International Panel of Experts Issue the Toronto Charter for Mental Health and Obesity

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire -07/05/12)- Policy makers and health professionals have their work cut out for them when it comes to treating co-existing obesity and mental illness, if an international group of opinion leaders has their way.

In response to a worldwide epidemic of obesity and mental health disorders, the Canadian Obesity Network (CON-RCO) and the International Association for the Study of Obesity (IASO) in partnership with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) organized a Hot Topic Conference on Obesity and Mental Health, in Toronto, Canada June 26th-28th.

Although obesity and mental illness are major health issues that affect millions of Canadians, the links between them are not well understood. Excess weight, beyond its adverse physiological consequences, also affects self-esteem, body image and eating behaviours while promoting depression and anxiety. The opposite is also true - a disproportionate number of patients living with mental health challenges struggle with obesity, diabetes, heart disease and premature mortality, all of which are interrelated. Both illnesses are associated with significant bias and discrimination.

As part of the event, hundreds of participants ratified the Toronto Charter for Mental Health and Obesity, a detailed call to action for health system funders, researchers and health practitioners to deal with this emerging issue. The Charter lists specific calls to action for governments and health providers to reduce the global burden of obesity and mental illness, chief among them:

 -- Mandatory education for health professionals on how to treat obesity and co-morbid mental illness.-- Immediate affirmative action by policy makers and funders to prioritize research and mandatory evaluation of interventions.-- Conducting a cost-analysis of mental illness co-morbid with obesity-- Compiling standards for responsible media coverage of obesity management and healthy body image.

The full Toronto Charter for Mental Health and Obesity can be viewed and downloaded here (http://www.obesitynetwork.ca/page.aspx?page=2899&app=182&cat1=457&tp=12&lk=no&menu=37).

"Separately, mental illness and obesity are understood to be huge health challenges, and it's an uphill battle for health systems to keep up with patients' needs," says Dr. Arya M. Sharma, scientific director for CON-RCO. "But taken together, the issue is greater than even the sum of its parts. The Charter was conceived as a discussion starter among stakeholders, and the first step towards real action."

"The fields of obesity and mental health are intimately linked, of enormous public and personal health importance but both remain under-recognized, under-resourced and under-researched," Professor Nick Finer, chair of the IASO's Education and Management Task Force, said. "It is our hope that the Charter begins to change all of that."

About the Canadian Obesity Network - Reseau canadien en obesite (CON-RCO)

CON-RCO was founded in 2006 to link the research, policy and practice communities to advance the development and delivery of effective obesity prevention and treatment solutions. The network's core strategies focus on addressing the stigma associated with excess weight, changing the way policy makers and health professionals approach obesity, and improving access to prevention and treatment resources. Currently, more than 7,000 professionals in Canada are members of the network. CON-RCO is hosted by the University of Alberta, and is based at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton, AB. www.obesitynetwork.ca.

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CORHIO, Colorado Health Care Leaders Issue Report on Strategies to Integrate Behavioral and Physical Health Through ...

DENVER, April 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- As a measure to improve integration of behavioral and physical health, the Colorado Regional Health Information Organization (CORHIO) partnered with a multi-stakeholder behavioral health Steering Committee, and solicited feedback from communities across Colorado, to create a report with recommendations and future strategies for effective inclusion of behavioral health in health information exchange (HIE). The report was written as part of the CORHIO Behavioral Health Information Exchange Project with support from Rose Community Foundation.

The report is now available on the CORHIO website at www.corhio.org.

"Unfortunately, there is still a stigma associated with mental health conditions and some people fear that their diagnosis may fall into the wrong hands and will be used against them," says Amanda Kearney-Smith, director of the Colorado Mental Wellness Network and member of the project's Steering Committee. "We have to be sure to strike a careful balance between protecting individual privacy with the need to have comprehensive information available for high-quality health care treatment and services."

To solicit information for the report, CORHIO helped facilitate six meetings in communities across Colorado, which were chosen to represent a broad cross-section of perspectives and attitudes regarding HIE. A total of 124 consumers, physicians, and other behavioral health stakeholders were in attendance to discuss the concerns, opportunities and priorities of exchanging behavioral health information. The meetings took place in collaboration with community mental health centers and other behavioral health community organizations, so participants could feel comfortable and have open and honest dialogue.

A few key points that came out of the community discussions include:

Consumers expressed significant interest in having access to their health information within the HIE.Both physicians and patients expressed significant concerns, such as privacy issues and inappropriate use of information.Behavioral health stakeholders agree that better information sharing can lead to better outcomes for individuals and populations receiving behavioral health care.Participants expressed they would have more comfort with information sharing if there were more choice about which information would be shared with whom. Current models of all-in or all-out information sharing do not seem to meet the needs of this community.Across all six events, only one participant felt that better information sharing was not needed.

Studies have shown that the average life expectancy for those with serious mental illness ranges from 13 to 30 years less than the rest of the population.[1] Much of this can be attributed to fragmented, inconsistent, and episodic care. Individuals requiring behavioral health services have a unique need for integrated care due to frequent use of the healthcare system and a greater need to coordinate care among diverse providers. However, today, behavioral health care services are not well integrated with physical or medical care. According to the CORHIO report, nearly 90 percent of participants surveyed agree that behavioral health should be considered a part of a person's overall health care.

"HIE is an invaluable tool for the behavioral health community because it enables information to truly follow consumers through the entire treatment path, across a variety of care settings. It provides immediate access to vital patient information which reduces the chance that a consumer will experience a drug interaction or other medical complication and improves the overall consumer experience as they navigate the health care system," said CORHIO Policy Director, Liza Fox-Wylie. "CORHIO remains committed to working with the behavioral health and physical health communities to improve care coordination and population health outcomes through HIE, while protecting patients' rights to privacy."

CORHIO is developing an action plan based on the results and recommendations in this report, including working with project Steering Committee members and other stakeholder organizations on consumer, provider and policymaker education and working with CORHIO's technology partner, Medicity, to improve the robustness of HIE technology to support more granular options for patient choice regarding which information is shared with whom.

In September 2010, the Rose Community Foundation awarded CORHIO a two-year grant to support the Behavioral Health and Health Information Exchange Project, which funded the creation of CORHIO's behavioral health report. "Individuals' physical health, mental health and substance use are closely intertwined," said Whitney Connor, Rose Community Foundation's health program officer. "Provider access to timely information about their patients' medical and behavioral health is critical to delivering effective care."

About CORHIO
CORHIO is dedicated to improving health care quality for all Coloradans through health information exchange (HIE). As the state designated entity for HIE, CORHIO collaborates with health care stakeholders including physicians, hospitals, clinics, public health, long-term care, laboratories, health plans and patients to improve care collaboration through secure systems and processes for sharing clinical information. CO-REC, a CORHIO initiative, assists primary care providers in adopting, implementing and becoming meaningful users of electronic health record (EHR) systems. CORHIO is a not-for-profit supported in large part by grants, including awards from the Colorado Health Foundation and from federal ARRA HITECH funds. CORHIO's technical infrastructure is built on industry-leading HIE technology developed and maintained by Medicity.  For more information about CORHIO, please visit www.corhio.org.

[1] Colton CW, Manderscheid RW. Congruencies in increased mortality rates, years of potential life lost, and causes of death among public mental health clients in eight states. Prev Chronic Dis [serial online] 2006 Apr. URL: http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2006/apr/05_0180.htm.

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Health-care reform: Main issue after 2 years is, will it survive?

Two years to the day after President Obama signed it into law, the Affordable Care Act remains very much a work in progress.

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The White House says its health-care reforms have improved the lives of millions, though the legislation’s most important provisions have yet to take effect. Detractors – a category that includes every GOP presidential hopeful – scorn Mr. Obama’s health reforms as Treasury-busting infringements on American freedoms.

Yet the most important question dealing with the ACA may be not how it’s doing, but whether it will survive. Next week the Supreme Court hears oral arguments on the constitutionality of the law’s lynchpin requirement that individuals carry health insurance.

“What’s at stake basically is whether or not the signature domestic achievement of the Obama administration is sustained,” says Russell Wheeler, a visiting fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, in an online interview on the Affordable Care Act’s future.

Obama himself did not make a big live appearance promoting the ACA’s birthday. That could be in deference to the upcoming Supreme Court arguments, or it could be a reflection of the fact that polls show US voters remain split on whether the law’s passage was a good thing.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Thursday it is “absurd” to think that Obama is distancing himself from the health law. Carney noted that Obama’s campaign has produced a video featuring Americans who have benefited from the ACA.

And the White House itself on Friday issued a report highlighting what it called the progress produced by the legislation.

Among its assertions: 2.5 million more young adults have health insurance, thanks to an ACA requirement that they continue to be covered on parental policies; 5.1 million Medicare recipients have saved $3.1 billion on prescription drugs because of increased ACA coverage limits; and insurance firms can no longer drop policy-holders who get sick if they made a mistake on their applications.

“And thanks to health reform, all Americans will have the security to know that you don’t have to worry about losing coverage if you’re laid off or change jobs, and insurance companies are required to cover your preventive care like mammograms and other cancer screenings,” concludes the White House report.

Meanwhile, Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney blasted the Affordable Care Act on Friday.

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Health care Alberta's biggest election issue, finds CBC poll

Health care tops the list of issues facing Alberta, according to a poll done for the CBC.

While health care remains the dominant issue among Albertans at 41 per cent, concerns about the economy at 31 per cent and the oil and gas sector at 27 per cent increased significantly compared to a similar survey done by Return on Insight (ROI) in January 2008.

"The fact that health care dominates isn't a change," says pollster Bruce Cameron. "It's still important ... but the interesting thing is how much concerns about oil and gas and the economy have come up. I guess it's a residual impact of the recession."

Alberta voters named the Progressive Conservatives as the best party to deal with most issues identified by CBC's poll.

Forty-three per cent of telephone respondents chose the Tories as the best party to manage the provincial economy.

The Wildrose Party trails the PCs by almost 20 points, or more, on all economic and management issues identified by poll participants.

The Tories scored better than most other parties on health care and education, but not on the environment or social problems.

The PCs are viewed as the best party to deal with education by one third, or 33 per cent, well ahead of the Wildrose Party.

Voters, in fact, rated the NDP higher on dealing with education at 19 per cent compared to the Wildrose Party's 13 per cent.

The NDP shows considerable strength in voters' minds in terms of being the best party to deal with issues such as environmental protection (tied with the PCs at 25 per cent) and addressing social issues — 27 per cent compared to 24 per cent for the governing PCs.

Mount Royal University policy studies professor Lori Williams says health care presents a potential strength for the Tories.

"There's a fight for how to solve health care on the left — and frankly, I think health care is one of the issues that leaves the Wildrose [Party] flat footed because they don't have a simple, tangible solution to the problems," Williams told CBC.

"They seem to be more associated with cutting the debt and the deficit."

Political scientist David Taras predicts the Tories are planning what he calls an "oxygen suppression campaign" in the coming spring election.

"What the Tories are going to try and do is cut off avenues of attack and prevent the Wildrose [Party] from having any oxygen at all," said Taras.

"The Tories know," he added, "that if they can play no errors baseball, they are likely to win a real hefty majority."

ROI's poll for CBC surveyed 803 Albertans from Jan. 25 to Jan. 31. The poll is considered accurate within +/- 3.5 percentage points 19 times out 20.

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