Posted on February 7, 2019
Medscape
Reports that Schizophrenia and Related Disorders Alliance of America (SRDAA) has spearheaded a new initiative to reclassify schizophrenia as a neurologic, rather than a psychiatric, disease. The action is designed to reduce stigma and ultimately obtain more research funding from the CDC. The article states that TAC and NAMI are on board with the initiative while the American Psychiatric Association is reluctant to support its reclassification as a neurologic disorder.
READ MOREPosted on February 4, 2019
Forbes Health
The study in Nature Microbiology combined data from the microbiomes of 1,054 people enrolled in the Flemish Gut Flora project with self-reported and physician-diagnosed depression data. Using bioinformatics analyses, the researchers were able to identify certain groups of bacteria, which were either positively or negatively correlated with mental health. Two groups of bacteria in particular, Coprococcus and Dialister, were consistently found to be at low numbers in people with depression.
READ MOREPosted on February 3, 2019
NPR
In 2007, Ashoor Rasho and 12,000 other inmates with mental illness sued the Illinois Department of Corrections, alleging that the agency punishes inmates with mental illness instead of properly treating them. A settlement was reached in 2016, when the state agreed to revamp mental health care and provide better treatment. But a federal judge has ruled that care remains "grossly insufficient" and "extremely poor." The agency has not hired enough mental health staff to provide care to everyone who needs it.
READ MOREPosted on January 29, 2019
The New York Times
Reports on the use of music to cope with mental illness. Ronald Braunstein, who has bipolar disorder formed the Me2/Orchestra, which is comprised of musicians and supporters that have been touched by mental illness.
READ MOREPosted on January 8, 2019
Mother Jones
Chicago’s Cook County Jail is the biggest single-site jail in the United States. It’s also one of the biggest mental health care providers in the country. About a third of the jail’s 6,000 or so inmates have been diagnosed with a mental illness, and many of them were sent to the facility after the state reduced funding for hospitals and community caseworkers during the economic recession.
READ MOREPosted on January 4, 2019
Washington Examiner
Reports that the administration is urging states to change a rule that will give psychiatric patients more places to stay while they receive treatment for serious mental illness. The change would pay for Medicaid patients to get mental health care for up to 30 days in a facility, such as a hospital, even if it has more than 16 psychiatric beds.
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