Texas: In 2008, 1,900 out of 11,000 inmates, or 17.3 percent, in the Harris County Jail were on psychotropic medications. Spending on mental health care in the jail had risen to $24 million per year, “and the combined cost of incarcerating and treating the mentally ill is $87 million annually.” A county official noted: “The jails have become the psychiatric hospitals of the United States.”

Click here to read the whole study.

Pam Hyde, head of the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), has opened a dialogue about words that are used—or avoided—in the mental health community.
For example, some believe "consumer" is too vague or demeaning for a person who lives with mental illness, but "patient" and "client" are too medical or subservient in nature. Other terms that may lack clear definition include "mental health" and "recovery."
What do you think? Please read Hyde's invitation for dialogue and the list of terms she mentions at this link

Send your comments to dialogue@samhsa.hhs.gov.

Click on the link below to see a brief television interview from FOX TV 7 that Dennis Borel, ED, Coalition of Texans with Disabilities, did yesterday on the issue of drug switching. Dennis did an outstanding job in presenting the issue and talking about consumer implications and public policy initiatives, including the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) study that is ongoing, and the importance of this issue for individuals taking medications for their mental illness.

Click here to see the interview on myfoxaustin.com.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness-Texas (NAMI TEXAS) has been awarded a grant from the Texas Bar Foundation to support the Criminal Justice Resource Project. NAMI-Texas, in collaboration with NAMI Metropolitan Houston, NAMI West Houston, and the City of Refuge Educational Development Corporation will develop a resource booklet for families of individuals with mental illness who become involved with the criminal and juvenile justice system in Harris County.

Click here for more information

February 12, 2010

Arlington, VA - The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) urges individuals and families to familiarize themselves with the draft of the new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), which is used by psychiatrists and other mental health professionals to classify and diagnose mental disorders in children and adults.

The DSM historically has had a very significant impact on the treatment of mental illnesses and on the payment of mental health treatment and related services. A committee created by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) has been working on a DSM revision to reflect current scientific understanding about mental disorders.

Earlier this week, the APA posted the draft of the revised DSM, known as the DSM-5. The draft DSM-5 can be found at www.DSM5.org.

For the next two months, the APA is seeking input from individuals, family members, clinicians and others about the proposed changes contained in the DSM-5. The deadline for submitting these comments is April 20, 2010. NAMI encourages the public to visit the DSM-5 Web site to understand the proposed changes and submit comments as appropriate.

Earlier this week, the APA posted the draft of the revised DSM, known as the DSM-5. The draft DSM-5 can be found at www.DSM5.org.

NAMI also wants to hear reactions and comments. Post your feedback on the NAMI Web site and engage in the DSM-5 discussion at www.nami.org/discussion/dsmv.

Texas Mental Health Resource

Via Hope, Texas Mental Health Resource is a training and technical assistance resource for mental health consumers, their family members, youth consumers, and professionals. Via Hope promotes mental health wellness across the lifespan. Via Hope provides mental health consumers and family members with information and education that assists with their recovery, enables them to better navigate the public and private mental health care systems and explains the supports that are available in the community.

Via Hope also provides training and certification for peer specialists. Creating jobs for persons who are in recovery from mental illness to help others with their recovery is a smart, cost-effective approach to expanding the mental health workforce and expanding employment opportunities for consumers.

Via Hope was created to provide a mental health consumer and family member driven system as part of the Texas Mental Health Transformation Project.

Via Hope is a collaborative effort of Mental Health America of Texas, National Alliance on Mental Illness Texas and the Department of State Health Services.

To learn more about Via Hope, please go to www.viahope.org.

We had a wonderful time celebrating our 25th Anniversary. The workshops were great learning experiences, and our Gala and Silent Auction were successful.

Click here to see photos of the opening ceremony, our conference, our exhibit hall, our gala dinner and our silent auction. If you have photographs you would like to share, please send them to kjeschke@namitexas.org.

Click here to read Robin Peyson's Opening Welcome.

Pictured here are Affiliate President Ed Dickey, President-elect Kym Bolado, Basil Castelyn, Treasurer, NAMI Texas Board of Directors and a member of NAMI San Antonio and Jerry Fulenwider, member, NAMI San Antonio. (Click the photo to enlarge)

Faith Based Mental Health Outreach

The following helpful website resources have been posted for your use to aid in expanding your knowledge in addition to the Faith Based Mental Health Outreach Tool Kits that have been mailed out. These additional resources were too long to print for each notebook but we feel that they are very valuable resources. We hope that you will utilize them.

Decrease from Last Report Card:

Texas Struggles to Meet Need

See www.nami.org/grades2009 for the full report.

Who's The Doctor?

Insurers reject prescriptions to save money

This is agreat article on open access for medications, and why it is such an important issue for many individuals, especially those with mental illness. Look for the great quote from NAMI Missouri!
Click here to read the entire article

Your pharmacist may be changing your medications and what you don’t know could hurt you.
Click here to read this important May 2009 Prevention Magazine article.

Click here to read about the NAMI policy on medications and open access

Art Ruble, one of our participants in our advocacy training program provided the following testimony to the Texas Health and Human Services Pharmaceutical and Therapeutics Committee in support of open access. He did a great job sharing how important this issue is to him.
Click here to see a copy of his testimony.