The Mental Health Social Worker

Statement by David Shern, Ph.D., President and CEO of Mental Health America

ALEXANDRIA, VA. (July 1, 2008)-The reports today of the death of a mental health patient in the Kings County Hospital psychiatric emergency room are deeply troubling and demand further investigation to determine the root cause of this incident.  Given the problems that were first raised in a federal lawsuit filed a year ago, it should also spur greater scrutiny of the hospital’s administration and practices.

Mental Health America’s fear is that this incident reflects a broader public attitude that devalues individuals with severe mental health conditions who are served in public systems.   We call on people who share our abhorrence at these acts to continue to combat the ignorance and discrimination that still exists toward people with mental illnesses.  If appropriately treated people, even with the most severe illnesses, can and will recover.  Hope and respect are central components of this treatment.  Devaluing people further prolongs their disability and likely contributes to the 25 years of lost life for persons with severe mental illnesses that are served in public systems. 

This incident is also a tragic illustration of systemic problems in public mental health, where needed mental health care is too often provided as a last resort instead of a first response, and where medical problems too often go unrecognized and untreated.   

Those systemic problems go far deeper than breakdowns in psychiatric emergency services.  By their very nature, emergency services are not adequate alternatives for the many people whose illness could be managed before it becomes a crisis

Rather, this tragic incident underscores a real crisis in mental health service-delivery - the failure to invest adequately in early-intervention and other community-based services and supports, even as hospitals have reduced psychiatric bed capacity.  The facts are that over two-thirds of adults and over half of children with a diagnosable mental health condition do not receive the mental health treatment and services they need.  At the same time, people with serious mental illnesses served in the public system die, on average, 25 years early from preventable health problems such as heart disease and diabetes. 

As we discuss and debate “health care reform,” these shocking data highlight the importance of making mental health reform a key component of needed health reform. 

Mental Health America is the country’s leading nonprofit dedicated to helping all people live mentally healthier lives.  With our more than 320 affiliates nationwide, we represent a growing movement of Americans who promote mental wellness for the health and well-being of the nation - everyday and in times of crisis.

Contact: Steve Vetzner (703) 797-2588 or svetzner@mentalhealthamerica.net

ARLINGTON, Va.-The reported death of a woman at King’s County Hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y., illustrates the dire need for more public services for individuals with mental illness, according to the American Psychiatric Association.

According to news reports, a woman who was suffering from agitation and psychosis, was kept waiting in the emergency room for almost 24 hours because the hospital reportedly did not have a bed available for psychiatric patients. She collapsed onto the floor and then lay there for approximately one hour before emergency room personnel tried to revive her. Tragically, the woman died of causes that have yet to be determined. (more…)

ScienceDaily (May 7, 2008) — A team of McGill University scientists has discovered important differences between the brains of suicide victims and so-called normal brains. Although the genetic sequence was identical in the suicide and non-suicide brains, there were differences in their epigenetic marking – a chemical coating influenced by environmental factors.

More…

The Midwestern Higher Education Compact has just released The Ripple Effect of Virginia Tech, a report detailing what policies colleges have implemented as a result of the tragic events in Blacksburg, Virginia in April 2007. Most notable has been the expansion and perfection of emergency notification systems. Less visible or detectable this early after the tragedy are changes to admission procedures and other strategies for recognizing and responding to student behavior.

Details…

Arlington, Va. - The American Psychiatric Association (APA) applauds House passage of the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act, which overhauls key features in Medicare coverage of treatment for mental health, most notably by reducing the discriminatory 50 percent coinsurance patients must pay for outpatient mental health services to the same 20 percent co-payment charged for all other Medicare Part B services. The House passed H.R. 6331 by a vote of 355 to 59.

(more…)

Washington—Today, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a precedent-setting 5-4 decision, reversing a May 2007 ruling of the Supreme Court of Louisiana, and holding that the imposition of the death penalty for child rape violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. 

The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and its Louisiana Chapter filed an amicus curiae brief in Kennedy v. Louisiana (https://www.socialworkers.org/assets/secured/
documents/ldf/briefDocuments/Kennedy%20v.%20Louisiana.pdf)  arguing that the death penalty for child rape harms the victims it is intended to help.  The Court adopted the reasoning in NASW’s brief as support for its conclusion that the death penalty is a disproportionate consequence for a crime that does not result in the death of the victim.  NASW was joined on the brief by several coalitions of sexual assault treatment providers from across the nation.  (more…)

For the first time, researchers show that preventive treatment with an antidepressant medication or talk therapy can significantly reduce the risk or delay the start of depression following an acute stroke, according to a study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health. These findings differ from past studies attempting to prevent poststroke depression. The study appears in the May 28, 2008, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. (more…)

Drug-related cues may sway adolescent preference more strongly

 

---

Washington — New drug research suggests that teens may get addicted and relapse more easily than adults because developing brains are more powerfully motivated by drug-related cues. This conclusion has been reached by researchers who found that adolescent rats given cocaine – a powerfully addicting stimulant – were more likely than adults to prefer the place where they got it. That learned association endured: Even after experimenters extinguished the drug-linked preference, a small reinstating dose of cocaine appeared to rekindle that preference – but only in the adolescent rats. (more…)

Scans Hint at Why It Can Be Unhealthy Even at the Top

Human imaging studies have for the first time identified brain circuitry associated with social status, according to researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) of the National Institutes of Health. They found that different brain areas are activated when a person moves up or down in a pecking order – or simply views perceived social superiors or inferiors. Circuitry activated by important events responded to a potential change in hierarchical status as much as it did to winning money.

“Our position in social hierarchies strongly influences motivation as well as physical and mental health,” said NIMH Director Thomas R Insel, M.D. “This first glimpse into how the brain processes that information advances our understanding of an important factor that can impact public health.” (more…)

News Date: 04/06/2008
Outlet: Philadelphia Inquirer
Contact: Cook, Bonnie

Scott S. Metheny’s presentation on the choking game starts with a 911 call.

Hi, I have an emergency, a distressed boy can be heard telling the operator. My little brother might be dead.

OK, why do you think he’s dead? the operator asks.

Because there’s a rope around his neck tied to a bunk bed, and he’s all purple and stuff, the crying child says.

There’s a shocked silence in the Upper Moreland Middle School auditorium in Hatboro as Metheny, an Upper Moreland Township patrolman, drives home his point.

The taped young voice belongs to Samuel Mordecai, 13, of Paradise, Calif. On May 6, 2005, he found the body of his twin brother, Gabriel, who had strangled himself while playing the choking game. (more…)

Five Organizations Receive APA’s Psychologically Healthy Workplace Awards, Nine Honored for Best Practices

Washington—Feeling overworked, underpaid, worried about job security and making ends meet, three-fourths of Americans say they are stressed about work and money. But workplaces that invest in the well-being of employees reap rewards for employer and employees alike, including benefits such as reduced stress, lower employee turnover and enhanced organizational performance.

At a ceremony in Washington DC yesterday, the American Psychological Association (APA) recognized five organizations for their comprehensive efforts to promote employee health and well-being, while enhancing organizational performance. (more…)

After the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a “black box” warning on antidepressant medications, Nebraskan doctors began prescribing fewer antidepressant medications to children and teens and referring more patients to specialists, according to a state survey. The study, which involved NIMH-funded researchers, was published in the February 2008 issue of the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology. (more…)

The Pew Public Safety Performance Project tells us that for the first time in U.S. history, more than one in 100 adults are now confined in a jail or prison. These steadily increasing numbers are placing enormous restraints on available human and fiscal resources in states and communities and the increase seems to be having no effect on overall crime and recidivism.

Solutions offered as policy levers for states are also presented in the report. These options require strong community corrections programs to ensure offenders remain crime and drug-free and may have implications for present and future counselors working with the incarcerated offenders and those on probation.

Details…

Teens with difficult-to-treat depression who do not respond to a first antidepressant medication are more likely to get well if they switch to another antidepressant medication and add psychotherapy rather than just switching to another antidepressant, according to a large, multi-site trial funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The results of the Treatment of SSRI-resistant Depression in Adolescents (TORDIA) trial were published February 27, 2008, in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). (more…)

Doctors spend little time discussing mental health issues with their older patients and rarely refer them to a mental health specialist even if they show symptoms of severe depression, according to an NIMH-funded study published December 2007 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

People age 65 and older represent 12 percent of the U.S. population, but they accounted for a disproportionate 16 percent of suicide deaths in 2004.¹ Improved mental health screening in primary care may improve detection and treatment of mental disorders before drastic consequences, such as suicide, can occur. (more…)

Information contained in January release of the Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) indicate five substances accounted for 96 percent of all TEDS admissions in 2006: alcohol (40 percent); opiates (18 percent, primarily heroin); marijuana/hashish (16 percent); cocaine (14 percent); and stimulants (9 percent, primarly methamphetamines).

Click Here for the Full Report

U.S. Population Projections: 2005-2050

by Jeffrey Passel and D’Vera Cohn, Pew Research Center
February 11, 2008

Executive Summary

If current trends continue, the population of the United States will rise to 438 million in 2050, from 296 million in 2005, and 82% of the increase will be due to immigrants arriving from 2005 to 2050 and their U.S.-born descendants, according to new projections developed by the Pew Research Center. (more…)

More residents affected by Hurricane Katrina are enduring mental disorders than was initially determined a few months after the storm, according to a study published online January 8, 2008, in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.  The trend runs counter to the typical pattern of recovery after a natural disaster, in which the prevalence of mental disorders among the survivors gradually decreases and fades out after about two years. (more…)