com.unity combines Intrahealth’s Profile practice management system with Accession web portals for patients and external care providers and Profile iOS, a native mobile application for the iPad and iPhone.

Intrahealth general manager Craig Longstaff said the “out of the box” software solution has been designed to meet the needs of a number of the mental health initiatives including headspace, ATAPS and Partners in Recovery.

“com.unity provides a case management-centric approach that facilitates management of complex health needs through secure web access by patients, consumers and community care team providers,” Mr Longstaff said. “The application is a secure shared medical record managed by the organisation while supporting the patient/consumer consent process.”

The mobile application facilitates care management and planning activities for mobile healthcare providers so that they can manage patient care remotely. It supports both online and offline functions where mobile coverage may be varied.

While a number of Medicare Locals already utilise Intrahealth’s Profile to manage a number of their care delivery programs, com.unity extends on this by facilitating web-based central care management, Mr Longstaff said.

“Our web and mobile solutions are real time and enable secure sharing of information whether care providers are within the physical environment or part of the extended network of care,” he said.

“Access and content of the portals are tightly controlled and based on security roles so care team providers only see information that is relevant. An occupational therapist will have distinct views to a psychiatrist.”

External providers and consumers themselves can enter information in the record through the secure web portal, he said.

“We have a number of Medicare Locals that have a headspace program for instance, so they essentially have that practice management system within their environment, and then the patients can access the record or other external providers. They get a log on and just see the information they need.”

He said both the patient and the external provider can also upload information. “It doesn’t have to be a strictly clinical provider; for instance, it could be a meal delivery service. They can just write a note saying they saw the patient but they weren’t eating, and that will go into the record as well.”

com.unity also provides organisations with the ability to provide patients with real-time access to engage directly with the healthcare providers.

“Such information could include the ability to book appointments online, enter forms such as K10 or DASS 21, view headline news about the organisation, results, notes and patient information relevant to their condition,” he said.

“It also produces graphical representations of measures to display trends over time. The patient web portal provides the patient with the ability to update their demographic information and add notes to their own record in a safe and secure manner. They can also communicate securely with health care providers and pay their accounts online.

“As with the web access for external care providers, the patient web access is highly configurable and allows healthcare organisations to determine what information is relevant and accessible for the patient.”

The $549.8 million Partners in Recovery program is aimed at people with a severe and persistent mental illness who require complex support from multiple agencies. Mr Longstaff said that as it was such a new program, Medicare Locals are still figuring out what resources they need.

“We are saying this is the time for them to look at software and we have an out of the box solution that will plug in and work.”

Mr Longstaff said while this sort of package is still relatively new in Australia, many of Intrahealth’s Canadian customers and their patients had realised the clinical and organisational benefits of real-time patient web access for a number of years.

He said com.unity is targeted at health system providers, Medicare Locals and lead agencies that require case management, longitudinal medical record care, and web and mobile functionality to manage and integrate the growing number of programs within their environments. The solution has extensive reporting, privacy, security and audit controls throughout, he said.

“The Intrahealth platform is highly configurable and extensible with a long list of functions including a flexible centralised forms designer that enables bespoke forms to appear within the web application and mobile device.

“com.unity can be adapted to suit a range of other programs that also require centralised care and multi-disciplinary services such as chronic disease management.”

Intrahealth also conforms to Australia’s eHealth initiatives and is PCEHR-compliant, having been listed on NEHTA’s ePIP register in April.

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Article source: http://www.pulseitmagazine.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1450:out-of-the-box-platform-for-headspace-and-partners-in-recovery&catid=16:australian-ehealth&Itemid=327

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Kids and adolescents with ADHD often struggle to keep their emotions in check. ADHD has also been linked to sleep disorders, which is one of the reasons a team of German researchers sought to determine how sleep influences the consolidation and processing of emotional memories.

Brain imaging studies have shown that ADHD alters the structure and functions of areas of the brain important to processing emotions, like the prefrontal cortex, the amygdala and the hippocampus. Scientists have speculated that a disrupted connection between these areas of the brain could contribute to a patient’s day-to-day emotions.

Among healthy children and adults, sleep facilitates the processing of emotional stimuli, so the researchers wanted to see if there were processing differences between healthy study subjects and participants with ADHD. For their study, researchers led by Alexander Prehn-Kristensen of University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein analyzed the emotional memory processing of 16 children with ADHD, 16 healthy children and 20 healthy adults.

In the study, the participants were shown photos that were either emotionally negative, like a snake or growling bear, or emotionally neutral, like an umbrella or lamp. Previous research has shown that emotionally charged images usually have a greater brain response, and are more likely to be remembered.

“During daytime, people suffering from ADHD often have problems focusing on the relevant information and ignoring irrelevant information. Here, we wanted to look whether the described daytime problem in contrasting between relevant and irrelevant information is also observable during sleep,” says study author Alexander Prehn-Kristensen, study researcher from Christian-Albrecht-university in Kiel, Germany in an email response.

All the participants were shown the photos in the evening and had their sleep monitored by the researchers using electroencephalogram (EEG) measurements to track brain activity. The next day, the participants were tested on their recollection of the emotion-inducing images.

The healthy kids without ADHD were better able to recall the images compared to the kids with ADHD and even the healthy adults. These kids had higher activity in the frontal region of their brain and could remember the emotional images better than the neutral ones. Emotional experiences are typically easier to remember than neutral memories.

Prehn-Kristensen says more research is necessary before any therapeutic or clinical conclusions should be drawn. Since the children’s memories were observed in an artificial context, they cannot presume these results carry over to day-to-day memory experiences. However, they do shed light on how brain activity issues during sleep could be responsible for emotional processing for kids with ADHD.

The study is published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Article source: http://healthland.time.com/2013/05/30/for-kids-with-adhd-sleep-disturbances-may-interfere-with-emotional-memories/

Van D Bucher / Getty Images

We’ve known the brain produces its own heroin-like substances since the 1970s.  But what about Valium?  Although researchers have searched for such anti-anxiety chemicals for decades, it’s only now that they may finally have found one.

From a practical perspective, the research may be more immediately applicable to the treatment of epilepsy than to anxiety disorders: the substance identified was important in preventing seizures in mice in a brain region that can generate them. But the authors believe that just as benzodiazepines — the class of drug that includes Valium (diazepam) — can both reduce seizure risk and relieve anxiety, the same is likely to be true for the natural version.

Researchers can not yet specifically identify the molecule involved, but the study demonstrated for the first time that either a substance called diazepam-binding inhibitor (DBI) or a protein that the brain makes from DBI behaves very much like a benzodiazepine.

“This is the first demonstration that DBI can actually mimic the actions of Valium,” says John Huguenard, professor of neurology and neurological sciences at Stanford University and an author of the study, which was published in Neuron.

In fact, previous studies have found that DBI itself and some of its derivatives have the opposite effect:  increasing the chances of seizures and promoting anxiety.  But the new research relied on a variety of different types of lab and rodent experiments to show that at least in some parts of the brain, a substance that is either DBI or is made from it has anti-seizure effects.

Les Iversen, visiting professor of pharmacology at Oxford and the researcher who first proposed the existence of such substances more than 30 years ago, said he was “delighted” to see the research, adding that it is “an important step” in confirming his hypothesis.  He was not associated with this study.

The experiments focused on an area known as the thalamic reticular nucleus, which is normally involved in the integration of information coming in from the senses.  “It’s the system that allows the world to get in, all of the sensory pathways,” says Huguenard.

In “absence” seizures — those that produce staring spells and “tuning out” from the world but do not cause complete loss of consciousness or muscle control — this area generates an unusually synchronized electrical pattern, which interferes with normal functioning.  “It’s like an electrical storm in the brain,” says Huguenard. “The entire circuit gets hijacked.”

Huguenard and his colleagues showed that mice genetically engineered to lack DBI, which are prone to these types of seizures, can be treated by restoring DBI function. Studying cells from this region, they also found that DBI has actions on the GABA receptor — which is affected by benzodiazepines— and that these effects are similar to those of the drugs.

“My hope is that, in general, new therapies for brain disorders are going to help the brain do what it does naturally,” Huguenard says.

Article source: http://healthland.time.com/2013/05/31/brains-own-valium-discovered/

SYDNEY, May 27 (Xinhua) — A new Veteran Mental Health Strategy to support contemporary Australian veterans and their families was released Monday by Minister for Veterans’ Affairs Warren Snowdon.

The strategy sets out a ten-year framework for providing mental health care to veterans, underpinning the 26.4 million Australian dollars (25.89 million U.S. dollars) veteran mental health package announced in the 2013 federal budget.

Initiatives include 14.6 million Australian dollars (14.32 million U.S. dollars) to extend access to treatment without the need for compensation claims and 6.4 million Australian dollars (6. 28 million U.S. dollars) to introduce counselling for peacetime service and family groups.

The launch also coincided with the inaugural meeting of the Veteran Mental Health Clinical Reference Group, which will support the implementation of the strategy.

Snowdon said supporting the mental health needs of all veterans, including those who have recently left the defence force, is a high priority for the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA).

“With the drawdown in Afghanistan in motion, more service men and women will be returning to our shores, and we must ensure we are well positioned to provide them with the best possible support, should they need it,” said Snowdon.

“The new Veteran Mental Health Strategy and the Clinical Reference Group will help the government to ensure our services cater for contemporary veterans who may have different circumstances and needs to their predecessors,” he added.

The Clinical Reference Group includes leading psychiatrists, psychologists and a social worker, led by Dr Graeme Killer, principal medial adviser to the DVA.

The DVA spends around 165 million Australian dollars (161.78 million U.S. dollars) on mental health services each year, providing post-traumatic stress disorder programs; GP, psychiatrist, psychologist and social work services; pharmaceuticals and hospital services for those who need it.

Eligible clients can receive free treatment for diagnosed depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, regardless of whether the condition is related to military service.

Veterans, peacekeepers and family members can also access free specialised counselling and group programs.

Article source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/health/2013-05/27/c_132410748.htm

These problems can be even worse when there are other psychological issues in the family, according to the report, which was published online May 27 and in the June print issue of the journal Pediatrics.

During deployments, preschoolers could become anxious and withdraw. Children between 5 and 17 years old also are at greater risk for emotional and behavioral problems, the report said. And the situation can get worse when kids’ parents are on extended deployments.

Meanwhile, the AAP advised that parents or caregivers who remain at home also are under greater stress. This could, in turn, affect the mental health and well-being of children.

Because half of all children of active-duty military service members are taken care of by nonmilitary pediatricians before, during and after deployment, the AAP emphasized that all health care providers must recognize the mental-health needs of their patients with deployed parents, and those of other family members.

“By understanding the military family and the stressful experiences of parental wartime deployment, all pediatricians—both active duty and civilian—and other health care providers can be the front line in caring for U.S. military children and their families,” report co-author Dr. Benjamin Siegel said in an AAP news release.

“In the past 10 years, more than 2 million children in the U.S. have experienced the emotional and stressful event of being separated from a loved one deployed for active duty,” report co-author Dr. Beth Ellen Davis said in the release. “Most children cope and adapt quite well, but all children experience a heightened sense of fear and worry during a parent’s deployment. It’s important for pediatricians caring for these families to be aware of their family’s situation so they can guide them appropriately.”

More information: Visit the U.S. National Institutes of Health for more about military family health.

Journal reference: Pediatrics

Health News Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Article source: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-military-families-mental-health.html

Independent member for Frome, Geoff Brock, forum host Nan Berrett, Mayor Allan Aughey, beyondblue ambassador Greg Barns, Team Leader, Mental Health Team – Country Health SA John Bannister, Hon Leesa Vlahos MP, Dr Phil Gribble and Julie Ruiz with a photograph of her husband Barney Ruiz all spoke at the forum.

• Independent member for Frome, Geoff Brock, forum host Nan Berrett, Mayor Allan Aughey, beyondblue ambassador Greg Barns, Team Leader, Mental Health Team – Country Health SA John Bannister, Hon Leesa Vlahos MP, Dr Phil Gribble and Julie Ruiz with a photograph of her husband Barney Ruiz all spoke at the forum.

• Answering questions: Panel members Dr Phil Gribble, John Bannister, State Member for Taylor Leesa Vlahos, Greg Barns, Geoff Brock MP, Mayor Allan Aughey and Lyn James respond to audience questions.

Everyone will experience depression or mental illness at some point in their lives, there is help available, you are not alone and you are completely normal.

This was the message from an inspiring and courageous panel of people who got the region talking about mental wellbeing, depression and suicide at “A Community Conversation on Wellbeing” forum held in Clare last week.

Julie Ruiz from Balaklava shared her experience of living with her husband, who developed depression following an horrific workplace accident.

Husband Barney denied there was a problem, but sadly this depression led to his death last year and Mrs Ruiz is still asking how he could slip though the health care system.

Mrs Ruiz was invited to the Back to Basics group to help create mental health awareness in the community, and is helping others by sharing her story and speaking out.

She believed a campaign similar to that targeting the road toll should be instigated to reduce suicide numbers and the problem should be openly discussed and not taboo.

beyondblue ambassador, barrister and writer, Greg Barns, reminded the audience that while society’s and the health system’s response to depression and suicide is not perfect, it is not all bad either.

“We might be a long way from where we should be, but we are a long way from where we were,” he said.

Mr Barns was one of the people in attendance who spoke of their personal struggle with depression and anxiety, dispelling the myth that mental illness does not strike high achievers.

The courage of those who shared their stories during the Question and Answer session inspired and amazed the audience.

Forum organiser, Independent Member for Frome Geoff Brock, and Parliamentary Secretary to the Premier, State Member for Taylor Leesa Vlahos, gave hope that politicians are listening.

The forum represents only the beginning of a region-wide campaign to remove the stigma of mental illness and provide support for those with depression and mental illness, their families, friends and carers.

For help and support call – Lifeline: 13 11 14; MensLine Australia 1300 78 99 78; Kids Helpline: 1800 55 1800.

Locally, help and support can be obtained by contacting Clare Medical Centre on 8841-3777, Clare Community Mental Health Service, 8841-3500 or SA Country Carers 1300 686 405.

Article source: http://www.northernargus.com.au/story/1535114/mental-health-put-on-the-table/?cs=1239

Time to Change has made headway in changing attitudes among clinicians and support staff. Photograph: Time to Change

It seems like common sense that the first place someone with a health problem is likely to turn for help is their GP, who is expected to deal with them in an appropriate manner. For people with mental health problems, however, this isn’t necessarily the case. According to the anti-stigma campaign Time to Change (TTC), many people experiencing mental distress arrive at the GP surgery to find that primary care professionals are ill-equipped to deal with their needs. Sometimes the sheer volume of work GPs must contend with means there aren’t the resources available. But often a lack of awareness and training about mental health issues means patients do not receive the care and attention they need.

To tackle the issue, the organisation developed a pilot project to raise awareness among GPs, nurse practitioners and other primary care staff on how to improve their services. Launched in October 2012, the Time to Change Primary Care Project came to an end recently and, according to the practitioners and service users involved, has made considerable headway in changing attitudes among clinicians and support staff.

“I’ve had a lot of experiences with GPs’ surgeries,” says 25-year-old Rebecca David, who has been using mental health services for depression and anxiety since her teens and is involved with the TTC initiative. “Many times it just felt like box-ticking. I would be given forms to fill in [and] it didn’t feel like [doctors] were really listening. In some cases they are overwhelmed [with work] but that doesn’t make it okay.”

David, a musician who works as a freelance trainer for mental health charities, signed up to the TTC pilot to train GPs to better understand service users’ experiences. She took part in a number of 10-minute, one-to-one sessions with frontline staff (more than 500 health professionals participated in total) in practices in London, Liverpool and north Staffordshire. “In all the practices I went to, the GPs said they would aim to change the way they worked,” David said. “They realised that they could improve things without adding to their workload – really simple things like making sure people are signposted to community mental health services and simply listening. It often takes a lot of courage just to go and talk to a doctor and it’s not an exaggeration to say that if the service is poor it can have a profound effect on someone’s future.”

Sidney Millin, another “involvement worker” with the project, echoes David’s assessment, saying that while he encountered “some reluctance”, he too saw GPs and other staff react positively to being better informed. “A lot of time GP surgery staff have got this misconception that people with mental illnesses are always ill – they cannot communicate, they cannot speak and they cannot function normally. So this is kind of busting that myth.”

A former journalist, originally from Zimbabwe, Millin has bipolar disorder and has had some difficult interactions within primary care. He talks of how when learning of his diagnosis, one GP “had an alarmed look on her face” and kept the door to the consultation room open whenever he was there. “It was a time when I was not so comfortable talking about my diagnosis so I didn’t complain. But it made me feel bad.”

Alan Hollinghurst, a former head teacher and mental health service user involved in the project, says: “The aim of the project is to raise awareness about mental health within primary care. As a service user I feel I can speak with authority because I am actually telling my own story.” A few “small adjustments” can go a long way, he adds. “If [people] get treated right straight away it can make such a big difference to their recovery.”

An evaluation by the Institute of Psychiatry published in April showed a reduction overall in the stigma and discrimination experienced by people with mental illness but it also found that negative attitudes among health professionals had not improved. Sue Baker, director of Time to Change, says that while there is evidence of attitudes shifting across society, “there is not the same rate of change among health professionals”. The pilot project (it has an online resource that GPs can access too) is an attempt to provide “a tailored intervention” that recognises how “people with lived experience” can work with primary care staff to bring about improvements. “GPs have been openly saying they don’t get enough training on [mental health]. There is definitely an appetite for this.”

According to Baker, one of the main advantages borne out by the pilot was that change was achievable without being “burdensome” to overstretched professionals. Feedback following the pilot found that while 46% of GPs said they were confident about identifying the signs of mental illness before the training, this jumped to 64% afterwards. In addition, 64% said they were better equipped to make adjustments so that people with mental health difficulties could access their practice as opposed to just 41% before.

Baker says TTC has been “working closely” with the Royal College of General Practitioners and is hoping the model used during the pilot can be rolled out around the country. It is especially important, she suggests, because GPs are reporting that more people are coming to them with mental health problems. Dr Catherine Roe, one of the GPs who participated in the initiative, says at first she and her colleagues were “intrigued” by the idea of 10-minute sessions but that they were impressed from the start. “We were able to fit it into our normal working day which was a great help. If they wanted to, I could see this being rolled out to other primary care settings,” she adds. “The point to really stress is that most mental health problems are dealt with within primary care and we don’t always do it very well.”

Roe says more people with mental health problems have visited her surgery in recent months, making it more important to be attuned to individual needs. Another GP, Dr David Abraham, agrees: “Mental health problems are a major part of our workload and unfortunately in this part of the world, and at these economic times, and for all sorts of reasons, we have an increasing workload related to mental health.”

He adds: “It is difficult for some people to use the practice when their mental health is not so good and we don’t always consider that as much as we would like to. If the atmosphere in the practice is universally accommodating and understanding then it’s likely the outcomes for the patients will be better.”

This article is published by Guardian Professional. Join the Healthcare Professionals Network to receive regular emails and exclusive offers.

Article source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/healthcare-network/2013/may/29/time-to-change-raises-awareness-mental-health

The Western NSW Health Assessment 2013 indicated that around 11 per cent of adults in the district experienced high psychological distress.

While this figure was similar to the distress levels experienced across the state, the number of people in the district accessing mental health practitioners through Medicare’s Better Access initiative was significantly lower than the NSW average.

Western NSW LHD Director of Mental Health Drug and Alcohol services Dr Russell Roberts said while more community support could be found in rural areas, this competed against a lack of services.

“In rural areas there are strong social connections and less homelessness, however there is also less access to health services and the more remote you go the worse it gets.”

Within the district, residents of the Bathurst region had a Better Access claim rate similar to the NSW average, while Orange and Dubbo were approximately a third lower.

The report indicated that while the difference may be made up for via other services, it was still a marked gap.

Dr Roberts said the district needed better access to the Mental Health Medicare Benefit Schedule (MBS).

“At present  there are not enough GPs, psychiatrists and psychologists; this is a real challenge and inequity, it’s not right that people in the city get better access to federal funding for mental health services.”

Following the assessment the Western NSW LHD will be working on continuing and strengthening the current community services.

Dr Roberts said there would be new focus on treating the physical effects linked to mental illness, such as increased substance abuse and the side effects of some medications.

“We’re aiming to co-locate physical and mental health services, make more partnerships with GPs and increase screening and assessment programs.”

“We will also focus on health skills training and health skills behaviour, so people know when they need help and how to get it.”

The findings from the Health Needs Assessment will go into the formation of a Strategic Health Services Plan to provide the framework and direction for Western NSW LHD operations during the next three years.

Article source: http://www.dailyliberal.com.au/story/1535804/mental-health-services-need-to-be-strengthened/?cs=111

The research, led by Professor Louise Howard from King’s College London and Professor Gene Feder from the University of Bristol, found that high levels of symptoms of perinatal* depression, anxiety, and post traumatic stress disorder were linked to having experienced domestic violence either during pregnancy, the past year, or over a woman’s lifetime.

The researchers (also the authors of the published study) reached these conclusions by reviewing 67 relevant studies (in a systematic review) and combining the results.

They found that around 12-13 per cent of postnatal depression (i.e. high levels of postnatal depressive symptoms) is linked with experiences of domestic violence during pregnancy. In a further analysis, the authors found that women with antenatal and postnatal depression were three times more likely to have experienced domestic violence in the past year and 5 times more likely to have experienced domestic violence when pregnant. Women with antenatal anxiety disorders were also three times more likely to have experienced domestic violence over her lifetime but this figure was less in women with postnatal anxiety disorders.

However, it is important to note that these findings cannot prove that domestic violence can cause perinatal mental health disorders or provide evidence that perinatal mental health disorders can lead to subsequent domestic violence, and there is no information on other perinatal mental disorders, such as eating disorders and puerperal psychosis.

The authors say: “Our finding that women with high levels of symptoms of a range of perinatal mental disorders have a high prevalence and increased odds of having experienced domestic violence both over the lifetime and during pregnancy highlights the importance of health professionals identifying and responding to domestic violence among women attending antenatal and mental health services.”

“Further data is… needed on how maternity and mental health services should best identify women with a history or current experience of domestic violence, respond appropriately and safely, and thus improve health outcomes for women and their infants in the perinatal period.”

Professor Gene Feder from the University of Bristol added: “Our study emphasises the importance of identifying and responding to possible domestic violence among women attending maternity, primary care and mental health services and highlights the need for further research on how health services should respond to domestic violence and improve health outcomes for women and their infants in the future.”

Further information:

1. *the perinatal period refers to the period before, during, and after pregnancy.

2. Paper: Howard, LM. et al. ‘Domestic Violence and Perinatal Mental Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis’ PLOS Medicine

3. Funding: NIHR Programme Grant for Applied Research RP-PG-0108-10084

Article source: http://www.healthcanal.com/mental-health-behavior/39154-link-between-domestic-violence-and-perinatal-mental-health-disorders.html

Bu that’s exactly the predicament Kaitlyn Hunt, a high school senior from Sebastian, Fla., finds herself in. Hunt, 18, was arrested Feb. 16 for dating her girlfriend, who was 14 when the alleged crime was committed. She’s charged with lewd and lascivious battery on a victim aged 12 to 16 by a person over the age of 18, a second-degree felony that carries a possible prison term of 15 years per count.

The case has generated a good bit of Internet buzz for understandable reasons. There’s sex involved — and underage, lesbian sex at that — along with loud cries of injustice from the family of Kaitlyn Hunt.

Whether or not the charges are fueled by homophobia, of course, is difficult to prove. That may be why gay rights organizations are keeping their distance. In what appears to convey uneasiness over the age difference between the two girls, advocacy groups that are typically quick to jump up and defend presumed offenses aimed at the gay community are keeping quiet. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force did not respond to requests for interviews, and the American Civil Liberties Union declined comment.

For her part, Hunt, a cheerleader and basketball player, isn’t denying their relationship, but she and her family are convinced the severity of the charges are a reflection of anti-gay bias. Her father has taken to the Internet in a search for sympathy, posting a petition on Change.org calling on Assistant State Attorney Brian Workman to “stop the prosecution of an 18-year-old girl in a same-sex relationship.”

More than 300,000 people have signed the petition, one of Change.org’s most popular. In it, Steven Hunt writes:

Kaitlyn’s girlfriend’s parents are pressing charges because they are against the same-sex relationship, even though their daughter has stated that this is a consensual relationship.

…[S]he’s been expelled from school and is facing serious felonies — all because she is in love. If convicted, she could end up in jail or live under house arrest, will have to register as a sex offender, and live her life as a convicted felon.

For their part, the family of Kaitlyn’s ex-girlfriend — the judge ordered no contact between the girls after the arrest — dismisses any connection between the charges and the fact that the couple was in a lesbian relationship. “The controversy is misguided,” says Charles Sullivan Jr., the family’s attorney, in State v. Hunt. “It’s totally irrelevant. When Kaitlyn was 18, she had sex with a 14-year-old minor. She has admitted to that. If an adult has sex with a minor, it’s breaking the law.”

States vary widely when it comes to cracking down on under-age relationships. Florida’s law is at the strict end of the spectrum: if you’re under 16, you can’t technically consent to sex. Other states, like Georgia, consider sex between two consenting teens to be a misdemeanor.

On Friday, Kaitlyn Hunt turned down a plea deal that would have sentenced her to two years of house arrest in exchange for admitting to two counts of felony child abuse. The plea would have meant she could go out only to attend school or go to work. No grocery store trips unless previously scheduled and greenlighted, and she would have been subject to lie detector tests, sex offender evaluations and other checks on her freedom. “It’s just ridiculous,” says her lawyer, Julia Graves. “She did not want to accept the fact that she’d have a felony record.”

Along those lines, the case raises interesting questions of how much teens are expected to know about which relationships are above board and which could land them in jail. Hunt had no idea that she was doing anything wrong, says Graves. “Now she knows that she violated the law, but then it was just a romantic relationship between two girls attending high school together,” she says.

Graves also points out that similar cases between boys and girls seem to have netted more lenient charges. “It’s hard to believe she’s been treated fairly,” says Graves. “We don’t have actual proof but we believe we haven’t been able to work it out because the other parents were unhappy with the relationship.”

What does seem clear is that for both girls, the court battle is an unsavory end to a romance that took root on the basketball court. Kaitlyn Hunt is attending an alternative school. Her college plans are on hold. And she’s barred by court order from seeing her former girlfriend. If nothing else, her situation has likely raised awareness among Florida teens of what relationships are appropriate — and which ones are better to avoid, regardless of sexual orientation.

Article source: http://healthland.time.com/2013/05/29/underage-teen-sex-is-a-girl-being-prosecuted-for-being-gay/