Treating Rural Vets’ PTSD From Afar
In other news, the number of prison inmates with severe mental health problems is overwhelming governments' ability to treat them.
Reuters:
Telemedicine May Help Rural Vets With PTSD
For the many veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who don’t have access to a trained mental health care team, connecting with such a team remotely by phone and video chats may help, a new study suggests. At least 500,000 veterans in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) system, or nearly 10 percent of the VHA population, were diagnosed with PTSD in 2012, the researchers write in JAMA Psychiatry. (Doyle, 11/24)
The Philadelphia Daily News:
Prison Inmates Have Long Waits For Psychiatric Care
Fred Avery Jr. is a convicted murderer with a long, violent rap sheet, so it's unlikely that many people were surprised when he allegedly stabbed three prison guards at a city jail last Monday as they tried to subdue him after he fought with his cellmate. But what did surprise some was that Avery was still in jail - and not in a mental institution in Norristown. Arrested 19 months ago, the 49-year-old Ogontz man remains in a legal limbo because of his mental status. (DiFilippo, 11/24)
The Denver Post:
Treatment For Inmates Evolves
Colorado prisons treat more than four times as many people with mental illness each day as all of the psychiatric hospitals in the state. The Department of Corrections, by default, is the largest mental health treatment center in Colorado. A third of inmates, 5,760 prisoners, have mental problems. ... The state corrections budget for mental health treatment, excluding medications, has climbed 48 percent in just five years, from $8.1 million in 2007 to $12 million last year. (Brown, 11/24)
