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

Friday Fax from Albany

SAVE THE DATE! - MHANYS AWARDS DINNER AND CONFERENCE ON OCTOBER 20-21, 2005: More info available at www.mhanys.org/events.htm#mhanys

GERIATRIC MENTAL HEALTH ACT SENT TO GOVERNOR FOR CONSIDERATION – CONTACT GOVERNOR PATAKI TO URGE HIM TO SIGN: On Thursday, the Geriatric Mental Health Act (A.7672/S.4742), passed by both houses of the Legislature before they adjourned in June, was sent to the Governor. This bill would promote innovation and establish an inter-agency planning process, laying the groundwork for meeting the mental health needs of the baby boom generation as they become elderly New Yorkers.

Therefore, we urge that you contact the Governor either by mail, e-mail or by calling him at (518) 474-8390 and urging him to sign the Geriatric Mental Health Act into law.

MHANYS TEAMS WITH SAMARITANS SUICIDE PREVENTION CENTER AND THE BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB ON THE SAMARITEENS PROGRAM: Through financial support from the United Way of Schenectady County, MHANYS and the Boys and Girls Club of Schenectady County are working with Samaritans Suicide Prevention Center in the development of a teen peer-support training program – Samariteens. The programs will work to increase suicide awareness and reduce the incidence of suicide among teenagers by allowing teens to step into leadership roles as mentors to gain knowledge about crisis theory and the dynamics of suicide. The training focuses on developing skills of empathy, active listening, problem-solving, and interpersonal relationship building, and encourages appropriate help seeking behaviors that the teens can model and teach to others. After completing the program, it is the intention that these teens will be able to provide suicide awareness education programs at their schools and within their communities.

This is an exciting pilot project that attempts to address the problem of suicide that many MHAs have identified as significant issues within their own areas of the state. We hope that with the success of the Samariteens program this year, this model can be replicated in future years.

SAVE THE DATE - September 18, 2005 A Survival Walk - Remembering Rita: On October 11, 2004, Dr. Rita Leighton joined the estimated 1300 New Yorkers who take their own life each year. An avid supporter of Samaritans Suicide Prevention Center and the 8000-10,000 people it serves each year, Rita will be honored and her wishes to support and contribute to the work of Samaritans will live on during Samaritan’s walk, Remember Rita. Information is available at http://www.timesunion.com/communities/samaritans/ or call Debbie Poulin at (518) 399-4094 or Catie Riddle at (518) 427-7563.

QUILT OUT (from NAMI-NYC Metro): MHASC (Mental Health Alternatives to Solitary Confinement (www.boottheshu.org) is launching a quilt project to bring attention to the ongoing plight of New York prisoners in solitary confinement with a major mental illness. MHASC supports the passing of
Bill A3926/S2207 (or its equivalent) which would stop this horrific practice.

The quilt project will be ongoing with contributions accepted until the bill is passed. Quilt pieces may be sewn, painted, or constructed in any fashion and in any shape. They should be made by those who've been in solitary confinement with a major illness, or their loved ones, including close friends (who may be fellow prisoners). In some cases contributions may be memorials, for those who've passed away.

MHASC hopes to display the quilt at future rallies, press conferences, and perhaps temporarily in public exhibition spaces in Albany and New York.

Please contact Laurie Parsons for further information:

Laurie Parsons
MHASC's Quilt Out Project
P O Box 6271
Hoboken, NJ 07030
LAUBRPA@yahoo.com
(201) 795-9061

IN THE NEWS:

They're Steamed: Mentally Ill Tenants Demand Air Conditioning. By Cassi Feldman
City Limits Weekly, August 8, 2005

Adult home residents and owners agree that air conditioning is a necessity. But will the state foot the bill?

Irene Kaplan was on her way to a doctor's appointment on July 15 when she started feeling dizzy. She had the driver turn around and take her home, but she didn't make it past the lobby, she said. She started vomiting and spent the rest of the day in the emergency room, hooked up to an IV. She blames it on the medications she takes for depression--Prozac and Wellbutrin--along with the summer heat.

Kaplan lives in Surf Manor Home for Adults in Coney Island, and doesn't have air conditioning. At times, the temperature in her room has soared to 90 degrees. "I sit up there without even moving and I have sweat dripping off my nose," she said. She'd love to have A.C., she added, but it costs $60 extra per month, too much considering her Supplemental Security Income (SSI) allowance is only $130.

Advocates for the mentally ill say residents like Kaplan shouldn't be forced to make that choice. They're asking the state to fund air conditioning for all adult homes and require operators to keep rooms cooled to 72 degrees.

"Since these are state licensed facilities, we strongly believe that it's the state's responsibility to ensure that air conditioning is available to residents free of charge," said Tanya Kessler, adult home project director at the Coalition of the Institutionalized Aged and Disabled. "The only way that'll happen is if the state funds it." Kessler estimates that providing air conditioning to the 30,000 residents of adult homes statewide would cost an estimated $7 million.

The owners of the homes are all for it, said Lisa Newcomb, executive director of the Association of Adult Homes and Assisted Living Facilities, a trade organization that represents 265 homes statewide. "We all take the issue very seriously," she said.

The New York State Department of Health now requires adult home operators to provide access to an air-conditioned common area and keep other rooms below 85 degrees. But that may still be too high for some residents, Kessler points out. Dozens of medications increase sensitivity to heat, and psychotropic drugs, in particular, are known to interfere with body temperature regulation.

In a 2002 investigation, New York Times reporter Clifford Levy investigated deaths at 26 local adult homes, and found that July and August were often the deadliest months. In July 1999, for example, three residents without air conditioning died at the Leben Home for Adults in Elmhurst. The home is now under new management.

Air conditioning woes plague even the city's better adult care facilities. The Garden of Eden Home in Bensonhurst charges a staggering $125 per person for air conditioning, or $250 per room. As a result, many residents forego the option and, despite window fans, rooms can be suffocatingly hot. Raymond Smith, 62, shares one with his wife Marlina, 60, who has diabetes and high blood pressure, both of which are risk factors for heat-related illness. "I put rags on her head to keep her cool," he said.

Jay Amsel, owner and operator of Garden of Eden, says he'd be happy to provide air conditioning--as long as the state foots the bill. "Without a doubt, it's a necessity," he said. "It's not a luxury." But the cost of energy, equipment and labor is just too high to absorb, he explained, given that SSI pays him $29 per day for each resident. "You don't even break even," he said. So his staff simply makes sure that residents drink lots of fluids and don't spend too much time in their rooms or outside in the sun.

In a May 25 letter to operators, the Department of Health provided a chart detailing symptoms of heat exhaustion, heat stroke and heat cramps, along with a list of 103 drugs that can increase their likelihood. It encouraged staff to closely monitor residents during the "hot and humid weather."

That's not good enough, says Gary Levin, a resident active in the Coalition, which is now holding meetings on air conditioning around the city. "If the state came into a building and it was 30 degrees, they would not tolerate it whatsoever," said Levin. "Why is it they will tolerate a 90 degree building where people have no air conditioning?"

Overwhelmed Psych ER Had To Buy Cots at Dick's - The crowding is so bad, St. Joseph's may close psychiatric program. By James T. Mulder
Syracuse Post-Standard, August 08, 2005

Severe overcrowding at Syracuse's psychiatric emergency room this summer has put the future of the facility in doubt again.

The Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program - CPEP, pronounced see-pep, for short - at St. Joseph's Hospital Health Center saw daily volume in July go as high as 37 patients. It's set up to handle only 13 to 15 patients.

Cots were purchased from Dick's Sporting Goods to accommodate the overflow. On some days, the facility looks more like a shelter than an emergency room, according to Kathy Ruscitto, a senior vice president of the hospital.

"We can't continue to run a program that we do not feel is serving the best interests of the community," Ruscitto said. "We are considering all options at the moment."

A shortage of psychiatric beds for youths in the community frequently causes backups at CPEP. The latest gridlock, however, is being caused by a surge of adult patients. "Now we are having a problem even placing adults," Ruscitto said.

CPEP handles psychiatric emergency cases in Onondaga and Madison counties. It evaluates patients, then treats them or refers them to other programs in the region. CPEP saw more than 7,000 patients last year.

Adult patients who need to be hospitalized are admitted at St. Joe's, Community General Hospital, University Hospital or Hutchings Psychiatric Center if psychiatric beds are available. Open psychiatric beds at those institutions have been scarce lately, forcing CPEP to seek beds for adult patients in Ithaca, Oswego, Rome and other places out of town.

St. Joe's threatened to close CPEP two years ago because the program was losing money, but reconsidered after University and Community General agreed to help operate it. If CPEP closed, psychiatric cases would have to be handled in regular hospital emergency rooms.

Now the program's viability is being questioned again. In a recent letter to the state Office of Mental Health, the chief executive officers of Syracuse's four major hospitals had this to say about CPEP: "The future of this program is currently in doubt."

Ron Lagoe, executive director of the Hospital Executive Council, which represents the four major hospitals, said he doubts CPEP will be shut down. "We have to ask questions about where the program is going," he said.

There's been a local shortage of psychiatric beds for children and teens since last year's closing of Four Winds, a private psychiatric hospital in Syracuse with 64 beds for youths. That left Syracuse with 24 psychiatric beds for youths at Hutchings. Many local youngsters are being sent to psychiatric hospitals in Albany, Buffalo and other places far from home. Parents, local elected officials and hospital executives recently asked state Mental Health Commissioner Sharon Carpinello to add eight more beds at Hutchings, but she refused.

Four Winds also had 43 beds for adults, and the loss of those beds is compounding CPEP's problems, according to Ruscitto. "Finding adult beds has not been as much of a crisis until recently," she said.

While CPEP searches for open beds out of town, patients frequently end up staying at CPEP four to five days.

CPEP officials suspect the unusually hot summer weather may be contributing to the flood of patients.

"Tempers grow short and frustrations seem all the more frustrating in heat like this," said Mary Bishop, CPEP's executive director.

The city's regular hospital emergency rooms also have been unusually busy this summer. Ambulance traffic in June and July was nearly 12 percent higher than it was during the same two months last year, according to the Hospital Executive Council.

As it wrestles with an overflow of adult patients, CPEP is bracing for an influx of young patients next month. Child and adolescent psychiatric emergencies typically soar after school reopens.

"We don't physically have the capability of handling a high census of adults and a high census of children at the same time," Bishop said.

CPEP is preparing for the back-to-school spike by constructing a wall and making other renovations to separate youngsters from adults.

The hospitals would like to move CPEP to a larger space, but the state Office of Mental Health won't allow them to, Ruscitto said. CPEP is located at 201 Prospect Ave., in a small building a block from the main hospital building.

It is the only CPEP program in the state not physically connected to a regular medical emergency room, she said. The state won't let the hospitals here move CPEP to another free-standing location because it wants to see it connected to a regular ER, she said. That might be a possibility in the future when St. Joe's rebuilds its ER, but that won't happen soon, she said.

Jill Daniels, a spokeswoman for OMH, said her agency has not received a request for permission to relocate CPEP.

David Brownell, Onondaga County's mental health commissioner, said he's worried about the situation at CPEP. "It's untenable not to have a special psychiatric emergency room for our community," he said.