Clipmarks | dmegivern's 'health' clips

Jr Miss Pageant Valued More than Proper Care

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:05:10 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern
clipper's remarks: I almost never hear "pro-life" people balk at the horrific lives lived by the mentally ill in our country. If only we could put them back in the womb.

Clip Source: psychcentral.com

Creative Funding Solutions for Mental Health Care

Clip Source: psychcentral.com

Historically, mental-health funding has been a low political priority. In Wyatt v. Stickney, the country’s first major civil-rights battle about mental illness, attorneys sued Alabama and introduced horrific evidence that showed how patients in state asylums in the 1970s were being abused, neglected, and, in some cases, tortured. Yet, when a disgusted Alabama judge ordered the state legislature to overhaul its shameful system by pumping in millions of new tax dollars for improvements, legislators balked. They cried poor. There was no money, they insisted, until an enterprising attorney released state financial records that revealed Alabama was spending more each year to host the Alabama Junior Miss Pageant and swine shows at county fairs than it spent caring for people with mental illnesses.

Read the full article: Finding Funding

Tags: mentally ill, neglect, abuse

State Suicide Rates are Linked to MH Services

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:08:23 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern

Clip Source: www.mentalhealthamerica.net

Lost productive time among U.S. workers due to depression is estimated to be in excess of $31 billion per year. Depression frequently co-occurs with a variety of medical illnesses such as heart disease, cancer, and chronic pain and is associated with poorer health status and prognosis. It is also the principal cause of the 30,000 suicides in the U.S. each year. In 2004, suicide was the 11^th leading cause of death in the United States, third among individuals 15-24.

Download the full report (PDF)

The four measures were: (1) the percentage of the adult population experiencing at least one major depressive episode in the past year, (2) the percentage of the adolescent population (ages 12 to 17) experiencing at least one major depressive episode in the past year, (3) the percentage of the adult population experiencing serious psychological distress, and (4) the average number of days in the past 30 days in which the population reported that their mental health was not good.

Tags: suicide, mental illness, depression, states

Trust Leads to Better Health

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:40:49 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern

Clip Source: psychcentral.com

Trust Leads to Better Health

Clip Source: psychcentral.com

“Social trust, sense of belonging and community participation were each significantly associated with health outcomes,” the researchers found.

Physical health — as reported by the study participants —“remained significantly associated with social trust” even among twins.

“The relationship between social capital and health is complex,” said Mark LaGory, chairman of the sociology department at University of Alabama at Birmingham.

“There are a lot of intervening variables.” In lower-income neighborhoods, he said, “social capital, instead of indicating a body of resources people can draw on, represents a body of obligations that others can draw from.”

One way of thinking about it: “People that are deeply connected with the local neighborhood are bearing not only their own poverty, but everyone else’s [poverty],” LaGory said.

Tags: trust, health

Where's the Private Sector?

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 23:09:49 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern
clipper's remarks: Minnesota governor cuts services to poorest, most vulnerable. For some reason, no private sector businesses or associations have stepped up to pay for their care.

Clip Source: www.naswmn.org

Health Care Reform: The Good News and the Bad News

Governor Pawlenty proposed balancing the budget on the backs of the state’s poorest individuals by raiding the Health Care Access Fund and cutting health and human services. Leadership battled with the governor most of the session and finalized a budget deal in the last remaining hours. So what happened?

Well, good news first:

A Health Care Reform bill was passed that MPR says will provide more information about medical payments, reward doctors for treating chronic illness, and reduce overall state health care costs 10-15% by 2015. MinnesotaCare eligibility was expanded by 12,000 people and nursing homes will get a much-needed 2% increase in their cost of living funding.

And the bad news:

Approximately $170 million was cut from the health and human services budget for next year and $206 million in the following biennium.

“This bill takes most of the cuts from the most vulnerable people: the elderly, the disabled, the sick and the poor.”

Tags: privatization, medicaid, minnesota

Congressman Turns Down Health Insurance

Mon, 12 May 2008 23:58:15 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern
clipper's remarks: He is working to see that all uninsured Americans get coverage before he will accept it.

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

An Uninsured Doctor in the House

When Steve Kagen became a member of Congress, he declined health insurance coverage. Now he has a plan to provide it for everyone

One of the first things U.S. Rep. Steve Kagen (D–Wisc.) did when he took office last year was to nix his congressional health care coverage. The move stunned a human resources staffer, who, the lawmaker says, looked at him as though he were insane.

Kagen, 58, is now one of millions of Americans, including at least nine million children, without health insurance. "I have absolutely no health coverage at all," he told ScientificAmerican.com during a recent interview. "I have no health conditions and am pretty darn healthy." And if he gets sick? "I'd be just like the 47 [million] to 50 million American citizens who don't have coverage," he says, "and I'd have to negotiate with hospitals and doctors for the best-priced coverage."

Tags: healthcare, insurance

How Does Your State Rate?

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 22:51:14 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern
clipper's remarks: Depression levels by state

Clip Source: www.nmha.org

The Ranking of the States

State Ranking on Suicide Rates

South Dakota was the healthiest state with respect to depression status.

Utah was the most depressed state.

The Five Factors Affecting Depression Status

Mental health resources -

Barriers to treatment -

Mental health treatment utilization -

Socioeconomic characteristics -

Mental health parity -

Factors That Influence State Mental Health Status and Suicide Rates

Attempts to Profit off Mentally Ill Fail in NC

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 16:21:43 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern
clipper's remarks: I've said it before and I will say it again and again, you cannot make a profit off of people with serious mental illness.

Clip Source: www.charlotte.com

Director exits as critics hit N.C. mental health system's poor service, runaway costs

A recent overhaul of the system, which cares for 350,000 people, left seriously mentally ill people without community care. In the last two years, the state has spent too much on a basic mental health service provided by private companies; meanwhile, reviews determined that thousands getting the service didn't need it. And in the last year, investigators found problems at all four of the state's mental hospitals.

But in the early years of Moseley's tenure, the system of private providers failed to develop in communities. Meanwhile, local mental health offices complied with a mandate to stop treating patients. People seeking short-term care overwhelmed state hospitals.

When the community treatment network started to bloom in early 2006, private companies rushed to provide a basic but costly service called community support. Costs exploded while people who needed more intensive treatment could not find it.

Teens Views of Health Affected by Social Class

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:26:34 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

Social class may affect teens' view of their health

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - When it comes to defining good health, low-income teenagers may put more stock in mental well-being than wealthier teens do, a new study suggests.

The study, of 1,157 U.S. children ages 12 to 15, was partially aimed at confirming a phenomenon seen in earlier research -- that teenagers' views of their own general health are often out of sync with their parents' views.

But the study also found that families' views differed according to income. Among higher-income families, children's and parents' health ratings depended on physical health factors -- such as how often the child had been sick in the past month, or the number of missed school days in the past year.

For low-income families, physical health mattered, but so did mental health. In general, teenagers who had seen a mental health professional in the past year gave better ratings to their overall health than other low-income teens did.

Socialized Medicine as the Bogey Man

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:18:14 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern
clipper's remarks: Anti social does not mean that you do not like to be around people. It means that you enjoy violating the rights of others. Health care should be a right, and I would prefer if it were pro-social medicine.

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

U.S. split on "socialized medicine": poll

BOSTON (Reuters) - Most Democrats say "socialized medicine" would be better than the current U.S. health care system, while most Republicans say it would be worse, a poll by the Harvard School of Public Health showed on Thursday.

The survey did not provide a definition of that term and one in three voters said they did not understand it. But more than 70 percent said they understood it to mean "the government makes sure everyone has health insurance".

Nationwide, about 45 percent of respondents said they believed such a system would be better for the country, while 39 percent said it would be worse, according to the poll of 1,030 voters surveyed Feb 6-10.

About 70 percent of Republicans said socialized medicine would be worse than the current system, while the same percentage of Democrats said it would be better.

Military Stigma of Mental Illness Problematic

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 18:29:14 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern

Clip Source: psychcentral.com

Mental Health Stigma Continues in Military

Clip Source: psychcentral.com

A new research study finds the stigma accompanying mental health disorders persists in the military. In a study of over 8,400 Canadian troops, mental disorders ranging from depression to alcoholism were unreported because of a variety of barriers. “Our findings show more than half of the military members with a mental disorder do not use any of the mental health services available to them,” says lead author Deniz Fikretoglu, an expert in posttraumatic stress disorder, at McGill University.

“Foremost among barriers is a failure to acknowledge any need for services and mistrust of military administrative health and social services,” he said, adding that further impediments identified were the belief that a condition is temporary or the inability to identify a problem as a mental illness.

Feelings About Your Weight affect Health

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 18:26:03 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern

Clip Source: psychcentral.com

Body Image Predicts Health

Clip Source: psychcentral.com

A new study suggests that individuals who want to weigh less are in fact more likely to be mentally or physically unhealthy than those who are content with their body image. Surprisingly, the angst surrounding desired body weight was more of a predictor of “unhealthy” days than body mass index (BMI). In the study, researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health also found that the desire to lose weight was more predictive of unhealthy days among Whites than among African-Americans or Hispanics, and among women than among men.

There is evidence that discrimination against heavy people is pervasive, occurring in social settings, the workplace, and the home.

Concussion Raises PTSD Risk for Vets

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 16:45:53 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern

Clip Source: healthday.com

Concussion Raises PTSD Risk for Iraq Vets

Study found loss of consciousness increased chances of trauma the most

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 30 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers report that soldiers who have suffered concussions during their time in Iraq are more likely to experience post-traumatic stress disorder and other physical health problems.

"There was indeed a higher rate of PTSD and/or health problems among those who had concussions versus those with other injuries," said study author Dr. Christopher Hoge, director of psychiatry and neuroscience at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, in Washington, D.C. His study is published in the Jan. 31 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Head and neck injuries have been reported in one quarter of troops evacuated from these areas. The proportion of soldiers with concussion may be as high as 18 percent.

Visit the government's National Center for PTSD for more on this condition.

Health Disclosures on Social Networks

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 17:01:40 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern
clipper's remarks: Apparently, what you say can be held against you in a court of health benefits

Clip Source: psychcentral.com

Think Social Networks, Blogs Can’t Hurt You?

Clip Source: psychcentral.com

When you share and disclose aspects of your personal health with the world, it is something very different than when you share and disclose your favorite books or hobbies or musical groups. They are not the same thing. Books, music and your favorite movie star can’t be used against you (well, at least not until Big Brother takes hold). But your personal health information can.

So here we see that a child’s Myspace, blog or LiveJournal entries are going to be used to determine whether their families will have to pay for treatment or not (if they even can afford to do so).

Yes, that’s right: Your online writings could be used in a determination made for or against approval of coverage of your treatment.

Pick what you share with others publicly carefully.

Consider choosing a private journal or blog over a public one.

Be wary, not paranoid.

Investigate a social network or community before sharing.

PTSD triples in the Military

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 21:01:17 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern

Clip Source: psychcentral.com

PTSD Triples Among Military

Clip Source: psychcentral.com

Self-reported post-traumatic stress disorder has elevated 3-fold among combat-exposed military personnel since 2001, according to a study reported in the British Medical Journal. In response to concerns on the health impact of military deployment, researchers in San Diego analyzed the effect of deployment on over 50,000 military personnel who were taking part in the Millennium Cohort Study (a large 22-year study of the health of US military personnel).

These data show overall new incidence rates of 10 to 13 cases per 1000 person years and suggest a threefold increase in new onset self reported post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms or diagnosis among recently deployed military personnel with combat exposures, say the authors.

Identifying personnel with symptoms early may lead to a smaller burden of the disorder in the years to come if appropriate and timely treatments are provided.

Health Care Costs Again Outpace Inflation

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 23:10:46 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

Health-spending growth up slightly in '06: government

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Annual growth in U.S. health-care spending increased slightly in 2006 and continued to outpace inflation and the nation's overall economic growth, government researchers said in a report released on Tuesday.

Total U.S. health-care spending hit $2.1 trillion in 2006, a 6.7 percent rise from 2005, analysts with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) said. That was up from a 6.5 percent increase in 2005 and amounted to $7,026 per person.

By comparison, the overall U.S. economy grew by 6.1 percent and inflation was recorded at 3.2 percent in 2006.

About half of the cost increase was due to more use of prescription drugs, which the researchers attributed partly to Medicare's new coverage. Insomnia drugs experienced faster growth than any other class, the report said. Continued...