February 2010 - Sober News

Although Casey Johnson knew she was diabetic, it was reported she consumed alcohol regularly, did not always eat the way she needed to, and at one point was using drugs. Anyone in the ... Reports show Casey had been in rehab at some point, but left ....

The actor claims to have not touched drugs for three years and alcohol for nearly two and insists his life is not a "sad story". "The ins and outs of what I've been through, even when it comes to rehab, is not a sad story," said...

We've been listening in on a lot of conversations lately where the term “integration” has been center stage. While the discussions cover a wide range of topics, the two most common are the integration of peers into a traditional workforce, and the integration of physical health services into behavioral health services. As you may know, employing peers (people with a lived/recovery experience) in traditional behavioral health services...

As a fundamental health insurance reform, The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) of 2008 has far-reaching effects and implications for as many as one in three Americans. A hard-won product of vision, advocacy, cooperation, and compromise, the Act's enabling regulations, also known as the Interim Final Rule (IFR), were released Jan. 29 with an immediate impact on health insurance companies, managed care and managed behavioral...

On Exempla Saint Joseph Hospital's sprawling Denver, Colo., campus, between the hustle and bustle of sick children and busy doctors, is a one-floor, 25,000-square-foot psychiatric hospital dedicated to the treatment and recovery of clients with eating disorders. But unlike the rest of Saint Joseph's buzzing campus, the Eating Recovery Center maintains a quiet, serene environment. The Eating Recovery Center, founded in October 2008, provides...

Most of the youth involved in the juvenile justice system meet the criteria for a mental health disorder, substance use disorder, or both 1 . However, the juvenile justice system traditionally has not provided mental health interventions and mental health providers are not always equipped to deal with the juvenile justice population. Similarly, Bonham noted that the line between adolescent behaviors associated with mental illness and delinquent behaviors...

In their analyses of national healthcare reform, pundits typically look only at potential winners and losers, gains or losses. In doing so, they assume that those involved with healthcare will simply do more or less of the same things, post reform, that they did before. But such analysis misses the mark. With or without passage of the national healthcare legislation currently under consideration on Capitol Hill, we must recognize that healthcare reform...

When The Buckeye Ranch named Nicholas Rees as its president and CEO, a few people in Central Ohio's behavioral healthcare community expressed some surprise. The Grove City, Ohio-based organization provides a mix of inpatient and outpatient mental health and substance abuse services for children, and Rees would be only the third CEO in the Ranch's 50-year history. Unlike his predecessors, he had no clinical experience; in fact, his background...