News Briefs

Duke team receives $2M to study advance directives

The National Institute of Mental Health has awarded $1.98 million in research funding to a Duke University Medical Center team that will study the use and effectiveness of psychiatric advance directives. Researchers said this is the first major study funded by the U.S. government to evaluate PADs--legal documents created by patients who have planned ahead for their preferred course of treatment during a mental health crisis--from initiation to outcomes.

The four-year study will examine whether psychiatric patients will complete advance directives if provided the resources to do so, and will also determine whether doctors and hospitals can effectively put the plans into action. The study will enroll more than 500 patients with serious psychiatric disorders. Additional research funding for the study has been provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Greenwall Foundation.

Councils to vote on short-term illnesses policy today
The Arts and Sciences and Engineering Faculty councils will hold a special session today at 4 p.m. in Social Sciences 139 to vote on a replacement for the dean's excuse policy.
The proposed policy was not put to a vote during the scheduled A&S Council meeting Sept. 11 because there were not enough EFC members present to reach a quorum. The University has been operating without a short-term illnesses policy since the end of the spring semester. Arts and Sciences Council Chair Kathy Ewing called the meeting Sept. 15. "I decided to call the special meeting because the issue of absences on days when there is graded work due becomes more pressing as we get closer to the deadline for midterm grades," Ewing said. Ewing said the impending hurricane raises the possibility of not having a quorum for today's meeting, but noted that she "should know in advance whether or not there will be a quorum and will act accordingly."
She added that EFC Chair Olaf Von Ramm has assured her that, weather permitting, there will be a quorum of EFC members present.