A mother fighting a 12-year legal war with the state Department of Disabilities and Special Needs over the alleged gang rape of her mentally retarded daughter said the agency is now trying to exact revenge by removing her as the girl’s guardian.

After a D.C. Superior Court judge on Wednesday found Banita Jacks guilty of killing her four daughters, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District made public copies of a video of her eight-hour interrogation with D.C. police detectives.

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — About two dozen seriously ill prisoners in Washington state could soon be released from prison — as long as their freedom is expected to save the cash-strapped state money.

Everything known about tasers – everything the provinces and police forces think they know – should now be treated as junk. Canada has a state-of-the-art manual that says the taser can kill, and its use by police forces needs to be severely limited. But have the provinces noticed? The silence of most of them on last week’s 556-page Braidwood report has been, well, stunning.

Potter County’s legal team is asking a federal judge to dismiss a civil lawsuit brought by the family of an inmate who died in his jail cell last year.

Schering-Plough Corporation (NYSE: SGP) announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee voted unanimously in favor of SAPHRIS(R) (asenapine) sublingual tablets as effective and safe for the acute treatment of manic or mixed episodes associated with bipolar I disorder in adults and in favor of use in acute treatment of schizophrenia in adults. If approved by FDA, SAPHRIS would be the first psychotropic drug to be approved initially for both of these indications.

An extensive analysis of insurance claims data underscores the additional medical complications that may arise among individuals with bipolar disease.

A well-established psychological test is coming under the gun as a new research effort reviews the test’s reliability and validity.

Proposed county budget cuts that would affect various family services has a local nonprofit director concerned. Maryanne Law, executive director of the Parenting Resource Center in Austin, is hoping the county board on Tuesday decides not to cut $4,000 in family-based services, $10,000 to Crisis Nursery services, and another $10,000 to the Michael H. Seibel Family Visitation Center — all of which are on the table as Mower County deals with more than $500,000 in unallotments from Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California officials are proposing to build a single medical center for sick and mentally ill inmates, half of what they previously said was needed to improve substandard care.

Key state lawmakers say the lack of regulation of some Illinois group homes for the mentally ill is “terrifying” and that more oversight is needed. “We ought to be licensing them. We do it for daycare, for crying out loud,” says State Rep. Jack Franks (D-Woodstock), chair of the House state government administration committee.

A few months ago I attended a benefit for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). It was a lovely gala, but there was a dark side to the evening: We were there because of the startling fact that more than 33,000 Americans take their own lives every year. Perhaps even more tragic is that they leave thousands more behind—all their parents, children, spouses, siblings, and friends.

A little understanding in the classroom can go a long way.
(HealthNewsDigest.com) – As you get ready to send your child back to school this fall, you run through the checklist: Immunizations? Check. School supplies? Check. Compassion and understanding for your child’s mentally-ill classmate? If you’re caught off-guard by the last “checklist” item, let me assure you – you’re not alone.

One of the problems with writing news stories is that there is almost always more information than is possible to include in a story. That is certainly the case with the story I reported yesterday about unlicensed group homes serving the mentally ill in Illinois.

The South Side group home that waited six days to notify a mentally ill resident’s family of his disappearance earlier this month was in business even though its parent company is dissolved, its property has been foreclosed upon, its business office is boarded up and its phones are disconnected.

The battle over access to mental health treatment in Chicago is brewing again, as the Chicago Department of Public Health mulls shuttering at least four city-run mental health centers.

Video report on linked website.
American doctors wrote more than 164 million prescriptions for antidepressants in 2008, making it the third most-prescribed of any class of drugs. Now Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) is tapping into that vast market with an aggressive advertising campaign for Abilify (aripiprazole), its blockbuster antipsychotic medication. …. We chose Abilify for this seventh edition of our AdWatch series because, frankly, the ad scares us.

(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Medication is not the only solution for people who are clinically depressed, doctors at UT Southwestern Medical Center report. “Cognitive behavioral therapy and interpersonal psychotherapy, two types of talk therapy, are sometimes as effective at treating depression as is medication,” says Dr. Anna Brandon, assistant professor of psychiatry at the UT Southwestern Women’s Mental Health Center

It took Mon-Yough Community Services eight years to build up its rainy day fund. By Executive Director Noreen Fredrick’s estimates, the agency’s monthly payroll for 100 positions will dry up by mid-September if the commonwealth’s budget remains in limbo.

Carlton Hunter consistently fails to register as a sex offender, and he has served nearly 500 days in jail over the past five years as punishment for that. Hunter is homeless. He also is mildly mentally retarded and has paranoid schizophrenia.

For NFL fans, Terry Bradshaw is a household name. Drafted as the first pick in the 1970 NFL Draft out of Louisiana Tech, Bradshaw played quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1970-1983. In a span of six years, he won four Super Bowl titles.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Alzheimer’s patients who have a close relationship with their caregivers show a slower decline in their mental and physical function over time, new research hints.

Joe Pantoliano, who played “The Sopranos” resident head case Ralph Cifaretto, brings his message about de-stigmatizing mental illness to the Woods Hole Film Festival tonight with his documentary, “No Kidding, Me Too.” Joey Pants, as he’s known, made the doc after starring in “Canvas,” a little indie flick with Marcia Gay Harden about mental illness that got people talking about the disease.

When Tammy Smith was 24, she was the picture of success. Second in her class at Mid-State Technical College in Wisconsin Rapids, she was earning a dual degree in police science and corrections and had a 3.95 grade point average. Then, three months before graduation, her “world crashed around” her. She developed severe anxiety and depression, and never graduated as a result.