Mental Hygiene

The director of the state's Mental Hygiene Administration, Oscar L. Morgan, submitted his resignation this week and will leave at the end of the month, state health officials said last night. Morgan, 49, of Annapolis, was appointed director of the mental health agency - part of the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene - in 1997, after three years as its deputy director. He was instrumental in implementing the state's public mental health system, run by Maryland Health Partners, a unit of Columbia-based Magellan Behavioral Health.

The consent forms teenagers must get signed by their parents before using a tanning bed could soon change. The State Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is recommending that the form include a clearer and more focused warning about the dangers of tanning beds, including the risk of cancer. Parents will also have to show a government-issued ID when signing the consent form for their children. The form will expire six months after being signed.   The health department was trying to better inform parents as they make the decision whether to allow their children to tan, said Dr. Clifford Mitchell, director of the state's Environmental Health Bureau.

Charles "Chuck" Busnuk, a retired Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene grants writer, died of cancer Aug. 31 at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. He was 64 and lived in Canton. Born in Baltimore and raised in Highlandtown, he was a 1966 graduate of Archbishop Curley High School, where he played the cymbals in the school band. He earned a bachelor's degree in geography from Morgan State University. In 1970, he became a juvenile counselor for the Juvenile Services Administration.

Maryland's pediatricians applaud President Barack Obama for his leadership in the wake of the gun violence at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. ("Obama pledges fight for gun laws," Jan. 17). The president's federal policy recommendations represent a necessary national commitment to addressing gun violence prevention and mental health access in a comprehensive, meaningful way. We are pleased that the president accepted American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations provided during our Jan. 3 meeting with the White House Task Force on Gun Violence Prevention.

R. Charles Dannettel Jr., who worked for 22 years as the chief of engineering for the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, died of pneumonia Thursday at Stella Maris Hospice. The White Hall resident was 79. A Baltimore native who was raised in Roland Park, he was a 1946 graduate of Polytechnic Institute. He earned an engineering degree at the Johns Hopkins University in 1950. Mr. Dannettel followed in the academic path of his father, who also graduated from Poly and earned an engineering degree from Johns Hopkins.

State health investigators disclosed Wednesday that they have uncovered evidence of "fraud or willful misrepresentation" by an Eastern Shore drug treatment and mental health clinic, including overbilling and charging for the work of physicians who were not at the facility. The inspector general of the state health department sent a letter Wednesday to Warwick Manor Behavioral Health Inc., near Cambridge, saying the state has suspended all Medicaid payments to the clinic. Warwick Manor treats roughly 2,000 patients a year and billed the state's Medicaid program $1.5 million last year.

The consent forms teenagers must get signed by their parents before using a tanning bed could soon change. The State Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is recommending that the form include a clearer and more focused warning about the dangers of tanning beds, including the risk of cancer. Parents will also have to show a government-issued ID when signing the consent form for their children. The form will expire six months after being signed.   The health department was trying to better inform parents as they make the decision whether to allow their children to tan, said Dr. Clifford Mitchell, director of the state's Environmental Health Bureau.

More than 500 Maryland moms delivered babies at home last year, but as such births become more popular, a dispute is brewing over whether to make the process a more viable option in the state. Home births are on the rise in the United States with deliveries jumping 29 percent between 2004 and 2009, according to data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released last week. Maryland home births increased at an even more rapid clip of 62.5 percent. But supporters of home births say that Maryland still places too many restrictions on obtaining a midwife, and they have started a grass roots movement to ease the standards.

Dr. Ernest M. Gruenberg, an expert on the epidemiology of mental disorders and a former chairman of the Department of Mental Hygiene at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, died Tuesday of multiple organ failure at Washington Hospital Center in Washington. He was 75 and lived in Bethesda.A proponent of community care for the mentally ill, Dr. Gruenberg retired in 1981 after heading the department at Hopkins since 1975. He also served as a professor of psychiatry in the medical school.

Leonard E. Albert, retired supervising budget manager for the Maryland Department of Budget and Fiscal Planning, died of lymphoma March 10 at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The Pikesville resident was 78. Mr. Albert was born in Baltimore and raised on Park Heights Avenue. He graduated from City College in 1943 and served in the Navy as a pharmacist's mate from 1945 to 1946. He earned a bachelor's degree from the Johns Hopkins University in 1948 and an accounting certificate from the Baltimore College of Commerce in 1962.

Baltimore, Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties are getting sprayed for mosquitoes and health officials are warning residents to take precautions as the nation copes with the worst season of West Nile Virus since the disease was discovered in the United States in 1999. One person in Maryland has died from the disease this summer and 21 have contracted it, according to the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Nationally, the potentially fatal disease, spread by mosquitoes that pick it up from infected birds, has afflicted 1,993 people, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Charles "Chuck" Busnuk, a retired Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene grants writer, died of cancer Aug. 31 at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. He was 64 and lived in Canton. Born in Baltimore and raised in Highlandtown, he was a 1966 graduate of Archbishop Curley High School, where he played the cymbals in the school band. He earned a bachelor's degree in geography from Morgan State University. In 1970, he became a juvenile counselor for the Juvenile Services Administration.

Maryland health officials have activated a state heat emergency plan, and some counties have followed suit, with temperatures already topping 90 degrees by 11 a.m. Wednesday. The state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is warning residents to be wary of heat-related illnesses like heat stroke and heat exhaustion. Heat stroke symptoms include  dry red skin, convulsions, disorientation, delirium and coma. Heat exhaustion is a milder form of heat stroke and can cause  extreme weakness, muscle cramps, nausea, or headache.

As Memorial Day approaches and the temperatures rise, some state health officials are reminding residents to take care of themselves and their children and neighbors. The state is activating its heat emergency website, dhmh.maryland.gov/extremeheat , which has information about preventing death and illness. Heat advisories will be issued when it feels like it's at least 105 degrees after heat and humidity are factored. Health officials say at this heat level heat stroke and exhaustion are common.

Want to know how many people have asthma or diabetes in the county where you live? A new state web portal was recently launched that provides this and other health data for every county in Maryland. The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene partnered with the Hilltop Institute at the University of Maryland at Baltimore County to create the website that uses data about Medicaid recipients.  The website can be found at http://www.md-medicaid.org/ia-maps/ .  The interactive website has data on chronic diseases, such as asthma, diabetes and hypertension.

Working in tandem with the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Harford County Health Department has launched its Local Health Improvement Process for identifying the county's critical health needs and targeting them for action. The Harford County Local Health Improvement Process is part of a statewide initiative, the State Health Improvement Process, which is addressing 39 key health objectives, including those promoting healthy babies, healthy social environments, safe physical environments, infectious disease prevention, chronic disease prevention, and access to health care.

More than 250 people opposing the state's plan to close its Crownsville mental hospital argued last night that shutting the 90-year-old facility will produce more costs than savings. "This is not rocket science. I'm not even an accountant. I'm a social worker," said Michael McGuiness, who works at a drug treatment center that leases space in the hospital complex. "You're looking in the wrong direction." State officials have said that closing the 200-bed Crownsville Hospital Center would save more than $11 million next year.

Lyme disease cases in Maryland increased 17 percent last year, according to figures released recently by the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Officials believe the increase is because of better public awareness and reporting.There were 493 confirmed cases reported in 1997, compared with 423 in 1996, said Dr. Clifford Johnson, the state's public health veterinarian.The disease is transmitted by ticks and symptoms include a circular, expanding reddish rash.Pub Date: 5/12/98

The state of Maryland is seeking doctors willing to practice in needy areas of the state, in exchange for up to $50,000 to repay student loans. The Maryland Loan Assistance Repayment Program was launched in 1996 and 157 primary care doctors have gone through the Program. Currently, 30 are employed in Baltimore city and county and Anne Arundel, Garrett and Worcester county. “Having a sufficient supply of primary care physicians across the state is critical to improving the health status of Maryland citizens,” said Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, secretary of the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene , in a statement.

Dr. John Leake Pitts, a retired pediatrician who during a long career in public health had been the acting Anne Arundel County health officer, died of cancer Wednesday at his Annapolis Roads home. He was 85. Born in Roanoke, Va., he was the son of John Leake Pitts Sr., a pharmacist, and Mary B. Allen, a homemaker and schoolteacher. As a young man he worked the soda fountain at his father's store. After attending Roanoke College, he graduated from the the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond.