Mental health center closes | Sacramento Bee

The steady increase of mentally ill residents combined with Sacramento County's budget woes forced the county's main psychiatric hospital late Friday to close its doors to new patients.

The doors remained closed through Tuesday – and might stay closed for several more days, officials said, until its caseload falls.

Officials said the scene could repeat itself throughout the year as local and state funding continue their decline.

The situation, officials and advocates say, suggests the state is at the brink of a mental health catastrophe.

"I think that Sacramento County – like all counties in California – is facing a mental health crisis," said Dorian Kittrell, executive director of the Mental Health Treatment Center. "Unfortunately when (budget) cuts are needed, health care is often at or near the top of the list over and over again. And unfortunately, there's only so much a system can bear before it breaks."

The Mental Health Treatment Center handles the most severe psychiatric cases in the county. That's where police or concerned family members take people who pose a danger to themselves or others.

Caseloads have risen in recent years as the region's population has grown. The crisis center now sees about 590 patients a month, compared with 540 a month in fiscal year 2004-05, Kittrell said.

The admission rate from the crisis center to the inpatient unit has remained steady at almost 48 percent, he added.

The growth has pushed the treatment center – which has a capacity of 100 in its inpatient unit – to its limits.

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http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/1893953.html

Texting May Be Taking a Toll on Teenagers - NYTimes.com

They do it late at night when their parents are asleep. They do it in restaurants and while crossing busy streets. They do it in the classroom with their hands behind their back. They do it so much their thumbs hurt.

Spurred by the unlimited texting plans offered by carriers like AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless, American teenagers sent and received an average of 2,272 text messages per month in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to the Nielsen Company — almost 80 messages a day, more than double the average of a year earlier.

The phenomenon is beginning to worry physicians and psychologists, who say it is leading to anxiety, distraction in school, falling grades, repetitive stress injury and sleep deprivation.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/health/26teen.html?8dpc

Webcast Your Brain Surgery? Hospitals See Marketing Tool - NYTimes.com

The point of Shila Renee Mullins's brain surgery was to remove a malignant tumor threatening to paralyze her left side.

But Methodist University Hospital in Memphis also saw an opportunity to promote the hospital to prospective patients.

So, a video Webcast of Ms. Mullins's awake craniotomy, in which the patient remains conscious and talking while surgeons prod and cut inside her brain, was promoted with infomercials and newspaper advertisements featuring a photograph of a beautiful model, not Ms. Mullins.

This time, Methodist did not use billboards as it has with other operations, deeming this procedure too sensitive. But its marketing department monitors how many people have watched the Webcast (2,212), seen a preview on YouTube (21,555) and requested appointments (3).

"The goal is to further our reputation as well as to educate the community, who will ask their physicians about our care," said Jill Fazakerly, Methodist's marketing director.

Faced with economic pressures and patients with abundant choices, hospitals are using unconventional, even audacious, ways of connecting directly with the public. Seeking to attract or educate patients, entice donors, gain recognition and recruit or retain top doctors, hospitals are using Twitter from operating rooms, showing surgery on YouTube and having patients blog about their procedures.

They consider the methods inexpensive ways to stand out in an era of reality TV and voluminous medical information available online.

Some ethicists and physicians say the practices raise questions about patient privacy and could paint overly-rosy medical pictures, leaving the hospitals and patients vulnerable if things go awry.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/25/health/25hospital.html?th&emc=th

Wash. state woman 1st death under new suicide law

Linda Fleming was diagnosed with terminal cancer and feared her last days would be filled with pain and ever-stronger doses of medication that would erode her mind.

The 66-year-old woman with late-stage pancreatic cancer wanted to be clear-headed at death, so she became the first person to kill herself under Washington state's new assisted suicide law, known as "death with dignity."

"I am a very spiritual person, and it was very important to me to be conscious, clear-minded and alert at the time of my death," Fleming said in a statement released Friday. "The powerful pain medications were making it difficult to maintain the state of mind I wanted to have at my death. And I knew I would have to increase them."

With family members, her physician and her dog at her side, Fleming took a deadly dose of prescription barbiturates and died Thursday night at her home in Sequim, Wash.

Chris Carlson, who campaigned against the new law with the Coalition Against Assisted Suicide, called the death unfortunate.

"Any premature death is a sad occasion and it diminishes us all," he said.

Compassion & Choices of Washington, an advocacy group that aids people who seek to use the law, announced her death.

Last November, Washington became the second state to have a voter-approved assisted suicide law. It is based on a law adopted by Oregon voters in 1997. Since then, about 400 people have used the Oregon law to end their lives.

In December, a district judge in Montana ruled that doctor-assisted suicides are legal in that state. That decision, based on an individual lawsuit rather than a state law or voter initiative, is before the Montana Supreme Court.

Doctors in Montana are allowed to write prescriptions for life-ending drugs pending the appeal. But it's unknown whether any actually have because there's no reporting process in place.

Under the Washington law, any patient requesting fatal medication must be at least 18, declared mentally competent and be a resident of the state.

Additionally, two doctors must certify that the patient has a terminal condition and six months or less to live, and the patient must make two oral requests 15 days apart, plus a written request that is witnessed by two people. Patients must also administer the drugs themselves.

Under the Washington measure, as in Oregon, doctors and pharmacists are not required to write or fill lethal prescriptions if they oppose the law. Some hospitals have opted out, which precludes their doctors from participating on hospital property.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090523/D98BUEG80.html