Mental Health Association in New York State, Inc.
(Publication Archives)

Friday Fax from Albany

SAMARITANS SUICIDE PREVENTION CENTER'S
7th Annual HOPE Candlelight Vigil

Thursday, May 19, 2005, 6:00-9:00 P.M.

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart,
and you shall see that in truth you are weeping
for that which has been your delight. ~Kahlil Gibran

On May 19th, Samaritans Suicide Prevention Center will hold its 7th annual candlelight vigil on the steps of the NYS Capitol in Albany.

This event not only memorializes the lives that have been tragically lost to suicide (through the faces on the NYS 1998 - 2005 LifeKeeper Memory Quilts), but will also work to save future lives through sharing, courage, and the commitment to the prevention of suicide. In addition, the Vigil serves to recognize those individuals dedicated to the prevention of suicide through the Annual LifeKeeper Memory Award. This year’s LifeKeeper Awards will be presented to NYS Office of Mental Health Commissioner Sharon Carpinello and Associate Director of Clinical Operations for the Albany County Department of Mental Health, Bill Dickson.

For more information, go to http://www.timesunion.com/communities/samaritans/, e-mail sams@fcscapitalregion.org, or call (518) 689-0080.

FAMILIES TOGETHER IN NEW YORK STATE SEEKS YOUTH COUNCIL MEMBERSHIP:

Purpose:

1. To advise the Office of Mental Health and other state departments about statewide issues being faced by youth today
2. To work with and to advise Families Together and its chapters
3. To educate communities about children's mental health
4. To work with Families Together’s chapters to develop regional forums to address youth concerns
5. To identify members to serve on community and state advisory councils, taskforces, boards, subcommittees, etc.
6. To expand and develop youth involvement in New York State

Membership:
Diversity – a diverse membership population is needed to have an efficient and affective youth council. Members should come from all areas of the state and come from both rural and urban communities. Members should come from all walks of life and have differing backgrounds and experiences. We also strive to ensure that our members have diverse ethnicities and cultural backgrounds.

Full System of Care – While the council’s main focus will be mental health, it is understood that many youth are involved in multiple systems. For example, a youth may have been diagnosed with a mental illness and have chemical dependency difficulties. Another example would be a youth who has been diagnosed with a mental illness and has been involved in the juvenile justice system. Members must have been diagnosed with a mental illness or behavioral disorder to participate yet we encourage youth who are provided services in other systems to get involved.

Qualifications:

1. Must be of at least 14 years of age and no older than 23 to participate as a full member of the council. Youth younger and older may be asked to participate in specialized subcommittees.
2. Must have been diagnosed with a mental illness or behavioral disorder.
3. If under the age of 18, must have parent’s approval.
4. Must be able to work on the council as a member of a group.

For more information, contact Stephanie Orlando, Families Together’s Statewide Youth Coordinator at (518) 432-0333 ext. 21.

SECOND ANNUAL WALK FOR MENTAL HEALTH:

May is Mental Health Awareness Month

Week of May 14 – May 20, 2005

If you are interested in participating, please contact Ann or Alexandra - e-mail the Walk Committee at mentalhealth_walkers@yahoo.com, or call Ann at (845) 566-0810 or Ali at (845) 703-1042 and they will connect you with the agency coordinating the walk in your region.

IN THE NEWS:

Timothy’s dad others, mark O’Clair’s 17th birthday. By Paul Esmond
Legislative Gazette, May 9, 2005

On what would have been the 17th birthday of his son, Tom O’Clair stood in front of the Capitol last Thursday waiting for friends and mental health advocates to join him in a ceremony honoring Timothy O’Clair, who committed suicide four years ago after struggling with depression.

O’Clair and others released balloons with his son’s name on them and vowed to keep up efforts to get the Legislative to pass a bill in Timothy’s name mandating employers to cover mental health services in their insurance plans.

The Assembly and Senate appear to be close to a consensus on Timothy’s Law, O’Clair said.

“They are trying to come up with creative ways to address that and it’s not just both houses,” O’Clair said. “It’s both parties in both houses that are all working together.”

He said he was hopeful an agreement could be reached before the Legislature recesses in late June.

A major snag in the negotiations has been the effect the legislation could have on small businesses, which may pay more for extended employee and family coverage.

Michael Seereiter, a legislative lobbyist with the Mental Health Association in New York, said Timothy’s law could be negotiated not to burden small businesses. The costs of providing mental health coverage were not much more than regular health plans many businesses offer. Worker production and hours increase when mental health problems are dealt with proactively.

Seereiter shared O’Clair’s optimism over Timothy’s Law passage.

“Over the past two years we’ve really taken this from what quite honestly was not a big issue,” Seereiter said. “Now we have (Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R Brunswick) saying, “we’ve got to get something done on Timothy’s Law.”

O’Clair said he had his son on his mind during the day. He thanked people for showing their support for the legislation.

“We’re going to get this law done,” he said. “Timothy’s Law won’t be for naught.”

O’Clair and supporters stood in silence and watched for a few minutes as the balloons drifted over the Capitol roof and into the sky.

Fort Plain program promotes Timothy’s Law. By Linda Kellett
Amsterdam Recorder, May 13, 2005

FORT PLAIN – Green ribbons with metallic lettering, sporting the message, “Children’s Mental Health Matters,” were pinned to the shirts or lapels of the two dozen or so people gathered on the front steps of the Fort Plain Junior/Senior High School last Thursday.

Symbolizing “new life, new growth and new beginnings for the kids of our future,” the green ribbons, as explained on the district’s web site, www.scoresup.com/Fortplain/, show that district students care about those children with “emotional, behavioral, social problems and/or addictions.”

The wearers of the ribbons gathered near the end of the Mental Health Week at the invitation of Mrs. Drews’ junior high special education class. The class’ mission was to demonstrate support for the passage of Timothy’s Law (Assembly bill A.2912 and S.1672 in the Senate), which seeks to end discrimination in insurance coverage for people with mental health and addiction needs.

The legislation has been named in memory of Timothy O’Clair, a Schenectady youth who would have celebrated his 17th birthday Thursday. Diagnosed with depression, attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity disorder and oppositional defiance disorder, the son of Tom and Donna O’Clair required mental health services that his parents struggled to provide.

On March 16, 2001, Timothy hung himself in his bedroom closet. He was not yet 13 years old.

Fort Plain junior high student Josh Tomlinson was one of the featured readers during the ceremony. He explained what it was all about: “It’s about a kid that couldn’t get the help he needed,” Tomlinson said.

“They (Schenectady County Department of Social Services) put him in foster homes, and he committed suicide. He needed mental help,” said Tomlinson.

He continued, “His parents had dual custody (with the county). They were no able to get the mental health he needed because his parents couldn’t pay for it all.”

As explained in a release from Timothy’s Law Campaign, “Under current law, health insurance plans restrict the amount of coverage they provide, or charge exponentially higher co-payments for mental health and addiction services than they provide for other physical health services.

Tom and Donna O’Clair struggled for nearly five years to get Timothy the services he needed. However, due to these mental health services restrictions, they were forced to ration the care that Timothy so desperately needed,” it added.

State Assemblyman Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, the chief sponsor in the Assembly of Timothy’s Law, was present at the observance. He said of the proposed legislation, “It ends discrimination against consumers impacted by mental health needs. I’m basically here today to tell the Fort Plain students that I support their effort and their message to end discrimination against those who struggle with mental illness and mental health disorders.”

He said the Assembly has passed this or similar bills “over and over again. There was an effort to do parity before Timothy passed.”

Tonko, who said he knew Timothy from Little League, said the problem in the past has been that Assembly and Senate versions of the legislation have differed quite substantially. “The Senate passed a narrower bill that is not what the mental health community asked for. Our version allows professionals to determine how to treat an individual,” he said, adding that it doesn’t discriminate.

The Assembly measure has faced opposition from business and insurance lobbies.

State Sen. Hugh Farley, R,C – Niskayuna, is a sponsor of the Senate’s version of the bill, which he described as “high priority.” The lead sponsor in the Senate is Sen. Thomas Libous, R,C – Binghamton, he said.

Farley explained why the two Houses haven’t been able to reach middle ground. He said, “The bill passed in the Senate was supported by a lot of mental health groups, but he (O’Clair) family preferred the one in the Assembly.

“The difference (between the two bills) is the Senate bill had a concern about cost. The excessive cost to small business owners might cause them to drop their health insurance,” Farley said, noting that was one reason the legislation didn’t make it to the governor.

Tonko said his version of the bill has been reintroduced in the Assembly. “We’re raring to go,” he said. “We even did an income tax credit to cover the businesses that might be impacted by the costs.”

Farley thinks state residents will see resolution of the legislative issue this year.

Another event in the planning stages at the Fort Plain school is a Mental Health Walk-a-Thon.

Jennifer Rivenburgh, an assistant teacher at the district who has helped to organize Thursday’s event, is also involved with the walk-a-thon. She said it would most likely be held the week of May 14. Its purpose is to increase awareness of Timothy’s Law.

She said this is the first year that students have gotten involved in this way. “We took (students) to Lobby Day through Families Together in New York state in February. We familiarized them with Timothy’s Law.”

Additionally she and school psychologist Laura Gordon attended a recent conference. “That’s where we found out about the balloon-release idea and talked with Timothy’s father,” Rivenburgh said.

At the end of Thursday’s ceremony, yellow helium-filled balloons with scrawled messages to Timothy lifted skyward.

“I can only imagine how it looks from Timothy’s perspective, seeing hundreds, perhaps thousands of balloons rising from locations all over New York state toward his vantage point in heaven,” Tom O’Clair said of the statewide balloon release.

Letter to the Editor.
Utica Observer Dispatch, May 4, 2005

In your April 17 article, "Why Medicaid costs so much," medications used to treat mental illness were identified as one of the main factors in Oneida County's projected $63 million Medicaid budget.

Indeed, mental health medications are costly. The science surrounding mental illness has evolved exponentially - improvements in medications allow individuals to live productive lives in our community.

When the state implemented a drug formulary under Medicaid as part of this year's budget, it specifically exempted many costly mental-health drugs. They understand people with mental health needs are vulnerable, clinicians have difficulty finding the right medication and dosage for an individual, and new and improved drugs become available frequently.

If mental health drugs are targeted to reduce Medicaid costs, the consequences must be considered, including the financial and societal costs associated with increased involvement of those with mental illness in the criminal justice system and increased homelessness that will become more than we will choose to bear.

Glenn Liebman
CEO, Mental Health Association in New York State, Inc.

Over the past two weeks, a series of articles, editorials and letters to the Editor have been published in Syracuse’s Post-Standard concerning mental health services for children. The debate is largely about appropriate levels of inpatient mental health services for children in Central New York. MHANYS continues to call for a reinvigoration of the planning process through the mental health subcommittees of the Community Services Boards in response to local resource concerns. Following below is just a sampling of some of the thoughts that have been published recently.

Psychiatric Unit For Children, Teens In The Works for 2009. By James T. Mulder
Syracuse Post-Standard, May 12, 2005

Onondaga County and SUNY Upstate Medical University officials have a plan to provide additional psychiatric hospital beds in Syracuse for children and teenagers who are frequently sent to out-of-town hospitals for care.

Upstate plans to create a child and adolescent psychiatric unit with about 16 beds to be located in either the north or west wing of University Hospital. That unit, which must be reviewed and approved by state regulators, won't open until 2009.

To address the immediate need for more inpatient services, the county will ask the state to add eight more beds for children and adolescents at Hutchings Psychiatric Center, a state hospital in Syracuse. Hutchings currently has 24 beds for youngsters, eight of them temporary.

County and Upstate officials plan to unveil the initiative at a news conference today.

"It's not acceptable for any child who needs inpatient psychiatric care to have to leave Onondaga County to get care," said David Brownell, the county's mental health commissioner.

More than 116 youths have been sent to hospitals in Buffalo, Rochester, Ogdensburg, Utica and Saratoga Springs over the past year because there are not enough psychiatric beds locally. The shortage was caused by last year's closing of Four Winds, a private psychiatric hospital in Syracuse that had 64 beds for youths.

County, hospital and business leaders tried in vain to come up with a solution to the problem a year ago. The county and Upstate renewed the effort after The Post-Standard reported last month on the growing number of young psychiatric patients being shipped out of town. That story triggered numerous letters to the editor from parents and mental health advocates, many of them critical of Upstate for not including psychiatric beds in its proposed children's hospital.

Upstate officials say there is no room in the 61-bed children's hospital for psychiatric beds. The children's hospital will be part of a six-story, $118.9 million addition scheduled to open in 2007.

While it won't be physically part of the children's hospital, the proposed inpatient psychiatric unit will be administered, staffed and operated as part of the children's hospital, according to Upstate's proposal.

The unit won't open until 2009 because space for it in either the north or west wing will have to be renovated. That renovation cannot begin until operations currently housed in those wings move into the six-story expansion. The psychiatric unit may come to fruition before 2009 if other space on or near Upstate's campus can be identified sooner.

The state Office of Mental Health, which oversees Hutchings, added eight temporary beds at Hutchings after Four Winds closed. The agency had no immediate comment on the latest proposal that it add eight more. But in a recent letter published in The Post-Standard, Sharon Carpinello, the state commissioner of mental health, said there is no need for additional beds.

An analysis by the Hospital Executive Council, Excellus BlueCross BlueShield and the county mental health department shows 30 additional beds are needed to serve children throughout the 15-county Central New York region.

The state wants to close some of its psychiatric centers. It proposed closing Hutchings in 2001 and 2003, but shelved the idea after the plan sparked intense opposition.

Brownell said having a psychiatric unit at University Hospital will remove some of the stigma families face when a child is hospitalized for a mental illness. "There is a movement to integrate mental health into the mainstream health-care system, and that's a good thing," Brownell said.

Norm Andrzejewski of the Onondaga Pastoral Counseling Center, which provides mental health services locally, was pleased to hear of the effort by the county and Upstate. "I hope it results in inpatient services being available to kids quickly, wherever the venue," he said.

Because the proposed psychiatric unit at University won't materialize for four years, the additional beds at Hutchings are crucial, according to Ron Lagoe, executive director of the Hospital Executive Council. The community needs to support the short-term Hutchings solution, he said. "We can't just say, 'This is a nice idea.' We need to get behind it."

Cathy Munson, the mother of a teenager who's been hospitalized for psychiatric care, is circulating petitions asking for the creation of more beds here. The Liverpool woman started a group last year called Family Tapestry for parents of children with mental and development disorders.

"As a community we need to step up," she said. "There are a lot of children in desperate need."

State must be proactive in kids' psychiatric care. Letter to the Editor
Syracuse Post-Standard, May 11, 2005

To the Editor:

If we are to believe the gist of Commissioner Carpinello's recent letter to the editor concerning the repercussions of the closure of Four Winds psychiatric hospital, the Office of Mental Health's new standard for acceptable services for children is now whether or not someone complains about where their child is placed for psychiatric care.

This flies against the accepted wisdom of keeping children close to their families in a time of emotional crisis, as Dr. Dewan of University Hospital compellingly stated. Furthermore, the comments of parents deeply frustrated by their children's placements in distant hospitals suggests that rather than waiting for parents to register a complaint, OMH should be proactively conferring with patients on the adequacy of placement determinations.

The Office of Mental Health should not be lowering its treatment standards merely to lower its bottom line. The eight temporary beds at Hutchings Psychiatric Center should not only be made permanent, they should be expanded to provide appropriate accessible inpatient treatment to all children displaced by the closure of Four Winds.

Pat Smith
Public Employees Federation, Executive Board Hutchings Psychiatric Center

Maureen Hogle
PEF Council Leader Hutchings Psychiatric Center

Lack of sufficient space a scandal in treatment of children and teens. Letter to the Editor
Syracuse Post-Standard, May 1, 2005

I am writing as president of the 500 members of Nami-Promise, the local advocacy organization of family members and friends of persons diagnosed with major psychiatric disorders. We wish to add our concern about the critical lack of hospital beds for children and teens diagnosed with mental illness in our community.

If University Hospital is expanding its childrens' services, then it is not acceptable to ignore the needs of children with psychiatric disorders. Nami-Promise urges the administration of University Hospital to make it a priority to find space in their hospital for children and adolescents with psychiatric disorders.

It is outrageous that there are only 24 inpatient beds for this population in the entire Central New York region, and that Hutchings Psychiatric Center is presently the only provider of inpatient services for children. As the article by your reporter James Mulder indicated, because of this lack of hospital beds, our children are being farmed out to hospitals in Buffalo, Rochester, Ogdensburg and Oneonta. Being away from the support of their parents increases the distress of already disturbed children. As concerned family members, we have personally experienced how important it is to be involved on a daily basis in the treatment of our children, as advocates, as providers of support, and as necessary members of the treatment team. Professionals may come and go, but the family is forever!

Surely, the lack of inpatient beds, the serious shortage of child psychiatrists, and the inability of families to obtain support for their children's' primary psychiatric needs is a sign of stigma.

Mental illnesses are, in fact, physical illnesses characterized by, or resulting from malfunctions and/or malformations of the brain. Serious psychiatric disorders are no different than a stroke, or a tumor. There is fundamentally no difference between these brain disorders and disorders which are now under the present rubric of neurology. Patients are denied the support they deserve simply because of the wrong brain disorder schizophrenia instead of epilepsy, manic depression instead of Alzheimer's, major depression instead of Parkinson's disease. Fewer than half of managed-care companies define a suicide attempt as a medical emergency!

The discrimination faced by all persons with psychiatric disorders is reflected in the serious lack of services for children and teens in Syracuse. Nami-Promise asks for the support of the community in urging University Hospital to serve the outpatient and inpatient needs of these children.

Judy Bliss-Ridgway
Mental health advocate

Judy Bliss-Ridgway of Syracuse is president of Nami-Promise Inc. (National Alliance for the Mentally Ill Parents and Relatives of the Mentally Ill Supporting Each Other).

Beds for Kids: What Problem? Letter to the Editor by Sharon Carpinello, State Commissioner of Mental Health
Syracuse Post-Standard, May 1, 2005

State data show sufficient space for children's mental health care

Recent stories that appeared in this publication regarding children's inpatient mental health services in Central New York have contained various inaccuracies and I would like to take a moment to set the record straight.

In a variety of ways, this paper has stated there is insufficient access to children's inpatient mental health services in the area, and that the state Office of Mental Health (OMH) has not been responsive to these needs, and this is simply not the case. OMH has consistently and carefully monitored the need for, and use of, children's inpatient mental health beds to ensure inpatient care is available to all who need it.

As a result, OMH has appropriately responded to needs as they occur, both locally and statewide, including the temporary expansion of children's beds at Hutchings Psychiatric Center in Syracuse. As we have done in the past, we will continue to keep a very close eye on the Central New York region to determine if further action is necessary, however, the data we presently have suggests that there is adequate inpatient capacity at this time.

To date, neither OMH nor Onondaga County's Department of Mental Health has received a single complaint from a parent regarding their child's placement. Each placement is individually determined and consideration given to the family area of residence. In some instances, reasons other than bed availability, such as clinical need, health insurance, a family's living situation or preference, will result in a child receiving care at a particular hospital or in a particular location.

Advances in treatment models have resulted in a reduced need for inpatient mental health care and a reduced average length of an inpatient stay. Today, the public mental health system works to provide quality services to children in their natural settings at home, in school, and in the community with friends. That's why OMH is focusing the growth of the children's mental health system on evidence-based treatment in the community, which has proven to prevent children from ever having to be admitted to a hospital.

That does not, however, diminish the need for a quality inpatient system of care. OMH remains committed to the provision of quality mental health care to all children with mental illness, OMH will continue to closely monitor inpatient need and capacity to ensure all children with mental illness receive appropriate care. I encourage any patient with concerns about their child's inpatient placement to contact the Onondaga County Department of Mental Health or the New York State Office of Mental Health right away.

At OMH, we're working hard every day to ensure every New Yorker with a mental illness receives the treatment they need in an appropriate environment, and rest assured, we will continue to do that in Central New York and across the state.

Sharon Carpinello is commissioner of the New York State Office of Mental Health, based in Albany.

Another Void to Fill. Editorial
Syracuse Post-Standard, April 24, 2005

Mental health providers in Onondaga County are bracing for a surge in children needing psychiatric care. It happens almost every year around this time as end-of-school-year pressures mount. Sadly, some of these youngsters will end up far away from home in out-of-town hospitals. That's because there aren't near enough beds for kids with mental illnesses here. Over the past year, Syracuse's psychiatric emergency room placed 116 children in hospitals in Buffalo, Rochester, Ogdensburg, Utica and Saratoga Springs. That's about half the total number of local kids who needed hospitalization. Out-of-town placement puts enormous stress on families. It also jeopardizes children's chances for speedy recovery when families can't visit. It doesn't have to be this way. University Hospital and other community groups had been working on a plan to create a 30-bed children's unit housed at Hutchings Psychiatric Center but run by University. The plan, however, fell through for lack of state funding. Now, the mental health community is essentially back to where it was a year ago when the Four Winds psychiatric hospital in Syracuse was forced to shut its doors, wiping out 64 beds for kids: lots of hand-wringing and brainstorming possible solutions. The state Office of Mental Health, prodded by state Sen. John DeFrancisco of Syracuse, eased the crunch somewhat by increasing the number of kids' beds at Hutchings from 16 to 24. But too many children are still being shipped out of town. And there's no guarantee the additional beds will stay there; OMH considers them temporary. Hutchings itself could be gone if Gov. George Pataki has his way. The governor has been trying to close it down for years. Still, the most sensible solutions involve Hutchings. When University was scouting locations for its proposed center last year, it concluded that the Four Winds building required too much renovation to bring it up to standard. Hutchings, however, needed less extensive work. Besides, University's psychiatric faculty and staff, including fellows in child psychiatry, already participate in Hutchings' clinical programs.

A short-term fix would be to add more "temporary" beds for kids at Hutchings. But OMH refuses to even acknowledge there's a bed shortage here. No doubt, DeFrancisco would have to twist a few more arms to get them. The whole situation is unconscionable. The governor and legislators can find plenty of money to stuff their pork barrels and keep their cronies on the public payroll, but they can't come up with enough to ease one of Central New York's most pressing problems. Next year, they must ensure money for the University-Hutchings project is in the budget.

Where Do Children. Letter to the Editor
Syracuse Post-Standard, April 24, 2005

To the Editor:

I just finished reading the April 19 article "Children being sent elsewhere for care" due to the closing of Four Winds. I understand how the parent felt about her son leaving town for care.

My son, who is 12, needed psychiatric help. We went up to CPEP (the Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program) and he ended up staying there for five days while they tried to find him an inpatient bed somewhere. They were only supposed to hold him for three days, but couldn't find anywhere for him to go. I even had to spend the night there with him, because they didn't have enough staff to watch a minor.

They finally found him a bed at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, where they had to transport him by ambulance. He spent another five days there. Fortunately, I was able to go visit, but it took a toll on me. I had to miss work and the money I had to shell out for gas to go to and from there daily was outrageous.

Now he is getting therapy at Hutchings as an outpatient. I worry about him needing to go for inpatient again. He wouldn't be able to go there, they don't have the beds.

My son worried about if I would come see him so far away. He wouldn't sleep and called me all the time. Doctors at Strong had to medicate him so he could sleep. He would just pace the halls, worrying about when someone would come visit him.

I cannot believe that the state can't somehow get more beds available for children and teens with mental health issues. Wasn't there a way we could have fixed or worked on the problems at Four Winds so we could have kept it open? I think the state should really look into these issues more thoroughly. I worry about all the children and teens out there that need the help. Mental health is a serious issue. Does anyone seem to care about that?

Jennifer Bolick
Liverpool

Until next time, we remain,
Working to ensure available and accessible
mental health services for all New Yorkers