An Allegheny County judge is scheduled to hear arguments Monday about whether state prison officials in Pittsburgh can forcibly give a man serving a life sentence for murder the medication they say he needs to stay alive.
Archive for November, 2009
Major Nidal Hasan’s Palestinian Relatives Try to Clear His Name
US Military Ability to Find Militancy in Ranks Questioned
First Congressional Hearing on Ft. Hood Shootings Set for Thursday
The lawyer for the man accused of killing 13 soldiers and civilians at Fort Hood says he will ask for a psychiatric evaluation of his client before the trial begins. The lawyer, retired Army Colonel John Galligan, says he wants to determine whether Major Nidal Hasan fits U.S. military guidelines of whether he can be held mentally responsible for his actions. Story continues here ➤
The release of 911 tapes and other records from the San Jose police shooting of Daniel Pham should have begun a thoughtful conversation about what might have been done differently — and about the challenges police officers have to juggle when they walk into a potentially dangerous situation.
Instead, the police and their defenders are saying: We’re vindicated; there was no choice but to shoot. And the Vietnamese community is saying: If things had been done differently, this mentally ill man might not have had to die Story continues here ➤
Think your home daycare provider is doing a better job than a facility would do?
It depends on the provider.
A new study shows that daycare providers vary widely in their use of TV to entertain kids of all ages. According to the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, “Of the child care programs surveyed, 70 percent of home-based child cares and 36 percent of centers said children watch TV daily.” Story continues here ➤
NEW HAVEN, Conn., Nov. 27 (UPI) — Behavioral problems of autistic children can be reduced through medication and a parental training program, U.S. researchers say.
MIAMI — Paul Michael Merhige, the man police believe killed four and wounded two at a family Thanksgiving dinner in Jupiter, has a history of mental problems and suicide attempts, according to a handyman who worked for his family.
While we return to our daily lives after the holidays and get into the Christmas spirit, some families will not be celebrating this year. One family is James Weigl’s, a soldier who returned home after deployment, suffered from depression, and ultimately took his own life. Forty-three percent of soldiers who commit suicide do so after returning home from deployment, demonstrating that follow-up care with soldiers after deployment is just as important as mental health treatment while in active duty.
ELECTRIC shock therapy is being used on deeply troubled Victorian teenagers in a last-ditch bid to cure their mental illness.
Documents obtained under Freedom of Information legislation reveal that eight juveniles and a further 107 young adults were given controversial electro-convulsive treatment in 2007-08. Story continues here ➤
A health watchdog has found serious failings in the treatment of a man with paranoid schizophrenia who went on to stab a vicar to death in 2007.
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former Sweetwater Hospital Association nurse filed a federal lawsuit against the hospital in 2008 claiming she was sexually harassed and subsequently fired in direct retaliation for refusing the sexual advances of the hospital’s CEO, Scott Bowman and another man.
Jessica Shell’s original lawsuit against the hospital, Bowman and 14 other hospital directors and employees claims the defendants violated the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, which protects employees from discrimination based on their gender.
Shell’s complaint also claims the defendants violated state statues guaranteeing protection against discrimination based on gender. Story continues here ➤
LIBRARIES are helping people suffering from mental health conditions, by recommending books offering them support.
Basildon and Thurrock libraries have teamed up with NHS South West Essex for the self-help programme, aimed at patients with mild anxiety and depression. Story continues here ➤
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Couples may be able to enhance one another’s health by being more physically affectionate with one another, new research in Psychosomatic Medicine shows.
Couples who underwent training in “warm touch enhancement” and practiced the technique at home had higher levels of oxytocin, also known as the “love hormone” and the “cuddle chemical,” while their levels of alpha amylase, a stress indicator, were reduced, Dr. Julianne Holt-Lunstad of Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City, Utah, and her colleagues found. Story continues here ➤
WASHINGTON — The congressional debate over health care has produced an unexpected recession windfall: a television advertising boom in the home states of pivotal lawmakers.
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Knox County Sheriff Jimmy “J.J.” Jones has said for years that the Knox County jail is not the best place to serve the mentally ill — many of whom are homeless — in our community.
He is right, of course, and now others are joining him to do something about it.
The county’s Criminal Justice Committee is proposing a solution that would cost $1.7 million yearly in operating costs, but committee members believe it will save money in the long run. Certainly it will aid those who do not need to be in jail, and it will help end what some have called a revolving door for the mentally ill homeless. Story continues here ➤
BENNINGTON — Two people police say are homeless were in Bennington District Court on Wednesday to answer charges.
John Kitteredge, 53, pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and was sentenced to serve 9 to 10 days in jail with credit for the two days he had been held.
The second person was a woman who said she had been living in her car for the past six months. She was charged with unlawful trespassing because of where she had her vehicle parked, but the ch Story continues here ➤
AstraZeneca plans to move all production of the vital molecules in its medicines offshore, mainly to China.
The pharmaceuticals company’s cost-cutting drive, which will continue for some years, means that it will cease to produce or source active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) in the UK Story continues here ➤
Since at least the time of Abraham Lincoln, presidents have sent letters of condolence to the families of service members killed in action, whether the deaths came by hostile fire or in an accident.
So after Gregg Keesling’s son killed himself in Iraq in June, he expected his family would receive a letter from President Barack Obama. What they got instead was a call from an Army official telling them that they were not eligible because their son had committed suicide.
One was a middle-aged man who refused to get into the shower. The other was a teenager who was afraid to get out.
The man, Leonard, a writer living outside Chicago, found himself completely unable to wash himself or brush his teeth. The teenager, Ross, growing up in a suburb of New York, had become so terrified of germs that he would regularly shower for seven hours. Each received a diagnosis of severe obsessive-compulsive disorder, or O.C.D., and for years neither felt comfortable enough to leave the house. Story continues here ➤
Hundreds of patients may have died needlessly at an NHS hospital due to appalling standards of care. Here are some of the patients affected:
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OVER the past 10 years, Australians have transformed their opinion of mental illness. We have come a long way in our understanding of mental illness and its causes.
Ten years ago, could you have imagined well-known people with public profiles talking so openly about their experiences with depression or bi-polar disorder? Story continues here ➤
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. debt that is topping $12 trillion is raising fresh questions about the cost of President Barack Obama’s proposed healthcare overhaul, but those concerns are unlikely to sink the legislation.
During his first term as governor, I asked Gov. Haley Barbour why he appeared to be dragging his feet on signing legislation to fund the state’s crisis mental health centers.
At the time, Barbour said he was concerned about the state’s per-capita mental health spending in comparison with the surrounding states. He said Mississippi’s spending was above the national average. Story continues here ➤
Psychologists say children thrive most when they’re cared for by their families. But often when Child Protective Services is called, it’s too late for the family to make changes and stay together.
A county-wide program is trying to change that.
A program called Differential Response is helping parents learn to better care for their kids and stay out of the CPS system for good. Kern County Network for Children rolled out the program in 2002, and took it county-wide two years ago; now it reaches 12,000 families every year. Story continues here ➤
POLICE COMMISSIONER Dan Saltzman suspended Portland Police Officer Christopher Humphreys, with pay, on Thursday, November 19—starting a vicious political dogfight with the Portland Police Association, the union representing over 900 rank-and-file officers.
Saltzman, who is up for reelection next spring, was already facing pressure to impose harsher discipline on Humphreys, the most controversial of three officers involved in the 2006 death in custody of James Chasse Jr., a man with schizophrenia. Story continues here ➤
YOUNG people who cut themselves and engage in other self-harming behaviour run a 40 per cent higher risk of being involved in a car crash, a NSW study suggests.
NEW YORK (AP) – New York City officials have agreed to pay $340,000 to an autistic man who spent a year in jail after he confessed to a murder he didn’t commit.
NEW YORK (AP) – New York City officials have agreed to pay $340,000 to an autistic man who spent a year in jail after he confessed to a murder he didn’t commit.
What is happening in the Fraser Health Region is shortsighted and wrong.
As a retired person I have been working as a trained volunteer at the Crisis Line in the Fraser Valley for over eight years. It really covers from Aldergrove to the Hope area. It is there for people 24 hours a day and seven days a week but effective April 2010 it will be closed. Story continues here ➤
Every morning the Bibb County Sheriff’s office gets to work to keep the number of people doing time in check.
“I haven’t overcrowded yet, I’ve still got 966 beds through the hard work of my staff back there,” said Bibb County Sheriff Jerry Modena. Story continues here ➤
A Los Angeles jury decided today that a homeless man convicted of killing an LAX officer in 2005 was sane at the time of the crime, paving the way for a likely sentence of life in prison without parole.
William Sadowski, 51, of Venice allegedly carjacked Officer Thomas Scott’s patrol vehicle, dragging the officer for a quarter-mile before hitting a fire hydrant and killing him. Authorities believed Sadowski may have been plotting to drive a vehicle onto the airfield at LAX and into an airplane.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The former CEO of a state psychiatric hospital has sued the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources and others, claiming officials abruptly demoted her last week because she had complained of gender discrimination and testified in court about the facility’s problems.
PORTLAND (NEWS CENTER) — Portland is not the only community these days that’s been having more run-ins between those with mental illness and the police.
Tuesday, Portland Police Chief James Craig held a news conference to urge the community to help him do something about the problem. He’s getting praise from Carol Carothers, the executive director for Maine’s chapter of NAMI, the National Alliance On Mental Illness. She said a lot of Maine police departments have noticed a similar problem Story continues here ➤
The national health reform bill passed by the House last month and the Senate version to be debated in early December pose no threat to current health care benefits provided to military families, retirees or veterans, say advocates for these beneficiaries as well as congressional committee staffs.
Exclusive The first person jailed under draconian UK police powers that Ministers said were vital to battle terrorism and serious crime has been identified by The Register as a schizophrenic science hobbyist with no previous criminal record.
An international team of researchers, led by the University of Edinburgh, compared genes of 2,000 psychiatric patients to 2,000 healthy people to pinpoint the ‘ABCA13′ gene.
They discovered it is partially inactive in patients suffering severe illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression. Story continues here ➤
Mental illness drags down Canada’s economic output by more than two per cent every year, according to the chief economist of the TD Bank.
In a speech to be delivered Wednesday afternoon in Toronto, Don Drummond pegs the loss to Canada’s economy from non-physical injuries at $33 billion annually. Story continues here ➤
Members of the San Jose community gathered this afternoon alongside the family and friends of a mentally ill man who was fatally shot by police on Mother’s Day to call for police accountability in his killing.
During his first term as governor, I asked Gov. Haley Barbour why he appeared to be dragging his feet on signing legislation to fund the state’s crisis mental health centers.
At the time, Barbour said he was concerned about the state’s per capita mental health spending in comparison with the surrounding states. He said that Mississippi’s spending was above the national average — something that’s rare for Mississippi in virtua Story continues here ➤
Kaleb Drew, a first-grader with autism with severe speech and developmental delays in central Illinois, recently received some good news from a county judge: His best friend, Chewey, a 70-pound yellow Labrador retriever, who has been his constant companion in school since August, would be allowed to continue to accompany him to school every day. Story continues here ➤
Humphreys also faces a proposed two-week suspension stemming from his role in the September 2006 death of James Chasse Jr., who suffered from schizophrenia.
PORTLAND, Ore. — A protest march drew hundreds of Portland police to City Hall. They wore T-shirts proclaiming their support for embattled Officer Chris Humphreys. Story continues here ➤