NEWS
By Laura Smitherman | March 2, 2009
Even a $3.7 billion federal lifesaver isn't enough to solve all of Maryland's budget quandaries. While the state is now flush with federal dollars for education, Medicaid and infrastructure projects, other state functions, among them the prison system, mental health programs and juvenile justice, are facing significant cutbacks. In some cases, lawmakers and advocates have questioned how agencies will be able to function within constrained budgets. Meanwhile, the economy continues to deteriorate and state officials are bracing for more bad news later this month when the latest estimates of tax revenues are due. Analysts have warned that annual collections have fallen as much as $500 million below expectations for the current budget year and next.
NEWS
By New York Times News Service | July 5, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Contractors who have worked in Iraq are returning home with the same kinds of combat-related mental health problems that afflict U.S. military personnel, according to contractors, industry officials and mental health experts. But, they say, the private workers are largely left on their own to find care, and their problems often go ignored or are inadequately treated. A vast second army of contractors - up to 180,000 Americans, Iraqis and other foreigners - are working for the U.S. government in Iraq.
NEWS
By Jennifer Skalka | September 19, 2007
The Maryland State Police are requiring people who want to buy firearms to sign a release allowing authorities to check whether they have ever resided in a state mental health institution for 30 days or more. In the wake of the Virginia Tech killings this year, Gov. Martin O'Malley and state Health Secretary John M. Colmers gave their blessing to the state police to broaden the firearms application -- an effort, officials said, to prevent the mentally ill from obtaining guns. Before the change, "we were relying on your honesty as an applicant that you were telling us the truth about your mental health history," said Greg Shipley, a spokesman for the state police.
NEWS
August 31, 2007
207 -- The number of murders or unjustified homicides in Baltimore so far, as of 12:01 a.m. Thursday. By Aug. 30, 2006, the city had recorded 179 murders. SOURCE BALTIMORE POLICE DEPARTMENT Saturday Mailbox XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXX FIRE STUFF Kevin........ generally speaking, the red cross is a non profit organization. We work under a ....our basic charter eminates from congress. Red cross charted to resond to disasters in 1907....goes back tko clara barton. That's kind of where the beginina comes from.
NEWS
By Henry Weinstein | July 24, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO -- The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs was accused in a lawsuit yesterday of "shameful failures" in providing medical and mental health care to injured servicemen returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to a 73-page lawsuit, which is proposed for class-action status on behalf of hundreds of thousands of veterans, "The VA's outmoded systems for providing medical care and disability benefits [have been overwhelmed by] the huge influx of injured troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan."
NEWS
October 20, 2007
Let's fund the care kids need to flourish In telling the tale of the tragic death of Davon Qualls, The Sun's article "Failed by the system - taken by the streets" (Oct. 14) puts a name and a face to our nation's failure to adequately fund effective mental health services for youths. This senseless death is upsetting but not surprising. National data show that only one out of three children with a serious emotional disturbance receives needed mental health services, and for those who do get services, help often arrives years after the onset of illness.
NEWS
By New York Times News Service | April 20, 2007
BLACKSBURG, Va. -- Officials at Virginia Tech defended yesterday their decision to allow the gunman in Monday's rampage to return to campus after he was released from a psychiatric facility, even though they were aware of his troubled mental history and potential for violence. Cho Seung-Hui, 23, the student who killed himself and 32 others, received outpatient psychiatric care ordered for him after he was involuntarily hospitalized and reportedly suicidal in late 2005. Christopher Flynn, director of the campus counseling service, said the university had played no role in monitoring Cho's psychiatric treatment.
NEWS
By Arlene Baker | May 27, 2007
TUESDAY Mental Health Agency -- The Anne Arundel County Mental Health Agency Board of Directors will meet at 4 p.m. at 2664 Riva Road, Heritage Office Complex, Annapolis, to review and implement a policy for individuals accessing public mental health services. 410-222-7858. Odenton Oversight Committee -- The Odenton Town Center Plan Oversight Committee will meet at 6:30 p.m. at the Western District Police Station, 8273 Telegraph Road. The committee is an advocate for Odenton community property owners, developers and businesses in the growth management area.
NEWS
By THOMAS F. SCHALLER | April 4, 2007
"Help is on the way." That's what presidential candidate George W. Bush promised our military seven years ago. Of all the broken promises of the Uniter-Not-Divider's 2000 campaign of mass deception, this has to be the most shameful, because our military, though still the strongest in the world, is under severe duress. Strains can be seen almost everywhere you look. Before he left his position as Army chief of staff last month, Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker told the Senate Armed Services Committee that our troops in the field are underserved because of a lack of support personnel, such as translators.
NEWS
By Jacques Kelly | January 30, 2007
Barbara W. Cahn, an executive with mental health care insurers who earlier had set up an innovative program to help new widows cope, died of cancer Sunday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The Woodbrook resident was 64. Born Barbara Weissman in Wilkes Barre, Pa., she came to Baltimore to attend Goucher College, where she graduated in 1964 with a bachelor's degree in American studies. She married attorney Charles Cahn II in 1963, and while raising their three children, she became a Sinai Hospital volunteer and won the 1968 Harry Greenstein Award from Associated Jewish Charities for her work with the charity's young leadership.