Parity bills at Critical point

Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law <bazelon@mail.democracyinaction.org> wrote:
Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2007 17:32:19 -0500 (EST)
From: Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law <bazelon@mail.democracyinaction.org>
To: stants201@sbcglobal.net
Subject: Action Alert: It's Time for Parity

Help Make Mental Health Parity a Reality!
You and other advocates across the country did good work! Broad support for
ending health-care discrimination helped pave the way for this year's unanimous
Senate passage of S. 558 and approval by three committees of H.R. 1424, the
Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Equity Addiction Act of 2007. (See the Bazelon
Center's latest Mental Health Policy Reporter for a side-by-side chart).
However, few legislative days remain. Lawmakers need your support to enact
meaningful mental health parity legislation this year. The message is clear.
Without delay, Congress must assign priority to mental health parity that
will help millions of Americans.
Fuel the momentum. Phone or email your Senators and Representative today.
Go to congress.org and enter the name or the house and your state to find your
lawmaker's phone number. If you can't phone and must use email, click on
the link to the member's own website and email through the link there (outside
emails are often ignored!).
Please keep the heat on and demand enactment of a strong parity bill this year.

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Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
1101 15th Street, NW, Suite 1212
Washington, DC 20005

Phone: 202-467-5730
Fax: 202-223-0409
Email: webmaster@bazelon.org

Tamiflu Warning To Include Psychiatric Effects Could Be Due To Flu

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Pediatric Advisory Committee recommended to the agency yesterday, Tuesday 27th November, that makers of the flu drug Tamiflu be urged to change the drug's warning label to include the fact that the psychiatric symptoms experienced by children on the drug could be caused by having the flu.

.....

According to a report in WebMD, the FDA panel's vote was 8 to 6, and reflected the agency's uncertainty about whether the drug or the condition led to nearly 600 reported psychiatric incidents worldwide, most of them in Japan, since the drug was introduced. The incidents, of which 20 per cent were in the US, included self-harming behaviour, delirium and suicide attempts. 25 of them were fatal, with 3 of the deaths being in the US.

The drug's warning label was changed last year following reports of psychiatric symptoms in patients taking the drug. But the panel is not asking for the warnings to be removed, only that information is added to explain that the symptoms could be caused by the flu itself.

Wayne PSS Training

from Gerald Butler

11/26/2007

The first Peer Support Specialist training to be held in Wayne County was completed Friday the 9^th of this month at St. Paul’s Retreat, and hopefully there will be many more to come. Veda Sharp (Detroit-Wayne County Mental Health) and Michelle Vasconcellos (Customer Services Director) presented certificates on Thursday just after dinner. The entire movement towards "Recovery with Dignity” has taken a giant step into the future. Through Peer Support we are now able to turn our poisonous past experiences into medicine to help heal others who are where we used to be. The only downer was that the person who was most instrumental in bringing Peer Support to Michigan ‘Irene Kazieczko’ could not attend due to ill health. That’s okay because at least we know she was there in spirit.

Friday, the 16^th was the Recovery Council meeting at which it was announced that Wayne County CMH and the Guidance Center have been awarded the ‘Virtual Center of Excellence’ grant. I spoke with Kari Walker (Dir. of Programs) and David Cherry (Program Development) of the Guidance Center, both of whom promised to put consumers first, so this was exciting news. The afternoon was filled with Yale University’s Dr. Pricilla Ridgeway’s (Pathways to Recovery) presentation titled “Implementation of Recovery Enhancing Environments” and it was super. Dr. Ridgeway has developed a method of enhancing the recovery process that everyone (from the consumer to the Physician) can utilize, raising the odds of a successful recovery journey. Even her satisfaction survey is unique in that it forces us to consider how much we are contributing to our own recovery.

Someone suggested it might not be a wise idea for consumers to have confidence in such lofty ideas as successful recovery. The Michigan Department of Community Health gave us Person Centered Planning and today Michigan is a national model of that program. Michigan’s WRAP program, also championed by MDCH, is providing consumers across the State with vital tools needed in the recovery process and it too is showing promise of becoming a national model. Larry Fricks and Ike Powell, the designers of Peer Support, have offered their highest praise and excitement for our efforts here in the State. Every member of the Recovery Council is more than capable of telling the difference between beneficial and non-beneficial methods. Taking all these things into consideration, I feel every consumer in the State can and should have faith and trust in Dr. Ridgeway’s “Pathways to Recovery”. After all, when it comes to making our dreams a reality, MDCH has not let us down so far and I don’t feel they are about to start.

The consumer band ‘Recovery’ gig for ‘Corrections to Work’ at the Charles H. Wright Museum was not only a hit, but we demonstrated that consumers are capable of giving back to the community. It has been my experience that it takes years for any band to play such a venue, yet we have been together a mere 8 months. By applying peer support to everything we do: our rehearsals become more productive, we demonstrate to other consumers and society that we can and do recover, because we know each others story, we develop an appreciation and respect for each other uncommon in most other bands. We like to consider ourselves as Peer Support in the flesh.

Yes, the Freedom Train has left the station and more and more folks, consumers and professionals alike, are climbing on board daily. HOPE, is what we live for, it is why we arise in the mornings. Consumers in Michigan have every reason to have hope and trust in the future.

Ideas on Treating Schizophrenia Have Come Full Circle

[Updated] Ideas about treating schizophrenia seem to be gradually coming full circle. What began as little more than blaming, shaming and confining, evolved over hundreds years into a state policy of institutional care with "humane treatment". Over the next hundred years treatment has evolved into primarily a highly professionalized medication regime with an inconsistently available community based supports.

Now there is evidence that early intervention in the course of schizophrenia with psychotherapy, medication, and consistently applied community based supports may sometimes prevent the usual long-term permanent disability. Medication alone is not sufficient treatment. What has always been assumed as a manifestation of the illness, may in fact be a by-product of a paternalistic and de-humanizing treatment by the community and service agencies as well as isolation due to the pervasive experience of stigma and discrimination by the individual.

Mental health parity can boost productivity and retention

Forging their own path, some employers are providing mental health parity in their employee benefits plans without it being required by law, while legislators in Congress and statehouses continue to debate mental health parity bills. What's more, companies are finding that parity improves productivity and retention.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp., a Houston-based oil exploration and production company, has provided mental health parity for years - meaning that the mental health coverage is equivalent to the medical coverage when it comes to visit limits, deductibles, copayments, lifetime benefit limits and annual benefit limits.

Congressional Negotiators Hitting Roadblocks On Mental Health Parity Legislation

Sponsors of the House and Senate versions of legislation (HR 1424 and S 558) that would require most health insurers to provide equal levels of coverage for physical and mental illnesses are "bumping up against" conflicts in negotiations that could "thwart" the bill's passage this year, CongressDaily reports. Over the last month, House sponsors Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) and Jim Ramstad (R-Minn.) have met with Senate sponsors Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) to discuss possible compromises. "We are at a delicate point in the negotiations," Ramstad said (Johnson, CongressDaily, 11/19).

Brainstormdocumentary

Interesting recovery site. Large scale, flamboyant layout. Worth a look...

UCC Mental Illness Network

n 1992 the Mental Illness Network began with a grant from the then American Missionary Association of the United Church of Christ. We began as a response to the need for families and others to communicate among themselves about their experiences as families, and in congregations. We are, therefore, a network and not a committee.

You, who are the Network, are in hundreds of congregations. You are the ones in touch with families who need support and understanding. You are the ones doing street ministry with the homeless, writing newsletters for your church, running a drop-in center, doing displays for Association/Conference meetings, providing transportation to appointments and a dozen other things. You are the families caring for loved ones experiencing a mental illness, and some of you are those persons. It is a moving experience to be in touch with you and know something of what you are doing.

Every two years there is a Network display at our national General Synod meeting. This display reaches out to new people and is a witness to our National and Conference Staff about this important ministry. We collaborate with Disabilities Ministries on various projects such as (twice a year) an insert in the UC News.

Shannon: My Story

My illness began to take its effect on me about 8 or 9 years ago. I managed to get by until around 6 years ago, when I was 43. I had been working an impossible job as a restaurant manager for 23 years and at about the same time my husband asked for a divorce. We had been married 27 years. That was it. I broke. I was hospitalized for a month, two weeks before Christmas and three weeks before my son’s wedding. Fortunately they arranged temporary release for me during Christmas and so I could attend my son’s wedding.....

Good News for Writers?

While the news of Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader could signal a changing trend in the way that readers consume their information, unremarked upon is how the rise of the e-book reader will eventually change the world for writers.

If readers can download books into their Kindle (or Sony Reader), what’s to stop them from cutting out the middleman and downloading directly from an author?

What’s happening to the news media (blogs vs. newspapers) and music (free downloads vs. buying a CD) and video (YouTube or downloads vs. buying a DVD) will happen with novels: the middleman will become unnecessary.

Currently, it is extremely difficult to get a novel published.