State Budget Pressure Threatens to Cut Senior Support Services
from the Chicago Tribune
Marjorie Fortner brings her 89-year-old mother to Addus Adult Day Center in Homewood every morning. For the mom, the program means someone will make sure she has a hot meal, takes her medication and socializes with others. For Fortner, it means that she can go to work every morning, knowing her mom is safe. "Without it, I couldn't earn a living," said the lawyer, whose mother suffers from Alzheimer's and congestive heart failure. "She can't be left alone." But starting next month, both may lose that sense of security. More

BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois Changes - Implications for Social Work Clinicians
from NASW IL
On Oct.1, many clinical social workers, both in private and agency practice, received notification from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois that the company has expanded its contract with Magellan Behavioral Health Services to include the coordination and management of outpatient mental health and chemical dependency services. This will affect all PPO members whose behavioral health benefits are currently administered by BCBSIL. The expansion is effective Jan. 1, 2010. More

SAMHSA Honors The Soloist, Grey's Anatomy, United States Of Tara, and Mental Health Consumer Leaders at 2009 Voice Awards
from Reuters
Writers and producers from The Soloist, Grey's Anatomy, United States of Tara, 90210, and others were honored recently by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration for increasing awareness of mental health issues and the power of recovery at the 2009 Voice Awards. The event was hosted by Academy Award-winning actor and mental health consumer Richard Dreyfuss at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles. More

Governor Quinn Boosts Child Care for Illinois' Working Families State's New Policy Supported by $74 Million in ARRA Funding
from Illinois Government News Network
Gov. Pat Quinn and Michelle Saddler, Secretary of the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS), announced new policy and administrative changes designed to provide greater assistance to low-income working parents struggling to keep their jobs while coping with child care needs. The changes, which were unveiled at El Valor in Pilsen Little Village, are being implemented because Illinois has received $74 million in one-time child care funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The funds will invest in low-income working families with young children who are fighting to keep their jobs. More

Report: Teens Living in Unsafe Conditions at St. Charles Juvenile Detention Center
from Chicago Tribune
Teenagers being held at the state's juvenile detention center in St. Charles are housed in unsafe and unkempt conditions caused by years of neglect, according to a report by a nonprofit prison watchdog group. The 125-acre Illinois Youth Center at St. Charles, which houses 275 male teenagers, is in poor condition and is inadequately staffed, according to a study by the John Howard Association. For example, most sleeping rooms offer opportunities for the teenagers to harm themselves, and staff members cannot consistently observe them. More

VA to Make it Easier for Vets to Qualify for Combat Stress Compensation
from the Associated Press via the Chicago Tribune
Female soldiers and others serving in dangerous roles behind the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan have long complained it was hard to prove their combat experience when applying for disability for post-traumatic stress disorder. That could soon change.The Veterans Affairs Department has proposed reducing the paperwork required for veterans to show their experience caused combat-related stress. More

Foreclosures Force Ex-homeowners to Turn to Shelters
from The New York Times
The first night after she surrendered her house to foreclosure, Sheri West endured the darkness in her Hyundai sedan. She parked in her old driveway, with her flower-print dresses and hats piled in boxes on the back seat, and three cherished houseplants on the floor. She used her backyard as a restroom. Soon she exhausted all options. West, who had once owned and overseen a group home for homeless people, succumbed to that status herself, checking in to a shelter. More

Fellow Inmates Ease Pain of Dying in Jail
from The New York Times
Allen Jacobs lived hard for his 50 years, and when his liver finally shut down he faced the kind of death he did not want. On a recent afternoon Jacobs lay in a hospital bed staring blankly at the ceiling, his eyes sunk in his skull, his skin lusterless. A volunteer hospice worker, Wensley Roberts, ran a wet sponge over Jacobs’s dry lips, encouraging him to drink. Roberts is one of a dozen inmates at the Coxsackie Correctional Facility in New York, who volunteer to sit with fellow prisoners in the last six months of their lives. More than 3,000 prisoners a year die of natural causes in correctional facilities. More

Montana to Develop Repository Where Cancer Drugs Can Go to Those in Need
from MSNBC
Wendy Gwinner's work brings her in contact with people still reeling from a cancer diagnosis. The oncology social worker says she's seen nearly 100 patients since April who couldn't afford the drugs needed to treat their disease. Gwinner hopes a new law that establishes a way for unused, unopened cancer drugs to be donated to participating pharmacies and dispensed to qualifying patients will change that. More