School-based mental health program development: a case study of interorganizational collaboration

Because of increased competition and financial pressure, more and more contemporary health care organizations are forming (or attempting to form) collaborative ventures. In the early 1980s, the New York City Board of Education and the New York City Department of Mental Health planned and implemented a collaborative program in the city's schools for an on-site school mental health program. In this article, I explore the difficult and attenuated process of interorganizational collaboration--including attention to the organizational, political, and interprofessional context within which such ventures are implemented--to examine how such cooperative program development can be successfully accomplished in today's competitive and complex health care arena.     

World Trade Center Health Program requirements for the addition of new WTC-related health conditions. Final rule

Title I of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010 amended the Public Health Service Act (PHS Act) to establish the World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program. Sections 3311, 3312, and 3321 of Title XXXIII of the PHS Act require that the WTC Program Administrator develop regulations to implement portions of the WTC Health Program established within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The WTC Health Program, which is administered by the Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), provides medical monitoring and treatment to eligible firefighters and related personnel, law enforcement officers, and rescue, recovery and cleanup workers who responded to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City, Shanksville, PA, and at the Pentagon, and to eligible survivors of the New York City attacks. This final rule establishes the processes by which the WTC Program Administrator may add a new condition to the list of WTC-related health conditions through rulemaking, including a process for considering petitions by interested parties to add a new condition.     

Back to the future? Diabetes, HIV, and the boundaries of public health

The control of infectious diseases has traditionally fallen to public health and the clinical care of chronic diseases to private medicine. In New York City, however, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) has recently sought to expand its responsibilities in the oversight and management of chronic-disease care. In December 2005, in an effort to control epidemic rates of diabetes, the DOHMH began implementing a bold new plan for increased disease surveillance through electronic, laboratory-based reporting of A1C test results (a robust measure of blood-sugar levels). The controversy A1C reporting produced was relatively contained, but when Dr. Thomas Frieden, New York City health commissioner, called for the state to begin tracking viral loads and drug resistance among patients with HIV, both the medical community and a wider public took notice and have started to grapple with the meaning of expanded surveillance. In the context of the past century of medical surveillance in America, we analyze the current debates, focusing first on diabetes and then HIV. We identify the points of contention that arise from the city's proposed blend of public health surveillance, disease management, and quality improvement and suggest an approach to balancing the measures' perils and promises.     

World Trade Center Health Program; addition of certain types of cancer to the list of WTC-related health conditions. Final rule

Title I of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010 amended the Public Health Service Act (PHS Act) to establish the World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program. The WTC Health Program, which is administered by the Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), provides medical monitoring and treatment to eligible firefighters and related personnel, law enforcement officers, and rescue, recovery, and cleanup workers who responded to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City, at the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and to eligible survivors of the New York City attacks. In accordance with WTC Health Program regulations, which establish procedures for adding a new condition to the list of covered health conditions, this final rule adds to the List of WTC-Related Health Conditions the types of cancer proposed for inclusion by the notice of proposed rulemaking.     

Book review: Prison life and predicting violence

Jack Henry Abbott, In the Belly of the Beast: Letters from Prison, New York: Random House, 1981, xvi + 166 pp.

John Monahan, The Clinical Prediction of Violent Behavior Rockville, Md.: National Institute of Mental Health, 1981, xi + 134 pp.     

Owning ASFA

As New York and many other jurisdictions struggle to comply with the timelines of the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA), the experiences of the Expedited Permanency Part of the New York City Model Court under the direction of Judge Sara Schechter may provide helpful approaches for overcoming unnecessary delays and obstacles. Despite resistance to change, scarce resources, and a shortage of attorneys for indigent respondents, the New York City Model Court has been able to implement ASFA without sacrificing due process in the handling of child protective and permanency proceedings. Some of these strategies include extensive case conferencing, the use of specially trained conference facilitators, time‐certain appointments, and compliance reviews conducted by a referee. The New York City Model Court has found that integrating these new approaches has markedly improved the permanency outcomes for the children within its jurisdiction. Innovations piloted in the New York City Model Court are being replicated throughout the five boroughs of the city.     

THE IMPACT OF ORDER‐MAINTENANCE POLICING ON NEW YORK CITY HOMICIDE AND ROBBERY RATES: 1988‐2001*

Local officials and national observers have attributed the New York City drop in violent crime during the 1990s to the aggressive enforcement of public order, but relevant research is limited and yields contrasting conclusions regarding the effects of order‐maintenance policing (OMP) on violent crime trends in New York City. The current study investigates the effects of order‐maintenance arrests on precinct‐level robbery and homicide trends in New York City with more reliable crime and arrest data, longer time series, and more extensive controls for other influences than used in prior research. We find statistically significant but small crime‐reduction effects of OMP and conclude that the impact of aggressive order enforcement on the reduction in homicide and robbery rates in New York City during the 1990s was modest at best.     

Medicolegal investigation in New York City. History and activities 1918-1978

Medicolegal investigation in America can truly be said to have begun in an organized manner in 1918. The Massachusetts medical examiner system, which began in 1877, never developed with the central control and the completeness that characterizes the New York Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, nor did it influence the spread of this form of medicolegal investigation. An overview of the period before the establishment of the New York Office in 1918 and early experiences in coroner's investigation in New York is presented. The roots of the development of the office are discussed, as were the early days of the office under Dr. Charles Norris, whose influence on the spread of knowledge and of providing an important service to the community in general is detailed. The contributions of Alexander Gettler, the father of forensic toxicology in America, are also discussed. The contributions of Gonzales, Vance, Helpern, Umberger, and Wiener are also included. Special problems of New York City are described, including narcotic deaths, gas refrigerator deaths, malaria in addicts, plastic bag hazards, sudden infant deaths, operative deaths, as well as many famous cases involving murder, disasters, and unusual deaths over a period of 60 years. Milestones in the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of New York City are listed, as are chronological details of major cases and problems. Several comparative figures of the workload and frequency of various types of death are also included. A relationship of deaths to different life-styles is noted.     

试论美国纽约市法庭科学工作

纽约市是美国第一大城市,人口众多,经济发达,其法庭科学在国际上也享有声望。纽约市法庭科学部门主要分布在警察局(NYPD)和法医局(OCME)两大机构,警察系统的法庭科学机构主要负责毒品、微量物证、指纹、痕迹、枪弹及文件检验,法医局则进行DNA、毒化、法医病理、法医人类学方面的检验。本文首先介绍美国的警察制度及纽约市警察局概况,然后分别从警察局和法医局两个部门对纽约市法庭科学的部门隶属、部门设置与工作职能情况进行介绍。     

Building Bridges for Babies in Foster Care: The Babies Can't Wait Initiative

In 2001, the New York State Permanent Judicial Commission on Justice for Children, chaired by New York State's Chief Judge Judith Kaye, developed the Babies Can't Wait Initiative to maximize the well‐being and permanency prospects of infants in foster care. This court‐based innovation became a path to healthy development for babies in foster care, a bridge to unprecedented collaboration among the New York City Family Court, child welfare system, and service providers and merged knowledge about child development with court and child welfare practice. This article tells the story of the Babies Can't Wait Initiative—its creation, implementation, successes, and lessons.     

Methadone in maintenance treatment of narcotic addicts; joint revision of conditions for use; interim maintenance treatment; human immunodeficiency virus disease counseling--FDA and SAMHSA. Final rule

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) formerly the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration (ADAMHA) are revising the conditions for the use of methadone in the maintenance treatment of narcotic addicts. The final rule allows, contingent on FDA and State approval, public and nonprofit private narcotic treatment programs to provide interim maintenance treatment to patients awaiting placement in comprehensive maintenance treatment and to require all narcotic treatment programs to provide counseling on preventing exposure to, and the transmission of, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease.     

THE BOOKSHELF

Book Review in this article
CHILD CUSTODY LITIGATION: A Guide for Parents and Mental Health Professionals , by Richard A. Gardner, M.D., Creative Therapeutics, New Jersey, 1986, $18.00.
LAW AND ETHICS IN COUNSELING , By Dean L. Hummel, Lou C. Talbutt, and M. David Alexander Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., New York (1984) $32.95 cloth.
FAMILIES ARE FOREVER , by Nathan Schaefer, M.D. R & E Publishers, P.O. Box 2008, Saratoga, CA 95070.1985. 158 pages, softcover, $9.95.     

Mental health parity and newborns' and mothers' health protection--HCFA. Solicitation of comments

This document is a request for comments regarding issues under the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 (MHPA) and the Newborns' and Mothers' Health Protection Act of 1996 (NMHPA). The Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services (collectively, the Departments) have received comments from the public on a number of issues arising under both MHPA and NMHPA. Further comments from the public are welcome.     

The Relationship Between Crime and Stop,Question, and Frisk Rates in New York City Neighborhoods

The current study builds on prior research in an analysis of the relationship between monthly violent and property crime rates in New York City census tracks and the New York City Police Department’s highly contentious stop, question, and frisk (SQF) policy. We find that higher doses of SQF are associated with small crime reductions generally and specific crime reductions for stops of blacks, Hispanics, and whites. But the way the policy was implemented precludes strong causal conclusions. Now that a federal court has intervened and SQF is undergoing change, the court monitor, New York Police Department, and city officials should partner with researchers in experimental evaluations to determine the optimal mix and dosage of enforcement strategies that safeguard the rights and liberties of citizens while enhancing public safety.     

Violence in our society

Violent interactions between parent and child, and between spouses, occur at a high rate in the United States. In response to this situation, several federal agencies are involved in various research projects whose goal is a better understanding of the roots of violence. Among these agencies are the Division of Injury Epidemiology and Control (Centers for Disease Control), the Office of Minority Health (Department of Health and Human Services), and the Antisocial and Violent Behavior Branch (National Institute of Mental Health).     

Opioid drugs in maintenance and detoxification treatment of opiate addiction; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, HHS. Final rule

The Department of Health and Human Services and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) are issuing final regulations for the use of narcotic drugs in maintenance and detoxification treatment of opioid addiction. This final rule repeals the existing narcotic treatment regulations enforced by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and creates a new regulatory system based on an accreditation model. In addition, this final rule shifts administrative responsibility and oversight from FDA to SAMHSA. This rulemaking initiative follows a study by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and reflects recommendations by the IOM and several other entities to improve opioid addiction treatment by allowing for increased medical judgment in treatment.