Reviews literature evaluating appropriateness of Medicare's prospective payment system (PPS) through Diagnostic-Related Groups (DRGs), since its implementation in 1983, for psychiatric care. Cites shortcomings that make the system untenable for mental health care, including lack of homogeneity of DRGs, inability to predict length of stay, and…

Describes Dutchess County Department of Mental Hygiene and New York State Bridge Authority's joint establishment of a suicide prevention telephone on Mid-Hudson Bridge. Telephone, which is directly connected to psychiatric emergency service, was used 30 times in two-year period. Data suggest that most would-be jumpers were ambivalent about dying…

Awareness of interpersonal forces upon mental health clinicians is crucial to allow mature balancing of the many factors involved in the decision-making process. An integration of family and systems thinking into the practice of emergency psychiatry can enhance comfort and effectiveness in many difficult crisis situations. (Author/BL)

Investigated seasonal trends in the birth patterns of neurotics (N=989), alcoholics (N=2,870), affective disorders (N=320) and personality disorders (N=713) both before and after controlling for age prevalence. Results did not support the view that birth rates for nonschizophrenic psychiatric disorders are higher in some seasons than in others.…

On the theory that teachers, too, have their hangups, a Maryland clinic provides free psychiatric counseling to those who need it.'' (Editor)

This article describes the crisis intervention techniques used by the San Fernanco Valley Child Guidance Clinic to help families deal with the traumatic events experienced in the 1971 earthquake in California. (Author)

Investigates validity of the Suicide Assessment Checklist (SAC) in a sample of 1,969 admissions to a psychiatric emergency crisis center. Supporting construct related validity, total score differences were found in the expected directions as a function of referral reason. Convergent validity was based on observed correlations between selected SAC…

A large (n = 14,892) consecutive sample of deliberate self-harm (attempted suicide) patients who presented to a general hospital in the United Kingdom during a 23-year study period was examined (over two consecutive time periods) in order to compare the characteristics of those who used self-cutting (n = 428) and those who self-poisoned (n =…

Subjective well-being is an increasingly common indicator of adequacy of psychiatric services. An easy-to-administer assessment tool of subjective well-being that is conceptually sound, valid, and reliable is needed for use in persons with schizophrenia. The purpose of this paper was to validate the 5-item Satisfaction with Life Scale…

Research shows that half of all lifetime cases of mental illness begin by age 14. Scientists are discovering that changes in the body leading to mental illness may start much earlier, before any symptoms appear. Through greater understanding of when and how fast specific areas of children's brains develop, we are learning more about the early…

Background: UK policies aim to facilitate access to general psychiatric services for adults with intellectual disability (ID). If this is to be achieved, it is important to have a clear idea of the characteristics and proportion of people with ID who currently access specialist psychiatric services and the nature and extent of psychiatric…

A new social psychiatry is needed to serve the interests of institutions at large and those of faculty, administration, and students, whose needs are seldom reflected accurately in present services. (Editor)