Behavioral Health Management articles from September 2002

Behavioral Health Management archives from September 2002

Human resources problems move to the fore. (Editorial).
September 1, 2002... With a "soft" economy and rising unemployment, you would think that human resource (HR) management issues would be a less immediate concern for most behavioral health organizations. Unfortunately, such is not the case. Most organizations in the...

Military mental healthcare at the cutting edge. (Washington Insights).
September 1, 2002... The United States military deserves credit for major achievements in mental health practice. During the Second World War, studies of "combat fatigue" greatly advanced understanding of mind-body interaction. Researchers working on "psychological...

Addiction treatment "success" is killing us. (Guest Editorial).
September 1, 2002... There was a time when most people believed that alcoholism was a moral problem, an issue of lack of willpower and weakness--anything but a healthcare problem. There was hardly any treatment available for the primary disorder of alcoholism, and...

Building competitive cooperation. (The SATVA View).(Software and Technology Vendors' Association )
September 1, 2002... In an unprecedented display of intraindustry cooperation, leading behavioral healthcare software and technology vendors have teamed up in the Software and Technology Vendors' Association (SATVA), to address industry issues and assist healthcare...

Searching for stability amidst change. (Recruitment).
September 1, 2002... From a staffing perspective, it has been clear that the behavioral health industry continues to be in a state of change and uncertainty. This has been particularly true in the managed-care arena, as a great many of the big "players" continue to...

Today's trends. (Big Benefits Package).
September 1, 2002... The demand for top- and midlevel managers has overshadowed the demand for other staff levels, particularly in smaller nonprofit organizations, as opposed to the larger MCOs, where there appears to be a shrinking demand overall as a result of...

Questions and answers on executive recruitment. (Recruitment).
September 1, 2002... How has demand for top- and mid-level managers evolved in the behavioral health field over the past year? Post 9/11, there has been a slowing of new positions opening up. Demand now arises primarily from the need to replace executives who...

Winning the "war for talent": how behavioral health organizations can address their most complex and challenging task: staffing. (Cover Story).
September 1, 2002... In the behavioral health and social services field, the challenge of recruiting and retaining top-performing employees (executive, clinical and frontline) is a pressing issue and is sometimes referred to as the "war for talent." Specific...

`It's time to show people we are professionals....'.
September 1, 2002... If there's any portion of behavioral healthcare's human capital that tends to be unfairly devalued, it just might be the substance-abuse treatment sector. Excluded from health plans or carved out at best, viewed by some medical professionals as...

Why work/life and EAP should be integrated: dealing with the whole person is the only real way to problem solve for employees.(employee assistance programs)
September 1, 2002... The strength of the old maxim "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts" likely has something to do with the truth of it, and explains the increasing popularity of the holistic approach to problem solving in many organizations, from...

Disease management: behavioral healthcare's road to carve-in status: will this be the answer to the frustrations of care integration? (Feature Article).
September 1, 2002... Forty-year-old Lisa visited her primary care physician (PCP) at least three times a month with different ailments--stomach problems, backaches, "asthma," urinary problems, etc. Each visit resulted in referrals to specialists and expensive...

Seven ways to think about ethics: in behavioral healthcare, solutions to ethical problems might not be as clear-cut as they seem. Try this system ... (Feature Article).
September 1, 2002... Many organizations offer ethics training to their professional staff. This training is typically general and deals with the extreme breaches in ethical behavior. While codes of ethics that are typically reviewed during training are helpful...

New SSRI approved. (Product Spotlight).(selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor )(Lexapro)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Forest Laboratories, Inc., has announced that Lexapro[TM] (escitalopram oxalate), a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), has been approved by the FDA for the treatment of major depressive disorder. Lexapro's approval was based on...

HIPAA implementation assistance. (Product Spotlight).(UNI/CARE Systems)
September 1, 2002... UNI/CARE Systems provides HIPAA-related tools and documents specifically designed to assist with the implementation of HIPAA guidelines. Resources available include software, a HIPAA white paper covering all aspects of the HIPAA initiatives and...

Web-based marketing/PR management. (Product Spotlight).(Workplace Options customers can access Fisher Vista's HR Marketer)
September 1, 2002... Customers of Workplace Options now have access to HR Marketer, a Web-based service by Fisher Vista that aggregates all the information necessary to implement and manage effective marketing and public relations initiatives in the human capital...

Online SAP training. (Product Spotlight).(substance abuse professionals)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... ETP, Inc., has launched SAP Online, a Web-based training program for substance abuse professionals (SAPs). The program was designed to meet new training and testing guidelines developed by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). SAP Online...

Reaching out to retain staff. (Views From The Trenches).
September 1, 2002... Human capital--it's the bread and butter of behavioral healthcare delivery. Staff are hard to hire, harder to fire and hardest to hold onto. The indispensable ones often define the reputation (and success or failure) of an agency. Small wonder...