Behavioral Healthcare back issues from May 2007:
Frustration.(EDITORIAL)
May 01, 2007; ... Until this month, my friend had a neighbor (I'll call him "George") who clearly has a serious mental illness. Despite all the time I spent at my friend's apartment, I never saw George. But I heard him. Through the thick plaster walls that separate their units, I heard George raving long ...
The value of peer employees: professional staff shouldn't fear peers' greater involvement in the behavioral health workforce.(TOOLS FOR TRANSFORMATION)
May 01, 2007; ... We both spend a lot of time traveling across the country training staff in various programs and systems about recovery. When we get to the part about how to actually transform a program into one that regularly uses recovery principles and practices, we suggest adding well-trained peers and ...
Leaving survival mode behind: Seabrook House and its leader emerge stronger from a period of financial strain in addiction treatment.(ADDICTION TREATMENT MANAGEMENT)(Cover story)
May 01, 2007; ... Ed Diehl clearly recalls the moment when he knew it was time for his addiction treatment organization to stop being complicit in what he and others saw as managed care's dissolution of meaningful residential lengths of stay. Having seen its 30-day residential model disintegrate into a ...
Helping states and providers work together: a NIATx initiative brings them to the table to implement process improvements.(ADDICTION TREATMENT MANAGEMENT)(Network for the Improvement of Addiction Treatment)
May 01, 2007; ... Since 2003, the Network for the Improvement of Addiction Treatment (NIATx) has worked with treatment providers around the country to make more efficient use of their capacity and to achieve four aims: reduce waiting times and no-shows, and increase admissions and treatment continuation ...
The importance of role models: even the way staff members dress affects clients' potential to recover.
May 01, 2007; ... At its core, the clinical potency of residential drug treatment is based on the program's ability to reflect a natural, if not ideal, world, where order, social convention, rules, authority, moral codes, and multiple levels of interpersonal discourse are embedded in daily experience. Often ...
A history of growth: During the past 50 years, Caron Treatment Centers has expanded to accommodate service demands.(ADDICTION TREATMENT MANAGEMENT)(Company overview)
May 01, 2007; ... Since Caron Treatment Centers was founded 50 years ago, we have cultivated a rich tradition of pioneering treatment and enhancing our facilities to reach a wide range of people suffering from addiction. As we celebrate our golden anniversary, we reflect on our past and look forward to the ...
The 12 steps of launching a new program: a guide for introducing a new service to your community.(ADDICTION TREATMENT MANAGEMENT)
May 01, 2007; ... Launching a new service can be an exciting endeavor for an addiction treatment facility. "If you have always done what you always did, you will always get what you always got" is a standard line of thought in many addiction treatment programs. Moving beyond cliches and rote thinking is ...
Behavioral healthcare's new horizon: there's some evidence of a brightening future for the field.(TRENDS)
May 01, 2007; ... Behavioral healthcare has had an image problem. For too long the U.S. public has viewed behavioral health (and those of us who provide it) as a distant cousin, twice removed, of general healthcare. The good news is that we're collectively gaining ground. Newspapers are writing more stories ...
Spend time treating patients, not pests: integrated pest management programs are essential for long-term success.(FACILITY MANAGEMENT)
May 01, 2007; ... Pests such as insects and rats are more than just an annoyance--they're a threat. They can carry diseases that can aggravate your patients' health, jeopardize food safety, and raise concerns with health inspectors. To wage the battle against pests--and win the war--healthcare facilities ...
Helping parents with mental illness: providers often do not take into account adult consumers' family roles.(ADULT SERVICES)
May 01, 2007; ... An estimated 68% of women and 55% of men with mental illnesses in the United States are parents. (1) In fact, adults with mental illnesses are as likely to be parents as adults without mental illnesses. (2) Like the vast majority of parents, adults with mental illnesses want to do the very ...
Engaging art: therapeutic environments need artwork that excites and inspires patients.(FACILITY DESIGN)
May 01, 2007; ... I was in Dr. Edward Greenblatt's new office selecting artwork with him when he told me the following story: "David, my 12-year-old son, met me at my old office after school. He looked around and scrutinized the room as I was putting on my coat. 'Dad, how can you treat kids in that ...
Who can afford to stay? Addiction services professionals face low compensation and high credentialing and education costs.(STAFFING)
May 01, 2007; ... Those who spend their time helping, counseling, and advising the 22.2 million Americans who struggle with addictions constitute a unique and special group of people. But some disturbing trends are leading us to question whether we will continue to be able to attract the most talented ...
The one-hour rule controversy: experts disagree on who should evaluate patients after they have been secluded or restrained.(INPATIENT SERVICES)
May 01, 2007; ... Late last year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued final rules to prevent patient injuries and deaths from the improper use of seclusion and restraint techniques in healthcare facilities, as well as ban their use as a punitive measure. (1) The final rules, ...
The client record is where it all begins: better documentation practices can help improve treatment outcomes.(INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY)
May 01, 2007; ... The substance abuse treatment system in this country is primarily comprised of community-based treatment and prevention providers, most of them not-for-profit organizations. They increasingly are challenged by more complex clients, workforce turnover, demands for new competencies in ...
Wrapping around kids in need: a Missouri provider finds that investing in the front end of services pays off.(CHILDREN SERVICES)
May 01, 2007; ... Families and social workers are faced with many challenges when trying to access services to address abuse, neglect, or mental health concerns. The system is underresourced and disjointed and, unfortunately, this system is where we often find the 5 to 9% of American children who have at ...
The depot paradox: long-acting formulations of antipsychotics can boost treatment adherence rates, but clinicians have been hesitant to use them.(ANTIPSYCHOTICS)
May 01, 2007; ... Surrounded by a sea of uninsured patients, a host of bureaucratic complexities, underfunded budgets, and a dearth of empirical evidence and best-practice guidelines, (1,2) clinicians' decision making can be, to put it mildly, bizarre. Nowhere in the behavioral health field is this picture ...
Prescribing better risk management: the final article in a three-part series on avoiding medication error lawsuits.(LIABILITY LANDSCAPE)(Disease/Disorder overview)
May 01, 2007; ... As discussed in the first article in this series (see the February 2007 issue, page 41), lawsuits about medication errors in behavioral healthcare tend to have the same allegations from one case to the next. These allegations fall into the following categories: * There was an ...
Improving the chances for success: one agency's experience with software implementation highlights what others can do to make it a smoother process.(VIEWS ON TECHNOLOGY)(from Foothold Technology, Inc.)
May 01, 2007; ... With the recent growth of behavioral healthcare software options on the market, more and more service agencies are taking the leap from paper-based record keeping to electronic record keeping. Some agencies have sailed through this complex transition with relative ease, while others see ...
Hall-Brooke Hospital: Westport, Connecticut.(FACILITY DESIGN SHOWCASE)(Brief article)
May 01, 2007 ... Hall-Brooke Behavioral Health Services, Inc., opened a new 60,000-square-foot, 60-bed inpatient mental health and substance abuse hospital in June 2001, and in 2005 it renovated a section to open a 16-bed Women's Unit. The now 76-bed inpatient facility also consists of a Child and ...
A living document: Mental Health, United States evolves alongside the field.(PERSPECTIVES)
May 01, 2007; ... In March, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) published Mental Health, United States, 2004. Since I have been associated with this publication for more than 20 years at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the Center for Mental Health ...
Recognizing the feds' good intentions: lawmakers and regulators want to do the right thing, but a lack of understandings of complex reimbursement processes makes it difficult.(PERSPECTIVES)
May 01, 2007; ... The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will soon release proposed regulations for Medicaid's Rehabilitation Option which, in CMS's own words, will clarify rehabilitation services by "clearly defining allowable services that may be claimed as rehabilitation services, which are ...
Our time to celebrate: a conference presents an opportunity to bring the "family" together.(PERSPECTIVES)
May 01, 2007; ... This month the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers (NAATP) will celebrate its 29th anniversary at our annual conference (this year in San Diego). During the countdown to our 30th anniversary, field historian William White will be constructing a written history of this ...