Action Plan to Prevent, Care and Treat Viral Hepatitis. Live Webcast

Webcast from The National Press Club

http://www.visualwebcaster.com/hepatitisplan

First Amendment Lounge, 13th Floor
529 14th St, NW

Washington, DC 20045

Thursday, May 12
1:00pm - 2:00pm

Created by: Hepatitis C - Caring Ambassadors Program

It is our pleasure to invite you to join HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Dr. Howard Koh and other HHS officials on Thursday, May 12, 2011 as they announce the new

Action Plan to Prevent, Care and Treat Viral Hepatitis.

Though hepatitis is a leading cause of death in the U.S., many people who have it don’t know they are infected, so they are at greater risk for severe – or even fatal – complications of the disease, and at greater risk of unwittingly spreading the virus to others.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is committed to ensuring that new cases of viral hepatitis are prevented and that persons who are already infected are tested, informed about their infection, and provided with counseling, care, and treatment. Comprehensive and sustained efforts are necessary to effectively eliminate this epidemic. Please join HHS officials and community representatives as they discuss the actions necessary to achieve this goal.

Howard K. Koh, M.D., M.P.H., HHS Assistant Secretary for Health

Kevin Fenton, M.D., Ph.D., FFPH, Director, National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Jim Macrae, M.A., M.P.P., Associate Administrator for Primary Health Care, Health Resources and Services Administration

Michael Ninburg, Community Perspective

Su Wang, M.D., Provider Perspective

WHEN:
Thursday, May 12, 2011
1:00 – 2:00 p.m. ET

WHERE:
The National Press Club
First Amendment Lounge, 13th Floor
529 14th St, NW
Washington, DC 20045


To attend the event in person, please RSVP to rsvp@team-psa.com by 5:00 p.m. Monday, May 9, 2011.


The event will also be webcast live at: http://www.visualwebcaster.com/hepatitisplan

Health Care Reform and Prison Abolition

An Underconsidered Benefit of Health Reform: Fewer Prisoners

Washington Post

By Tracy Velazquez

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

As Congress debates the costs of reforming our health-care system, it should consider one significant collateral cost of not acting: maintaining the world's highest rate of incarceration. Every year, thousands of people are locked up in U.S. prisons and jails because they do not have access to health care to treat mental illness and drug addiction.

People with mental illnesses often end up in prisons, jails and juvenile facilities when they are unable to access treatment in their communities. According to the Department of Justice, one in four people in state prisons experienced mental health issues in the year preceding incarceration, and nearly two-thirds of people in local jails live with mental illness. Untreated mental illness often leads to public order offenses, crises that cause law enforcement to intervene, and "self-medicating" with alcohol and illegal drugs.

Parents of children with serious emotional disturbances who are uninsured or under-insured sometimes turn their own children in to the police, because their kids will get at least a minimum of treatment in the juvenile justice system. Prisons, jails, and juvenile facilities are now some of the largest providers of mental health services in the country.

People with no access to health care are also likely to return to prison after being released. In a visit I made to a state prison, an individual with a serious mental illness told me that earlier that year he had been released from prison with 10 days worth of medicine and $100 in cash. He was left on his own to figure out how to manage his illness. He relied on a local clinic for pharmaceutical "samples" for a time, but ended up homeless and self-medicating with alcohol and other drugs, which led to his being sent back to prison.

And regardless of the billions of dollars spent annually on the "war on drugs," people do use illicit substances. When they become addicted, many do not have access to effective treatment services. As a result, addicted people end up in prison or in jail for things that can include possession, distribution or other offenses that support addiction. Over half of people in state prisons meet criteria for drug dependence or abuse.

While some mental health and substance addiction treatment services are available for people in prison or jail, the Washington State Institute for Public Policy found that, for every dollar spent on treatment in prison, the community receives $5.88 in public safety benefits, but if treatment is provided in the community, the return is nearly $19.

If through improved access to health care we were to reduce our nation's incarceration rate by just 10 percent, the country could save roughly $5.5 billion annually. And this doesn't include the savings in courts, police, parole, and other related costs of incarceration.

Tracy Velazquez is the executive director of the Justice Policy Institute.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/07/AR2009100702939.html

Addiction: The Cost of Treatment Denial

Let's try to make sure that cuts within departments aren't made in essential areas which ultimately increase the cost paid by society...
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National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University


Prison Treatment Cuts Could Feed Recidivism in Calif.
November 20, 2009

An 80-percent reduction in prison addiction-treatment capacity could lead to a proportional increase in recidivism in California, some experts say.

The Contra Costa Times reported Nov. 12 that $1.2 billion in budget cuts for state prisons will mean that just 2,350 inmates will receive addiction treatment next year, down from 12,164. Nine-month programs will be cut to three months, which critics say could limit their effectiveness.

"Those inmates will have very little treatment service to deal with behavioral issues that they've spent years to develop, most of which was put on them from an early age," said Darrol Monfils, a counselor at the California Institution for Women. "Their chances of succeeding are slim."

"California prisoners will be paroling inmates with little or no rehabilitation," Monfils said. "They will be paroling with the same behaviors as they did when they arrived. Now, having said that, there will be a few exceptions to the rule, but they will be the larger minority."

A state corrections department spokesperson said the agency is "scientifically evaluating and assessing inmates, those at the highest risk of recidivism and so we are targeting our resources to that population group and identifying what their needs are."

David Conn, senior vice president for treatment provider Mental Health Systems, Inc., said the state made the cuts only reluctantly. "These were sort of last-minute budget cuts to balance the budget, and everyone agrees it's probably a foolish decision," he said. "Individuals who are incarcerated to support drug habits will not receive substance abuse treatment. The likelihood of them reoffending increases significantly."