Mental Heath Laws

In response to the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act being signed into law, several research groups in Colorado organized the First Annual PACT Act Research Symposium for Veteran Health. The 2-day symposium was interested in research relevant to military exposures with a primary focus on respiratory and mental health. Information on the PACT Act, data sources in the Department of Veteran Affairs and DOD, and research opportunities at the Veteran Affairs were presented...

BACKGROUND: Despite Britain, Colombia, and some Mexican states sharing a health exception within their abortion laws, access to abortion under the health exception varies widely. This study examines factors that result in heterogeneous application of similar health exception laws and consequences for access to legal abortion. Our research adds to previous literature by comparing implementation of similar abortion laws across countries to identify strategies for full implementation of the health exception...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: Many states require screening of individuals arrested for driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol to determine recidivism risk and the need for treatment based on severity of alcohol problems. Several screening instruments use DSM-IV criteria for alcohol abuse and dependence to assess alcohol problems in this population, but whether they adequately measure alcohol problems in individuals with DUIs has not been examined. In addition, gender differences in DUI samples suggest that female offenders have more severe alcohol problems than male offenders...

OBJECTIVES: Notwithstanding recent migration policy amendments, there is concern that Australian asylum policies have disproportionately burdened the health and wellbeing of onshore asylum seekers. There may be a case to be made that Australian governments have been in violation of the right to health of this population. The objective of this paper is to critically examine these issues and assess the implications for public health practice. METHODS: The author undertook a review of the recent empirical literature on the health effects of post-migration stressors arising from Australian policies of immigration detention, temporary protection and the restriction of Medicare to some asylum seekers...

Transporting an individual in psychiatric crisis to an emergency department is often frustrating for both law enforcement and mental health professionals. To facilitate collaboration between police and mental heath professionals in crisis cases, some communities have developed prebooking diversion programs that rely on specialized crisis response sites where police can drop off individuals in psychiatric crisis and return to their regular patrol duties. These programs identify detainees with mental disorders and work with diversion staff, community-based providers, and the courts to produce a mental health disposition in lieu of jail...