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Selection occurs in several phases:
I. A keyword search is performed using a database that contains over
150 State and local newspapers. The keyword terms searched include:
alcohol and other drugs, substance abuse, mental health, mental illness,
mentally ill, alcoholism, chemical dependence or chemically dependent,
and behavioral health. These terms are then combined in turn with
a number of other search statements. These statements include:
Medicaid, Managed Care, State reform, Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act, HIPAA, parity, Employee Assistance Programs, County
behavioral health, including terms for substance abuse, alcoholism, drug
abuse, or mental health.
II. From this search, staff receive approximately 200 articles
with limited text every week. These articles include the title of
the article, the newspaper, and “key word context”—pieces of the
text surrounding key words. Approximately 25-30 articles are chosen at
this level for full text review. Articles are chosen at the broadest
level to cast a wide net.
These articles cover any type of executive, legislative, judicial,
provider or consumer level issue that impacts public sector behavioral
health. Editorials are excluded from all search levels.
III. After reading full text, approximately 15 articles are
chosen. The selection criteria at this level is based on
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Substantive issues, usually at the macro level in terms of State
and county public sector behavioral health policy and services. In
other words, articles addressing one provider’s issue, or one
consumer’s issue are usually not selected unless they are
representative of a larger system wide issue effecting State or
county policy and/or services.
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Interest to a variety of Stakeholders within a particular State
or Nationwide. These stakeholders include, but are not
limited to: staff at Medicaid, mental health, substance abuse,
criminal justice and child welfare agencies; State Medicaid
directors, mental health commissioners, and alcohol and drug abuse
directors; legislators and their staff; governor’s and their
staff; private providers and managed behavioral health care
organizations; consumer and family advocates; State affiliates for
national associations such as American Psychiatric Association,
American Nurses Association, National Community Mental Health
Council, community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America.
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Staff knowledge and experience. The project manager, with
over 20 years experience in State and National public sector
behavioral health policy, make article selections. Moreover,
the project team, has been tracking newspaper articles in this area
for the past 2 years and are familiar with every State’s public
sector behavioral health system. This knowledge base helps
staff select articles of interest and importance to the behavioral
health field.
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Keywords from the Headlines database. Although a multitude
of topics are chosen, some of the larger issues staff look for
include: changes in managed care programs, state budget issues,
parity legislation, patient bill of rights, access issues, provider
closures, lawsuits, procurement and contracting, funding and finance
increase and decreases, grievance and appeal, and performance
evaluations. A full list of database keywords is
attached. This closely reflects the types of substantive
issues staff use to select articles.
IV. In addition to newspaper tracking, staff also use criteria
noted above to select articles and information from a variety of
sources, including:
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On-line news from Open Minds
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American Health Line
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E-Health
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Kaiser Electronic Updates
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Mental Health Weekly, Mental Health Report, Alcohol and Drug
Abuse Weekly, Managed Behavioral Health Business News
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Information Express (includes journals such as Health Affairs,
Behavioral Health Care Tomorrow, JAMA, Community Mental Health
Journal, Administration and Policy in Mental Health, American
Journal of Public Health, Inquiry)
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NewsEdge Corporation
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State Web Sites
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State Contacts
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SAMHSA Contacts
Criteria for Selecting National News for Behavioral Health
Headlines
- Articles in the National section are chosen for their implications
and interest to State and county stakeholders, as described
above.
- Federal legislation is not covered, unless it is a major piece of
legislation that would have a significant impact on State and county
policy and services.
- Federal regulations are included.
- This section also covers new health services research in the
behavioral health field, news from SAMHSA, HCFA and other federal
agencies, Federal lawsuits as they relate to States and or counties,
and private MBHO issues on the National level.
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