Costs, Consequences, and Cures!!! An Assessment of the Impact of Severe Mental Health and Substance Abuse Disorders on Business Activity in Texas and the Anticipated Economic and Fiscal Return on Investment in Expanded Mental Health Services
The benefits from implementing a $20 million hypothetical jail diversion program would include a positive net annual impact of $1.074 billion in total expenditures and 6,420 permanent jobs. The yearly increment to State tax receipts that could be expected was calculated to be $53.964 million, or a return of $2.70 per dollar of investment and $53.71 in overall benefit.
A primary goal of the Mental Health Transformation effort in Texas is to make the mental health system consumer and family focused. The Department of State Health Services (DSHS) has allocated funding to establish a mental health consumer, family, and youth training and technical assistance center through a contract with Mental Health America of Texas and the National Alliance for Mental Illness-Texas.
Nominations are being accepted for members of a 15-member advisory committee that will define the role and scope of this training and technical assistance center. The majority of committee members will be consumers, family members and youth. The remainder will be other individuals in the mental health field who are committed to achieving consumer-focused transformation. Nomination forms are due by June 1, 2009. To request the nomination form or more information, call (512) 454-3706, Ext. 204, or email Kathi@mhatexas.org.
From My S.A. Nicholas Gonzalez, who comes from a San Antonio family of doctors, will soon be playing one on TV.
The Central Catholic High graduate portrays a first-year resident in a mental health ward in Fox's new summer medical-mystery drama, "Mental."
Gonzalez called the series groundbreaking.
"For the first time, we have a drama that delves into the head, the psyche, the subconscious of patients, rather than just giving us reactions from the doctors," he said in a phone chat from Los Angeles.
For instance, in one episode, a woman who suffers from the fear of water clutches the side of a hospital pool. When she's asked if she's ready to go underwater, we see what she sees: a frightening ocean of high waves and sharks.
Each episode of the Tuesday night series presents a new puzzle for the doctors to solve.
"Mental," which debuts at 8 p.m. May 26 on Fox, is one of many new and returning shows coming viewers' way this summer. Lots of reality shows will fill the warmer months, along with a sprinkling of scripted comedies and dramas.
The season also is known for taking more chances and introducing quirkier characters, such as "Mental's" Dr. Jack Gallagher (Britain's Chris Vance, "Prison Break") a radically unorthodox psychiatrist who becomes the new director of mental health services at an L.A. hospital.
Take Jack's entrance: As a naked delusional patient violently confronts the staff, Jack strips down to nothing as well to gain the patient's trust.
"Jack's got this edge to him," Gonzalez said, "he ramps it up and says let's screw the system a bit."
Gonzalez's character, Dr. Arturo Suarez, is the only one who likes Jack from the beginning and takes his side. Arturo also has his colorful moments. He's a bit scruffy with a light beard and confident to the point of being cocky. He's forever hitting on fellow resident Chloe (Marisa Ramirez) even though she's gay.
In a future episode, a woman who's addicted to sex checks into the ward, and "Arturo is forced to take a little of his own medicine," Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez gets back to his hometown whenever possible to visit his family, mom Sylvia Mosier and dad Dr. John Gonzalez, a prominent S.A. dermatologist.
Much of his time recently was spent in Bogota, Colombia, where the bulk of "Mental" was shot as an expense saver and where Gonzalez met his girlfriend, telenovela star Mimi Morales.
Gonzalez has had no problem finding work since landing the role of a boxer on former Showtime series "Resurrection Blvd" at the age of 24. He's guest-starred on many series, including "Grey's Anatomy," "CSI: Miami" and "True Blood." He's also starred in movies, was a regular on the PBS series "American Family" and played a sexy gardener on "The O.C."
Offscreen, he's an ace at cards as well, recently winning $50,000 in the latest World Poker Tour Celebrity Invitational.
At the age of 33, Gonzalez says he has never felt more fulfilled: "I'm in love with my 30s. It's been just awesome."
He's also excited about a future role. He says he has been cast in one of the most buzzed-about shows of the fall, the CW's remake of "Melrose Place." He'll play a detective trying to solve a murder.
"It's a fun character — a man among all these boys and girls," he said with a laugh, adding, "I used to be hot ass and now I'm just old ass."
Dear NAMI-Tyler, After seeing "The Soloist" it makes me want to ask the question does having a mental illness make us criminals? Then we should at least be treated with medications in prison. Does being homeless constitute a crime? Then I think society may need to improve it's treatment of us. If friendship can help a person who is living with mental illness recover then we need to use the people that are living with their mental illnesses to help those suffering the same things. The sick need a friend that can listen not with judgement but with an understanding mind and heart. The sufferers may find that the survivors of mental illness are particularly more able to understand them than someone that hasn't lived through similar situations. While we all have suffered loneliness, maybe not to the extent of sufferers of mental illness, we can in our humanness identify at least a little bit with them and can give sufferers a prayer, a kind thought or word just to say that there is a way out. There is a rainbow after the storm. You can live with a mental illness. You can have hope.
…The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has designated 184 of the state's 254 counties as mental health professional shortage areas, meaning the number of professionals needed to provide adequate care to mental health patients is inadequate. That includes Gregg, Upshur, Rusk and Smith counties. …Since 2000, the number of mental health counselors and social workers dwindled from 72 counselors per 100,000 Texas residents to 66 counselors per 100,000 residents in 2007, according to a report by the Texas Hogg Foundation for Mental Health. The same reports also states that the number of psychiatrists dropped from seven per 100,000 residents to six per 100,000 Texas residents in 2007. From the Longview News Journal.
Dear NAMI-Tyler, Well, you know a while back 'stop the madness' was a slogan in our country for something. I think drug abuse. I'm not sure. But the madness to me means stigma and intolerance to differences in people. Anyone that seems strange no matter what they really are inside - good or bad - are just picked on more. Maybe I'm the only one that feels this way. The trials I've lived through may have made me 'different'than others. Because I felt and heard so many angry remarks and felt so many hard feelings I would get very angry at people. I realized working w/ a man who has Alzheimer's (a mental illness) that we are all very human indeed. And all of us need to be understood. And I don't just mean those living with mental illnesses. I mean everyone. And if we don't watch it intolerance in this world (town) will win and we will be our own victims. And we will let the victimizers win the game. And you can print that. Thanks for listening. Sincerely yours, Karma Conaway
Each May, mental health providers and agencies prepare themselves for Mental Health Awareness month by exploring opportunities to increase public awareness and understanding regarding mental health. A great example, "Hope for the Mentally Ill," was aired on KEYE-TV, reported by news anchor and New Milestones Foundation Board Member Michelle Valles.
But over the last couple of years, addressing people's mental health needs has become increasingly critical. Primary care physicians report dramatic rises in the difficulty of obtaining mental health services for their patients and more than two-thirds of the doctors were unable to obtain outpatient mental health services for their patients (twice the number that reported difficulty accessing other specialists).
Nationwide, community mental health centers are experiencing a 20 percent increase in demand for services, according to a recent survey by the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare. At the same time, demand is increasing, at least 32 states are known to be enacting mental health funding cuts -- reducing services, closing programs, imposing hiring freezes, and cutting or freezing reimbursement rates for providers.
However, I am hopeful. With 27 days left in the Legislative Session, funds have been included in the budget bills on transitional services for the mentally ill, continuation of new crisis funds and bills to address mental health treatment for returning veterans. Progression and continued improvements can build toward a true "system of care." The big unknown is the stimulus money impact and hopefully the "Rider 48" provisions can be used to expand service access.
Federal disability programs provide financial and medical assistance to workers who become disabled, however there are no federal programs designed to prevent workers with significant health problems from becoming disabled and dependent on federal assistance. In Texas, where one third of workers are uninsured, many workers with significant health conditions become disabled and rely on public programs for assistance.
Working Well, the Texas Demonstration to Maintain Independence and Employment (DMIE) is a ground-breaking study designed to help keep people well and working. Working Well tests whether providing health coverage and employment supports will keep working people with mental and physical disabilities off federal benefits, such as Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). The study includes over 1,600 participants in the Harris County Hospital District, making it one of the largest federally-funded scientific studies of its kind in the nation. Working Well will help national and state policy-makers understand why workers become dependent on federal disability benefits and what interventions help them remain independent and employed.
Here's the report from Texas Public Policy Foundation, Center for Effective Justice.
The relationship between crime and mental illness has always been complex. Contemporary attitudes and knowledge concerning the treatment of mental illness indicate the urgent need for careful restudy and reshaping of this relationship. Reformers in the late 1960s and early 1970s pressed successfully for deemphasizing institutional care, which they contended often led to abuse of patients. Their idea was that patients could function in society with supervised reliance on medications for the control of erratic, sometimes anti-social, behavior. In the 1950s mental institutions housed three times as many patients as prisons held convicts. Both populations, at that, were small by current standards. Throughout the U.S. today, prison inmates total more than 2 million, compared with only 338,029 in 1970. General population growth is partly responsible; even more significant factors are increased crime and tougher sentencing laws. In Texas, the prison population is 13 times larger than in 1970—12,000 back then vs. more than 157,000 today. Particularly striking is the recent estimate that “deinstitutionalization”—the release of mental patients into the general population —now accounts for up to 14 percent of the growth in incarceration. Today, eight times as many mentally ill persons are admitted into prisons and jails as mental hospitals. Mentally ill offenders also contribute to the probation and parole caseloads. Texas has a significant percent of offenders with mental illness throughout its prison, probation, and parole systems. Mental illness also has a substantial impact on county jails. Of the 1 million offenders jailed every year, 17 percent are former MHMR clients. Some 20 percent of Harris County Jail inmates receive medications for mental illness. Here's the rest of the story from Texas Public Policy Foundation, Center for Effective Justice.
Posts
