 http://www.witnessjustice.org/index.cfm