New York violated mental health consumers' rights, judge rules

A federal judge has ruled that the state of New York violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by placing thousands of mentally ill consumers in nursing homes rather than community housing.
According to the Associated Press on September 8, U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis of Brooklyn ruled that the state violated the rights of more than 4,300 mentally ill citizens. According to the judge, the ADA requires the state to house people "in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs."
The judge found that the plaintiff, the nonprofit Disability Advocates, had proven that most of the mentally ill consumers could live in supportive housing.
Observers stated that some of the most key testimony came from Dr. Kenneth Duckworth, medical director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. He testified, in essence, that nursing homes were more restrictive than mental hospitals of the past.Sphere: Related Content
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NIMH unveils largest ever military study of suicide

Why has the suicide rate of US soldiers risen over the last few years to match that of comparable civilians? The Army has thus far pointed to the failure of marital and other significant relationships as the leading cause of service personnel suicides. That answer hasn't proven satisfactory to many observers and personnel, so the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has selected four research universities to dig deeper into the causes of the climbing numbers.
The new research will be "searching for likely, but weakly linked, risk factors that in combination might create different risk states over time," according to Robert Heinssen, PhD, acting director of the Division of Services and Intervention Research at NIMH.
The project will be the largest study in history on military personnel and suicide. For more information, visit Psychiatric News or NIMH.
PHOTO: Steven AanenSphere: Related Content
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Virginia Tech gunman's records point to systemic inadequacies

The mental health records of Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho were released this afternoon to much fanfare. The records, however, revealed little in terms of clinical substance, as the Washington Post indicated today.Sphere: Related Content
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New York's assisted outpatient treatment revisited

The publication of a Duke University Study on assisted outpatient treatment in New York, known as Kendra's Law, and the June 30 report from the New York Office of Mental Health (OMH) has put the law back in the spotlight. WSJ blogger Shirley Wang tackled the issue today, asking "Does Court-Ordered Treatment for Mental Health Work?" So does it?
The answer, from Duke Univerity researchers and New York's official report, is a resounding yes. The OMH reported that the process resulted in a "substantial reduction in the number of psychiatric hospitalizations and in days in the hospital if a person is hospitalized." Their report also found that, "AOT reduces the likelihood of being arrested."
The New York report also found, "AOT recipients are far more likely to consistently receive psychotropic medications appropriate to their psychiatric conditions. Case managers of AOT recipients also report subjective improvements in many areas of personal functioning, such as managing appointments, medications, and self-care tasks."
One emotionally charged issue has been the racial disparities between blacks and whites in court-ordered treatment. In 2005, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest presented demographic data which demonstrated that African Americans were overrepresented in the AOT program. The OMH report acknowedged this, stating, "We find that the overrepresentation of African Americans in the AOT Program is a function of African Americans’ higher likelihood of being poor, higher likelihood of being uninsured, higher likelihood of being treated by the public mental health system (rather than by private mental health professionals), and higher likelihood of having a history of psychiatric hospitalization."Sphere: Related Content
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Feds want Medicaid money back

When needing mental health treatment, many of the nation's poor have been turned away at the door. A new move by the federal government may lock them out entirely, at least in Texas.
According to a story in today's Houston Chronicle, the feds have required the state to repay them $1.67 million in Medicaid reimbursements for inpatient psychiatric care. Medicaid does not provide for adults living in psychiatric institutions.
About 200 psychiatrists and institutions in the state received notices from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission in June requesting the return of reimbursements from 2001 to 2007. A few individual practitioners received bills for $40,000 and one medical group was hit with a $130,000 demand, according to the article.
Will other states be next?Sphere: Related Content
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