Recovery Michigan

This bill would beef up the requirements for showing that health plans are, in fact, not just in theory, complying with mental health parity laws.

Servicemembers and Veterans may be eligible for a one-time payment of not more than $20,114.34 toward the purchase of an automobile or other conveyance if you have certain service-connected disabilities. The grant is paid directly to the seller of the automobile and the Servicemember or Veteran may only receive the automobile grant once in his/her lifetime.

Eligibility Requirements (Automobile Grant)

• You must be either a Servicemember who is still on active duty or a Veteran,AND
• You must have one of the following disabilities that are either rated as service-connected or treated as if service-connected under 38 U.S.C 1151 or, for a Servicemember, the result of disease incurred or injury contracted in or aggravated by active duty: 
  • Loss, or permanent loss of use, of one or both feet, OR
  • Loss, or permanent loss of use, of one or both hands, OR
  • Permanent impairment of vision in both eyes to a certain degree, OR
  • Severe burn injury, OR
  • Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).

Eligibility Requirements (Adaptive Equipment)

• You must be either a Servicemember who is still on active duty or a Veteran,AND 
• meet the disability requirements for the automobile grant (see above), OR
• have ankylosis (immobility of the joint) of one or both knees or hips that VA recognizes as being service-connected or treats as if service-connected under 38 U.S.C. 1151.

A simple, computer-training task can change the brain's wiring to regulate emotional reactions, according to a recent study published inNeuroImage by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) researchers.

"These findings are the first to demonstrate that non-emotional training that improves the ability to ignore irrelevant information can result in reduced brain reactions to emotional events and alter brain connections," says Dr. Noga Cohen. Cohen conducted the study as part of her Ph.D. research at BGU's Cognitive Neuropsychology Lab under the supervision of Prof. Avishai Henik of the Department of Psychology. "These changes were accompanied by strengthened neural connections between brain regions involved in inhibiting emotional reactions."

The researchers hope to examine the impact of this non-emotional training on individuals who are depressed or anxious. It may also be helpful for those at high risk of developing high blood pressure reactions to emotional information.

"Such future directions carry important potential clinical implications for a large percentage of the population," the researchers explain. "This cognitive training can be easily employed with different populations, such as children, elderly adults, and individuals with neurological or psychiatric disorders."

Sleep and circadian rhythms are also known to play a part in bipolar disorder. Manic phases generally see the individual sleeping less; conversely, during depressive periods, sleep is often more prevalent.

Some researchers have concluded that sleep might be a factor in bipolar relapses, or perhaps an early warning sign of bipolar events on the horizon.

Below is a list of the specific sleep and circadian phenotypes that were found to significantly vary between those with bipolar disorder and those without:

• Mean awake duration: average length of time spent awake per day
• Amplitude: a measure of the strength of an individual's circadian rhythm
• Hill acrophase: time of day at which activity peaked
• Interdaily stability: the degree of variation in levels of activity each day
• Interdaily variability: a measure of the fragmentation of circadian rhythm
• Median activity: average amount of activity per day
• Relative amplitude: the difference between the least and the most intense periods of activity across 24 hours
• Mean length of sleep bouts during the sleep period: average amount of time spent in each bout of sleep during the night
• Mean number of sleep bouts during awake period: average length of naps during the day
• Time of sleep offset: time of awakening in the morning
• Mean total minutes scored awake: average time spent awake per day
• WASO: total minutes spent awake after the onset of sleep.

In September of 1942, Warren Sawyer, a 23-year-old conscientious objector, reported for his volunteer assignment as an attendant at a state mental hospital. The young Quaker was one of thousands of pacifists who had refused to fight and instead were assigned to work in places few outsiders got to see — places like Philadelphia State Hospital, best known as Byberry.

"Byberry's the last stop on the bus here in Philadelphia," Sawyer recalls. "Any young man on the bus, other people knew that we were COs working at the hospital. And they'd make different kinds of remarks, supposedly talking to each other, but hoping that we hear. And you know: 'Yellowbellies, slackers.' "

Those slurs were harsh. But not nearly as harsh as what awaited the young men inside the gates of the chaotic and overcrowded hospital for people with mental illness and intellectual disabilities.

The young pacifists would be changed by what they saw in places like Byberry, and then become a force for change themselves.

sta has a mild brain injury from that night, though she does not recall this exact diagnosis. She also has vertigo, hearing loss, poor memory, anxiety, headaches, ringing in her ears (which she describes as a constant “electrical signal”), and a hip that causes her to limp sometimes, which she believes came from being hurled against her car. In light of her other injuries, she hasn’t had her hip treated.

Fifty per cent of domestic-violence victims are strangled at some point in the course of their relationship—often repeatedly, over years—and the overwhelming majority of strangulation perpetrators are men. Those strangled to the point of losing consciousness are at the highest risk of dying in the first twenty-four to forty-eight hours after the incident, from strokes, blood clots, or aspiration (choking on their own vomit). Such incidents can cause brain injury—mild or traumatic—not only by cutting off oxygen to the brain but because they are often accompanied by blunt-force trauma to the head. Still, victims of domestic violence are not routinely screened for strangulation or brain injury in emergency rooms, and the victims themselves, who tend to have poor recollections of the incidents, are often not even aware that they’ve lost consciousness. This means that diagnoses are rarely formalized, the assaults and injuries are downplayed, and abusers are prosecuted under lesser charges.

This reclassification will make it easier to use and manufacture ECT devices. People with ECT experience should tell their stories as part of the public response to this proposed reclassification.....

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is issuing a proposed administrative order to reclassify the electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) device for use in treating severe major depressive episode (MDE) associated with major depressive disorder (MDD) or bipolar disorder (BPD) in patients 18 years of age and older who are treatment-resistant or who require a rapid response due to the severity of their psychiatric or medical condition, which is a preamendments class III device, into class II (special controls) based on new information

Shared decision making allows an individual and their healthcare provider to together determine the most appropriate treatment or care choices. It is a fundamental process in primary care and behavioral health care integration — making it vital that individuals with behavioral health conditions acquire skills to participate in decisions with their healthcare providers.

RESOURCES

What to Expect When You’re Self-Managing: A Client Handout for Behavioral Health Providers, is designed to support conversations with clients on the self-management of chronic conditions. It includes information on the following:
- The purpose of self-management;
- What the client should expect from his or her care team;
- What the client may ask for from natural supports; and
- Resources available to support his or her efforts to self-manage
 

The Shared Care Plan Personal Health Record is a tool for patient self-management and communication among care team members. It is a personal health record that lets patients organize and store vital health information and then share it with their family, physicians, and others they feel should have access to this information. As a Web-based application that employs user-centered design methodologies, this tool promotes personal responsibility and positively affects patients’ confidence and active participation in their care.

And many more resources.....