RALEIGH — After years of denying his role in the 2006 beating of a mental patient at Cherry Hospital, a former staff member of the Goldsboro mental facility admitted guilt today.
Billy Gerald Wynn Jr. pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault on a handicapped person. A Wayne County judge then sentenced Wynn, who is suffering from medical problems related to kidney failure, to a suspended sentence of 75 days in jail and 24 months of supervised probation.
When Dr. Ryan Thompson, an internist, was a medical resident at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston a few years ago, he worried that he and his fellow trainees weren’t learning about the cost of medical treatments, the financing of health care and the impact of high medical bills on their patients.
So, with the help of faculty members at Harvard Medical School and another resident, Dr. Thompson organized an elective course for residents on the topic. In one session, “I made up a kind of ‘Price Is Right’ game,” he recalled. “I got the bill of a patient and actually went through it,” asking colleagues to guess the cost of commonly ordered tests, like CT scans.
As states across the nation recognize that prison costs are busting tight budgets and doing little to reform offenders, many governors and legislators are thinking outside the cell.
June 2, 2010 (New Orleans, Louisiana) — Bipolar patients with mania may be at risk for hypertension and other cardiometabolic disorders, according to a single-center study that diagnosed the condition in nearly half of patients admitted for mania.
Obesity was observed in 35% of the population as well, reported Dale D’Mello, MD, Michigan State University in Lansing, at the American Psychiatric Association 2010 Annual Meeting.
WASHINGTON: ”Lisa” is not an actor. She is one of many Americans willing to put their name to a drug and whose reassuring voice sells it to others.
Perched comfortably on a couch, the North Carolina woman tells TV viewers she was a smoker for 29 years.
When he was 21, Victoria crashed a motorcycle and paralyzed his left hand. Years later, his father died and his mother sold the family home in Bristol.
Depressed, suffering from seizures, he spent the next 30 years in a homeless haze. During a time when most people marry, raise kids and change careers, Victoria stayed with friends, lived on the streets, panhandled, took drugs and slept in shelte
It is a horrifying circumstance to be placed in, but it is happening with increasing frequency these days: An autistic teen or young adult, who thinks he or she is doing absolutely nothing wrong, suddenly finds himself or herself in a “situation” with police.
Just last week, on Friday, May 21, it happened again, this time in Georgia.
According to the Tybee Island Police Department incident report, a police officer tasered Clifford Grevemberg, a local 18-year-old with autism and a heart condition, after observing him “staggering back and forth” outside a restaurant and failing to gain any cooperation from him.
Early in Gov. Jim Hunt’s first term in the 1970s, he brought in a couple of wise old hands to help sort things out and keep from making mistakes. They were veteran businessmen and political advisers Joe Pell and John A. Williams. Pell took care of political and personnel considerations and Williams handled management and budget issues, and together they helped a relatively young Jim Hunt survive his first term and get ready for three more.
Video report on website
DHHS Secretary Lanier Cansler said he knew the man he named to head state mental health services had tax troubles at his earlier job, and some question why he is now reconsidering the appointment.
RALEIGH — As North Carolina’s leaders struggle to balance its budget, they are considering proposals to outsource parts of the state’s troubled mental health and probation systems.
Lanier Cansler, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, said this week that he is considering privatizing the care of about 80 mental patients at Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh in a unit for patients accused of crimes, including rape and murder. The patients are awaiting trial or have been found not guilty by reason of insanity.
A federal lawsuit is seeking to bar New York City from allowing troubled foster-care children to be kept in psychiatric hospitals after doctors have recommended their release, a practice that routinely adds months to a hospitalization despite laws that require such children to be placed in the least restrictive environment possible.
The suit, filed on Wednesday in United States District Court in Brooklyn, claims that the practice means that children who no longer require hospitalization are being kept in locked quarters where they have limited access to schooling, family visits and even walks outside
-An unusually high number of victims of fatal police shootings in Australia suffer from schizophrenia and other severe mental illnesses, research shows.
BLOOMINGTON — Outpatient mental health treatment and counseling for the working poor are being reduced by McLean County’s mental health agency based on the governor’s proposed budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
SPOKANE, Wash. — The National Alliance on Mental Illness has joined the legal challenge to a new state law that allows some people who are found not guilty by reason of insanity to be moved from state hospitals to prisons.
The new law was signed by Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire on March 31, and immediately challenged in federal court in Spokane.
Supposed intrigueReportedly, proposed changes to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders fourth edition (DSM-IV), which is referred to as the bible of the psychiatric profession could include reclassifying childhood temper tantrums, teenage angst, and binge eating as mental health disorders. Moreover, if accepted, the proposals could equal billions of dollars in new revenue for pharmaceutical companies. According to Christopher Lane, author of a 2007 critique of DSM-IV called Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness and professor at Northwestern University, responded to the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) proposal by saying, “The organization is clearly opening another Pandora’s box here, as well as paving the way for the medication of even greater numbers of children and teenagers cycling through emotional stages as part of normal development.”
Bobby Baker spent 11 years battling mental illness, an experience she recorded in hundreds of private drawings. She explains why at long last she’s making this remarkable artistic autobiography public
WENATCHEE — An Arizona-based nonprofit company won the contract Monday night to operate most of the area’s outpatient and crisis mental-health services, effectively ending five years of behavorial health services provided by Columbia Valley Community Health.
The new mental-health provider, Recovery Innovations, was awarded the contract by the Chelan-Douglas Regional Support Network nearly six weeks after its board announced they’d seek new proposals for the services. Seven companies expressed interest in providing the services, and five presented full proposals.
Officials with R
The state of Wisconsin has eliminated all dollar amount and service limitations for mental health and substance abuse treatment for patients who are covered by the BadgerCare Plus Benchmark Plan.
May 21, 2010 — On the eve of the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA’s) 163rd annual meeting, APA president-elect Carol Bernstein, MD, discusses some of the key issues and challenges facing the profession in the next year and beyond.
A top priority, said Dr. Bernstein, is trying to reduce the stigma of mental illness by finding ways to integrate the practice of psychiatry across the spectrum of medical specialties into what she calls “the house of medicine.”
The troubled star, who suffers from bipolar disorder, was hospitalised on Tuesday night following a series of bizarre incidents in recent weeks, including a foul-mouthed rant at Christians during a Church Hall event.
OTTAWA — The high number of seniors who live in residential care homes and experience depression is a health concern that demands greater attention, according to a new report.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information gathered information about 50,000 seniors in nursing homes and similar residences and found that almost 45 per cent had symptoms of depression or were diagnosed with it.
Following the budget last week, the Government has had constructive discussions with the Australian Association of Social Workers and Occupational Therapy Australia on how to best introduce coordinated mental health care packages for people with severe mental illness in primary care and better use of fee-for-service Medicare items.
Two mental health advocates told the Oregon State Hospital advisory board Thursday that they do not trust state officials to make necessary improvements at the Salem psychiatric facility.
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office and Lakeland Police Department have officers who have been through crisis intervention training, specifically focused on defusing situations in which one or more of the participants have an illness such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.
WINCHESTER — Judy Woolridge knows first-hand the hardships of living with mental illness.
The bullying and harassment by other people doesn’t help — all of which Woolridge says still happens to her on the streets of Winchester.
COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) – As the state’s $5 billion budget makes its way through the House of Representatives and the Senate, constituents are getting a good look at what kind of cuts state agencies will be forced to make if the budget is passed.
In the Department of Mental Health, officials there would have to cut $53 million from its budget. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, according to DMH attorney Mark Binkley.
DANVILLE — Mental health determines how we handle stress, relate to others, make choices, feel good about life and ourselves.
When I learned that Karen Kaplan was the new Executive director of a school called Wings Learning Center in Redwood City, I knew I had to check the program out.
(Reuters) – Shares in Addex (ADXN.S) jumped on Tuesday after the Swiss biotech said it could get up to 112 million euros in a deal with Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) unit Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc
“The compound has huge potential. The prevalence of schizophrenia is very high and with this prevalence one can always expect very high sales,” Addex Chief Executive Vincent Mutel told Reuters, adding ADX71149 had the potential to be the next generation schizophrenia treatment.
COLUMBUS, Ga. — There was some football talk but Herschel Walker, a former NFL running back, made it clear sports was not the reason he was in Columbus Friday morning.
He had an important message to deliver. If a person has a mental illness or a substance abuse problem, it is a sign of strength not of weakness to admit it and seek help.
WASHINGTON — Mental health disorders caused more hospitalizations among U.S. troops in 2009 than any other reason according to medical data released recently by the Pentagon. This historic high reflects the growing toll of nearly nine years of war.
Federal and county authorities announced Thursday they’ve reached a sweeping deal to settle decades-old problems at Cook County Jail by hiring 600 more guards, overhauling medical and mental health care and hiring monitors who will report progress to a judge.
WASHINGTON — Mental health disorders caused more hospitalizations among U.S. troops in 2009 than any other reason according to medical data released recently by the Pentagon. This historic high reflects the growing toll of nearly nine years of war.
A 51-year-old man accused of deliberately running down a number of Kearns Junior High students last year is being considered as a candidate for mental health court.
The National Institute on Mental Health estimates that one in four Americans suffers from a diagnosable and treatable mental disorder. One in 17 suffers from a serious mental illness. And only 40 percent of those will seek treatment.
You are likely to encounter someone in your family, workplace, school, church or community who is experiencing mental health challenges. If you don’t, you’re still impacted by the cost to our society in unemployment, disability, incarceration and homelessness associated with untreated or misdiagnosed mental illnesses.
For a recent Mental Health Association video, we interviewed a number of people on the sidewalks of downtown Santa Barbara. We simply asked, “What do you think of when you hear the words mental illness?”
To no one’s surprise, most reactions included someone dangerous and probably homeless, who should be avoided
In a sad commentary on the state’s mental health treatment services, a new study by the Treatment Advocacy Centrer and the National Sheriff’s Association found that Texas has nearly eight times as many people with serious mental illness in prison as it does in psychiatric hospitals..
Roger Craig was 38 when he died. His age and his weight doubled from the time he had his first psychotic break when still in high school. His illness was later diagnosed as bipolar disorder and he struggled with it until he died of a sudden cardiac attack one evening in 2007 in his parents’ home. But it was not his bipolar illness or suicide — which we often consider the cause of death in people with a serious mental illness (SMI) — that killed him. It was heart disease, the greatest killer of all (in the USA). Except it took his life a good 30 or more years earlier than someone who does not have SMI.
Researchers looking for genes that contribute to late-onset Alzheimer’s disease have found little to help them predict who is at higher risk of developing the condition.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A division of the state Department of Health Services cited the Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison after an apparent suicide.
