Hogg Foundation for Mental Health News and Grants
Hogg Foundation for Mental Health
November, 2011
Today's Clips - November 4, 2011 This summary of recent news and research articles on mental health topics was prepared as a public service by the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health. Stories from other media sources do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of the foundation and its staff. Media sites may require a one-time free registration and academic and science journal sites may require a paid subscription to access articles. Subscribe to more Hogg Foundation news and updates -- click on the link at the bottom of the page to manage your subscription. |
TEXAS NEWS
Guardianships putting thousands of elderly Texans at risk; Documents show they're losing their rights
Houston Chronicle
November 3, 2011
... Across Texas, 30,000 to 50,000 disabled and elderly people like Hale have lost the right to decide where they live, to choose a caretaker or to spend their life savings after being declared incapacitated and ordered into guardianships, according to new estimates obtained by the Houston Chronicle from the Texas Office of Court Administration and interviews with probate court officials statewide.
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Guardianships-putting-thousands-of-elderly-Texans-2251312.php
ACLU Report Blasts Private Prisons
Texas Tribune
November 3, 2011
A report released Thursday by the American Civil Liberties Union criticizes the private prison industry for profiting at the expense of a growing prison population. The report, titled "Banking on Bondage: Private Prisons and Mass Incarceration," accuses private prison companies of lobbying for laws that result in higher incarceration rates.
http://www.texastribune.org/texas-newspaper/texas-news/aclu-report-blasts-private-prisons/
Different Times Lead GOP to Rethink Crime
MyFox Houston
November 3, 2011
HOUSTON - Our society is rethinking crime and punishment. And you may be surprised to find out who's behind some of it. Diverting the mentally ill from prison? ...Judge Jan Krocker is also a Republican. And starting next month, she'll preside over Harris County's first Mental Health Court - aiming to treat and medicate rather than to incarcerate.
http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/news/local/111103-different-times-lead-gop-to-rethink-crime
Site selected for Tomball VA clinic
Community Impact Newspaper
November 4, 2011
... The clinic will provide services including primary health care, mental health care, women's specialty care, optometry, audiology and pharmacy services.
http://impactnews.com/tomball-magnolia/502-news/15574-site-selected-for-tomball-va-clinic
Texas death row inmate dies in prison
San Antonio Express-News
November 4, 2011
HOUSTON (AP) - Texas prison officials have announced the death of a death row inmate who had been getting treatment at a psychiatric unit since 2010. John Selvage died late Wednesday after he was found unresponsive earlier in the day in his cell at the Jester IV Unit near Richmond, about 30 miles southwest of Houston.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/article/Texas-death-row-inmate-dies-in-prison-2251823.php
Argument Between Brothers Leads To Stabbing
KSAT - San Antonio
November 3, 2011
SAN ANTONIO -- Bexar County sheriff's investigators are searching for a man who they believe stabbed his own brother. Antonio Lopez, 26, is described as having a "mental illness."
http://www.ksat.com/news/29674474/detail.html
NATIONAL NEWS
Advocates: Don't Scrap Minority Health Training Programs
Kaiser Health News
November 3rd, 2011
Even as experts stress the need to provide more culturally competent care for the nation's burgeoning Hispanic population, Congress is poised to reduce or eliminate some of the programs that fund training of minority students for careers in health care.
http://capsules.kaiserhealthnews.org/index.php/2011/11/advocates-dont-scrap-minority-health-training-programs/
Puerto Rico ends legal battle over disability
Associated Press
November 3, 2011
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - Puerto Rico has reached an agreement with the U.S. government ending a 12-year legal battle to improve the island's health system for the mentally disabled, local justice officials said Thursday. Federal officials had accused the U.S. territory of abusing and neglecting hundreds of mentally disabled people by not providing food, medication, adequate housing, therapy or mental health care.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jnlwMzb45t9Aq58THJ9gisRwYkCg?docId=d360b9bc64b145f79aa8335c3dc188b3
A Place at School Where Students Can Unload Stress and Worry
New York Times
November 3, 2011
... More than a third of Galileo's 2,200 students sought help from the center last year for depression, anger, anxiety, substance abuse, grief, trauma, and physical and sexual health. During a given week, 300 to 400 Galileo students receive individual or group services, from counseling to clinic appointments. Over the last decade, the San Francisco Unified School District has built a pioneering support network to help teenagers escape the private suffering of adolescence that erases the line between nurturing emotional health and providing an education.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/04/us/a-place-at-school-where-students-can-unload-stress-and-worry.html?scp=6&sq=mental&st=nyt
Ricky Wyatt, 57, Dies; Plaintiff in Landmark Mental Care Suit
New York Times
November 3, 2011
... Ricky found himself at 14 in a crowded and understaffed hell, the Bryce State Hospital in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Among more than 5,000 patients, he was the youngest by a decade. Though he was never found to have any illness, he was given large doses of Thorazine and other psychoactive drugs regularly. Mr. Wyatt, who died on Tuesday at 57, became the lead plaintiff in a landmark class-action federal lawsuit protesting conditions in the hospital. The suit led to a judgment in 1971 that gave the federal government control of Alabama's mental institutions and set national guidelines for mental care that came to be called the Wyatt Standards.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/04/health/ricky-wyatt-57-dies-plaintiff-in-landmark-mental-care-suit.html
HEALTHCARE REFORM
Insurance exchanges could harm US states' autonomy
Reuters
November 3, 2011
Some of the federal healthcare law's requirements related to insurance exchanges threaten the autonomy of U.S. states, which need more support in establishing the marketplaces, state governors said in a letter released on Thursday.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/03/usa-states-insurance-idUSN1E7A21I620111103
Austerity Won't Help Physician Shortage, Experts Predict
California Healthline
November 3, 2011
... The problem, expected to become more severe over the next couple of years, could undermine the state's ability to handle millions of newly covered residents when major parts of national health care reform come into play in 2014. The shortage of physicians is a symptom of larger problems associated with funding contractions in the largest and most influential health care plans in the country -- Medicare and Medicaid.
http://www.californiahealthline.org/features/2011/austerity-wont-help-physician-shortage-experts-predict.aspx
OPINIONS
Texas lawmakers begin work on interim session topic
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
November 3, 2011
Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, in a Tuesday meeting with the Star-Telegram Editorial Board, said he and House members have identified 175 "interim charges" for consideration in the next 14 months leading up to the 83rd Legislature. ...Examples of other charges, by committee assignment: Corrections: Look into reducing the number of youths referred to the juvenile justice system. "Consider the availability of mental health services, diversion and early intervention programs and other prevention methods."
http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/11/03/3498563/texas-lawmakers-begin-work-on.html
Women's health: Another big MCA step
El Paso Times
November 4, 2011
Specialization. That would certainly be one of the stamps that identify our faster-than-ever pace toward becoming the recognized Medical Center of the Americas. ... We have long been undeserved when it comes to specialist physicians. Now we have a four-year medical school, plans for a nursing school on the campus, a revitalized UMC, five floors of the Women's Pavilion and Outpatient Center -- and next up is five floors of the El Paso Children's Hospital right above. It remains a long-range plan to be recognized as the premier hub for treating and researching border-related diseases.
http://www.elpasotimes.com/opinion/ci_19258200
RESEARCH
Texas Biomed, Yale spot biomarker to detect risk of major depression
San Antonio Express News
November 3, 2011
Scientists at the San Antonio-based Texas Biomedical Research Institute and Yale University have identified a new target area in the human genome that appears to harbor genes with a major role in the onset of depression. Using the power of Texas Biomed's AT&T Genomics Computing Center (GCC), the researchers found the region by devising a new method for analyzing thousands of potential risk factors for this complex disease, a process that led them to a new biomarker that may be helpful in identifying people at risk for major depression.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/health/article/Texas-Biomed-Yale-spot-biomarker-to-detect-risk-2248728.php
Earthquakes' medical toll: 'devastating'
Los Angeles Times
November 3, 2011
Angelenos and others who live in earthquake zones occasionally need reminding that quakes can be pretty darn scary. A new study published Thursday in the Lancet should be eye-opening. ... Mental health problems such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder have been reported; earthquakes are also associated with the highest rate of suicide of any type of natural disaster.
http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-earthquake-injuries-lancet-20111102,0,4911766.story
Early Diagnosis Of Psychotic Disorders
Medical News Today
November 4, 2011
Functional psychosis can be diagnosed from the first indications of the patient, thanks to affective symptomatology. Depressive moods, hyperactivity and lack of concentration are affective symptoms that can present themselves during the first psychotic episodes, and the presence or absence of any of them may contribute to differentiating, at an early stage, between the different variations of the mental disease.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/237055.php
Psychotic-like experiences linked to subtle dyskinesia in general population
MedWire News
November 4, 2011
Results from a US study show that psychotic-like experiences are associated with spontaneous movement abnormalities in the general population. But they add that little is known about the association between dyskinesia and psychotic-like experiences, such as fleeting auditory hallucinations, in the non-clinical general population.
http://www.medwire-news.md/47/95586/Psychiatry/Psychotic-like_experiences_linked_to_subtle_dyskinesia_in_general_population.html
Teen 'sexting' common and linked to psychological woes
KIIITV - South Texas
November 3, 2011
Sexting can include overtones of bullying and coercion, and teens who are involved were more likely to report being psychologically distressed, depressed or even suicidal, according to the 2010 survey of 24 (of 26) high schools in Boston's metro-west region.
http://www.kiiitv.com/story/15936880/teen-sexting-common-and-linked-to-psychological-woes
FEATURES & RESOURCES
New Video Introduces Four Peer-Run Respite Programs
National Empowerment Center
This video provides an introduction to four successful peer-run programs: Voices of the Heart Respite House, Georgia Peer Support and Wellness Center Respite House, Rose House, and Keya House.
http://www.power2u.org/index.html
