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Intensive outpatient and partial hospitalization or day treatment programs can provide more intensive levels of care with multiple types of therapy, more frequent sessions with mental health professionals, and clinically informed care coordination and case management. This observation on residential treatment is included in a new white paper released this month by the National Association for Behavioral Healthcare (NABH). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an effort to help the public better understand the mental health implications of gaming, an international foundation and a public health nonprofit this month released a white paper, calling it a first‐of‐its‐kind report, that analyzes the potential role of gaming as an innovative solution to the increasing mental health crisis in this country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health care payments continue to evolve and shift away from fee‐for‐service payment systems that typically reward volume and move to value‐based payment (VBP) models that incentivize high‐quality, cost‐effective care. While this is happening more for physical health services, there's more uncertainty about the role of behavioral health. A new white paper aims to tackle that question with information about existing models that have been implemented along with recommendations for federal and state policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores recent research trends in human osteology, based on articles published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology (AJPA) during two 5-year intervals: 1980--1984 and 1996--2000. Topical "visibility" is measured in terms of article counts; "impact" is estimated through citation indices. Our results indicate that human osteologists continue to publish a range of methodological, analytical, and descriptive research papers that address a broad array of subjects. Analytical articles are cited more frequently than descriptive articles and thus have higher impact, reflecting the discipline's continued commitment to problem-oriented research. Differences in publication patterns exist between scholars during early and later stages of their careers. Articles published by students and Ph.D.s within 2 years of their doctoral degree are more frequently descriptive than analytical, when compared to people with longer career histories. Topics such as pathology, forensic anthropology, and biodistance modeling remain highly visible, while articles on the dentition have waned. An increase in functional research directed toward the postcranial skeleton is also reflected in our data. While continued visibility for morphological investigations is apparent, the impact of recently developed applications in bone chemistry and molecular anthropology is amply documented in our data, particularly during the more recent survey years., ((c) 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.)

The article focuses on the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) working paper from Jennifer L. Doleac and Anita Mukherjee, which found that greater opioid abuse and opioid-related crime has resulted from laws expanding access to the overdose-rescue drug naloxone. According to the study, there is no evidence that naloxone leads more people to search for fentanyl.

A white paper from Canada and the United States focuses on collaboration between the two countries on their commitment to deal with the overdose crisis. "Substance Use and Harms During COVID‐19 and Approaches to Federal Surveillance and Response," issued Sept. 27, states that the increase in "substance use harms and deaths" during COVID‐19 is partly due to a decrease in access to services. The white paper itself focuses on the restrictions to methadone access in the United States and says little about the Canadian rules, but they are much more lenient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An over‐reliance on federal block grants and "one‐off" funding initiatives has left the addiction treatment system under‐resourced to respond to an addiction crisis that stands to be at least as deadly as COVID‐19 during the span of the Biden administration, a trio of prominent researchers argue in a newly released policy paper. The authors suggest that the new administration and Congress should prioritize efforts to build on what they consider the most impactful developments in improving access and quality in addiction treatment, such as Medicaid expansion and parity mandates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

EDITOR'S SUMMARY At the fifth SIG/MET workshop, held during the 2015 ASIS&T Annual Meeting, the group shared papers, posters and discussions exploring developments in information measurement. The opening session on bibliometric case studies examined interdisciplinarity among consumers of academic research, increased funding for coauthors of previously funded authors and a classification of acknowledgement types. A session on information retrieval in relation to bibliometrics included studies on overcoming the limits of computational linguistics in very large corpora, an interactive context explorer of bibliographic data called Ariadne and comparative approaches to visualizing the structure of a very large dataset. The alternative metrics session covered application of altmetrics for analyzing public policy documents, a novel usage indicator promoting article discovery, the basis for connections among faculty members using Twitter and the heavy use of Twitter among academics. The daylong workshop included awards for best papers, best student papers and two featured presentations on the application and use of metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the link between learning disabilities and addiction in the United States. Identification of learning disabilities in children; Prevention of alcohol and drug addiction; Impact of learning disabilities on the behavior of school-age children; Need for treatment professionals to tailor addiction treatments.

There have been many calls for federal changes to address the opioid epidemic, but one from Beau Kilmer, senior policy researcher and director of the Drug Policy Research Center at the RAND Corporation, released last week is a particularly interesting distillation that doesn't omit pros and cons for each strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on a new working paper from the American Council on Education (ACE) that could help student aid leaders and college administrators in developing conflict of interest policies and procedures in the U.S. The report also aims to help universities and colleges improve their ethical institutional practices. It proposes basic principles and identifies questions and criteria to guide the evaluation of policies and situations that may raise ethical concerns. In addition, it provides questions and considerations to help guide institutional review.

The article reports on the move by student aid officers to oppose plans to use an auction to decide student loan terms and subsidy rates in the U.S. In a new discussion paper, the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) stated that the new auction system for parent PLUS loans could result in fewer borrower benefits and higher costs. According to Justin Draeger, NASFAA assistant director for communications, the said system could reduce competition and increase taxpayer costs. Moreover, the program will auction parent PLUS loans to the student loan providers that take the lowest subsidy rate from the federal government for the right to be a state's exclusive loan originator.

EDITOR'S SUMMARY Special Interest Group/Classification Research (SIG/CR) explored the significance of studies on classification and its real world effects through paper presentations by students and faculty at the 2015 ASIS&T Annual Meeting workshop. Presenters looked at the effects of approaches to classifying and structuring knowledge and at the ways classification models frame similarities and differences and influence views of society and the world. Among the papers on specific models and cases were presentations on capturing situation semantics in metadata, classifications of violence and disasters and historians' perspectives on organizing information. Fundamental philosophical positions were shown to inform classifications, and the effects of classificatory systems evolve with time. Other papers addressed the cultural, political and theoretical consequences of compiling a controlled vocabulary, outsourcing metadata and information resources for classification of social and cultural issues. The workshop ended with the announcement of new officers and presentation of student scholarships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the preparation of discussion draft, containing a wide range of proposed reforms and additions to the law on tax-exempt organizations by the Senate Finance Committee staff in the U.S. Recognition of the proposed tax-exempt status of an organization by the Internal Revenue Service; Statement of the criteria for tax-exemption for a nonprofit credit counseling organization; Rules of compensations for public charities.

Reports on the Physician Leadership on National Drug Policy's call for a change in national drug policy emphasizing treatment, prevention, education, parity and stigma reduction over interdiction in the United States.

Case name: Letter to: James Madison University, No. 11‐16‐2148 (OCR 10/14/16). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary manner by which states have been using Medicaid to expand access to substance use disorder (SUD) treatment may actually be making it more difficult for individuals to receive the services most appropriate to their needs, a newly released paper suggests. Moreover, this preferred strategy in many cases violates the law, authors with the National Health Law Program contend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article looks at a paper authored by the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) which calls for the banning of medical marijuana due to the oath of physicians to do no harm to patients. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's policy on smoking marijuana as a means of drug delivery is reviewed. The ASAM's view on the addictive properties of marijuana are discussed.

The article offers information on several Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) awards and the International Paper Competition as of 2015. Topics include the ASIS&T history awards, both the research and best paper honors, providing cash awards to their winners, the deadlines and nomination requirements varying among the ASIS&T Annual Awards, and the 15th annual International Paper Competition to be held by the SIS&T Special Interest Group/ International Information Issues (SIG/III) which will be based on the theme of "Information Science with Impact: Research in and for the Community."

The article focuses on the white paper "Best Practices in Risk Management for Higher Education" by PMA Companies Inc., a higher education risk management consulting firm in the U.S.

The article offers information on a white paper titled "Emergency Notification & Warning Systems" From the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators (IACLEA). The paper, created by a committee of IACLEA members from institutions across the U.S. and technology vendors, urges safety leaders at campuses to perform due diligence tests on all vendors. Recommendations of best practices offered by the paper for institutions considering any type of warning systems are outlined.

Reports on the near-completion of a position paper on the behavioral health managed care programs for the public sector being developed by the American Managed Behavioral Healthcare Association (AMBHA) and the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD). Other groups joining the project; Examples of statements found in the paper. INSET: AMBHA to focus on consumer issues for next dialogue paper..

Reports on the release of a position paper identifying the unmet needs of children with social, behavioral and emotional problems by a coalition of leading mental health, education and children's advocates in the U.S. Release of the position paper to support congressional reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

The article reports on the release of three papers by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in the U.S. on evidence-based approaches to treating individuals with co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders. These papers, which include the "Services Integration," "Systems Integration" and "The Epidemiology of Co-Occurring Substance Abuse and Mental Disorders," were developed by SAMHSA'S Co-Occurring Center for Excellence.

The article reports that the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has released three overview papers detailing approaches to treating individuals with co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders. The overview papers were titled "Services Integration," "Systems Integration," and "The Epidemiology of Co-Occurring Substance Abuse and Mental Disorders."

EDITOR'S SUMMARY At the 2015 ASIS&T Annual Meeting, Special Interest Group/Social Informatics (SIG/SI) celebrated its 11th research symposium and the more than 100 panels, papers and posters presented over the years. The theme, 'The Impacts of Social Informatics Research,' was evident in studies illustrating social informatics in a variety of contexts. Speakers explored the use of communications technology in marginalized communities and language use in informal chat about illegal behavior in online communities. Presenters also examined human rights in Indonesia, taking a value-oriented approach in social informatics research, efforts to create a safer internet and ways big data marginalize individuals through algorithms used in quantitative analyses. A panel considered where social informatics fits in the IT curriculum of iSchools. An examination of social connectedness through digital channels and devices won the Best Paper Award. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the release of a white paper by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in the U.S. The paper, entitled "Substance Abuse and Suicide Prevention: Evidence and Implications," focuses on knowledge and emphasizes the importance of continued research.

Long before COVID‐19, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was funded to develop a response to the opioid epidemic. This initiative, called the Helping to End Addiction Long‐term (HEAL) study, led to the $350 million HEALing Communities Study launched in May 2019 by the NIH and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA; see "NIH HEAL awards go to four sites," ADAW, April 29, 2019, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adaw.32345). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on new working paper which offers guidelines regarding conflicts of interest released by the American Council on Education in the U.S. It relates that the working paper proposes basic principles and identifies questions and criteria to guide financial aid and admissions staffers review of policies and situations that may raise ethical concerns.

As Scott E. Hadland, M.D., senior author of a dramatic paper published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine puts it, drug use among adolescents is not getting more common — it's at its lowest in almost 50 years. But it's getting more deadly, due to fentanyl. In "The Overdose Crisis among U.S. Adolescents," by Hadland and lead author Joseph Friedman, Ph.D., the problem is laid out clearly: After guns and car crashes, overdose (OD) deaths are now the third leading cause of death among adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that the twenty-five Nobel Prize-winning scientists have signed a letter to Congress and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) calling for all tax-payer funded research to be made freely available. NIH Chief Elias Zerhouni has been meeting with publishers and scientists to discuss a June House Appropriations Committee directive to make electronic copies of NIH funded research available for free within six months of publication. Zerhouni has said that a balanced policy that allows publishers to continue to play a major role is needed.

Reports the federal funding for mental health services in the United States for fiscal 2002. Estimates of public-health grants; Efforts of the government to address public health needs; Proposal to establish a Commission on Health aimed at improving the service delivery system.

Presents topics scheduled for discussions at the Behavioral Healthcare and Informatics Tomorrow conference in Washington D.C. on September 22-25, 2002. Compliance with the False Claims Act; Response to terrorism; Measurement of organizational performance.

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry's (AACAP's) Program Committee has issued a Call for Papers for submission of abstracts of original investigations for consideration in the 2024 Annual Meeting of AACAP, October 14‐19, in Seattle. AACAP is planning for an in‐person meeting in Seattle and as such, will require all presenters to be in‐person in Seattle for their presentation. The Call for Papers deadline is Feb. 15, 2024 (11:59 p.m. EST). For more information, visit https://aacap.confex.com/aacap/2024/cfp.cgi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the release of two papers by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to help treatment professionals, policymakers and others understand and address the needs of people with co-occurring substance use and mental health disorders in the U.S. The release is part of its goal which is to expand the knowledge base about treatment advances, build treatment capacity and foster evidence-based practices.

The article announces the 2015 ASIS&T Award winners including Michael E.D. Koenig who is the recipient of the 2015 ASIS&T Award of Merit, Michael Leach as the recipient of the ASIS&T's Watson Davis Award and Denise Agosto as the recipient of the 2015 Thomson Reuters Outstanding Information Science Teacher Award.

The article discusses a court case wherein a police incident at a dormitory in Michigan State University (MSU) led to a request for detailed information by the student-run periodical, "State News," invoking the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). In State News v. Mich. State Univ., the Michigan Court of Appeals reversed the trial court's determination that an MSU police report was exempt from disclosure under Michigan's FOIA. The court of appeals found the arguments of both parties to be weak.

SIG/MET presented its third Workshop on Informetric and Scientometric Research at the ASIS&T November 2013 Annual Meeting. Established in 2010, the group brings together those interested in all aspects of informetrics, including bibliometrics, scientometrics and webometrics, as well as metrics related to citation network analysis, visualization and scholarly communication. The meeting featured posters on measuring research in the context of academic monitoring and on the transition of meeting abstracts to peer-reviewed journal articles. Thirteen papers were presented in sessions addressing the application of metrics and new indicators. A session on topics beyond the journal article included discussions on Twitter hashtag use, motivations for blog posts and advisees' career success relative to advisers' scholarly activity. SIG/MET recognized students for outstanding contributions on statistical analysis of citation rates, cognitive aspects of peer review and indicators for research evaluation. The symposium concluded with discussion of the availability of a Scopus dataset for arts and humanities journals for research use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that in 2013 Melody M. Madriad, Maryam Mousavizadeh and Ana Mae Kristine U. Hubilla were winners of the Association for Information Science & Technology International Information Issues Special Interest Group's International Paper Contest and that Monica Garfield, Alan Dennis and Eden Litt were winners of the association's Social Informatics Special Interest Group's Best Social Informatics Papers awards.

The article discussed how a paper released by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) entitled "Prevalence of Alcohol Dependence Among US Adult Drinkers, 2009-2011" accidentally promoted heavy drinking and misconstrued diagnostic criteria for alcohol dependence. It mentions that mass media widely circulated the paper, using the familiar synonym "alcoholics" instead of "alcohol dependence" that added to denial.

The year ended on a high note for the mental health field with the release of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 (also known as the "Omnibus"). The omnibus appropriations funding package, which passed Dec. 23, 2022 by the House of Representatives and earlier in the week by the U.S. Senate, contains key mental health provisions, including significant increases for the Community Mental Health Services Block Grant and for Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 2017 – 2022, law enforcement seizures across the United States of mushrooms containing psilocybin increased dramatically, according to a new study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The number of law enforcement seizures increased from 402 seizures in 2017 to 1,396 in 2022. In addition, the total weight of psilocybin mushrooms seized by law enforcement increased from 226 kg (498 lbs.) seized in 2017 compared with 844 kg (1,861 lbs.) in 2022. This analysis, published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence, was led by researchers at New York University (NYU) Langone Health in New York City, and the University of Florida, Gainesville. The data used for the analysis were collected through the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program, a grant program aimed at reducing drug trafficking and misuse administered by the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Though law enforcement seizures do not necessarily reflect prevalence of use, they represent an indicator of the availability of illicit drugs. "We are in the middle of a rapidly evolving cultural, media, and legal landscape when it comes to psychedelics, and we need data to help shape informed and appropriate public health strategies," said NIDA Director Nora D. Volkow, M.D., in announcing the research publication last week. "Moving forward, we must continue to track data on the availability of psychedelics, patterns in use, and associated health effects to guide efforts in promoting accurate education and reducing potential harms among people who do plan to use psychedelic drugs." Adverse effects of psilocybin mushrooms, such as "bad trips," are marked by "distorted thinking, perceptual changes, putting oneself in physical danger, and intense feelings of fear, anxiety, and confusion," according to NIDA. "People who take psychedelic drugs like psilocybin may also experience short‐term side effects such as raised blood pressure and heart rate, agitation, confusion, vomiting, or nausea, which may be severe and require medical attention." Joseph J. Palamar, Ph.D., M.P.H., associate professor at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, co‐investigator on the NIDA‐funded National Drug Early Warning System (NDEWS), and lead author on the paper, said "Research studies suggesting its effectiveness in treating mental health issues and extensive positive media coverage may lead some people to seek 'shrooms' outside of medical contexts. People who use psilocybin outside of medical supervision need to be educated about risks associated with use." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article talks about the concept of civil commitment for substance use disorders (SUDs), discussing a research paper released by Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation. Topics discussed include the views of some people that addiction is a disease and its treatment should not be coerced; a paper by the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) on it; and the benefits of involuntary commitment laws for substance use disorders.

The article reports on the court decision concerning the case, Letter to: Parker, in the U.S. Under the case, the court ruled that a university has the right to require students to submit their papers and assignments to a plagiarism screening service before handing them in. It is revealed in the case that the documents and papers in the sole possession and control of a student are not education records protected by Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

In a lengthy paper for the left‐leaning think tank the Center for American Progress, author David Madland refers to work by two academics who found that “an even bigger reason for the decline of unions than corporate resistance to organizing drives is that unionized companies in the US have added fewer jobs over time than their nonunion counterparts.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]