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March 9, 2007MHANYS
Legislative Breakfast on MHANYS
Highlights Budget Initiatives in Anticipation of State Budget on
April 1 MHANYS Priorities in the Budget The timing for this meeting is very fortunate because legislators are beginning to put their final priorities in place in anticipation of the April 1st Budget deadline. Both in our legislative meetings and in our testimony, we have called for several initiatives to be added to the budget including: • $10 million in additional funding for local assistance programs to help pay for peer run programs, children’s mental health services, integrated treatment for co-occurring disorders, services for youth in transition, individuals leaving correctional settings, clubhouses and many other valuable community services • Make the COLA permanent as well as increase the base • Insure that anti-depressants continue to stay part of the carve out of mental health medications in the Preferred Drug List • Language that will allow 500 of the proposed 2,000 new beds in the mental health budget to be specifically designated for adult home residents • $3 million in funding for Geriatric Mental Health • $1.5 million to continue funding for suicide prevention efforts • $1 million to fund training, education and advocacy for issues of Parents with Psychiatric Disabilities At our legislative day, talking points will be included for each of these issues. I cannot emphasize how important it is for us to speak out on these issues. In a year where policymakers were able to find over $70 million dollars to pay for sex offenders in psychiatric facilities, they should certainly be able to come up with $10 million to pay to help fund community run programs which serve well over 500,000 New Yorkers with mental illness.
• Support the bill that calls for the elimination of special housing units for people with mental illness in prison commonly referred to as the ‘boot the SHU bill.’(A.4870) • Support the Housing Wait List bill that will create a permanent administrative tool that will identify the housing needs of all people with psychiatric disabilities who do not currently have housing. (A. 3864). • Support the Bill that will increase the provisions of Timothy’s Law to include state supported insurance programs (Child Health Plus and Family Health Plus). The bill is sponsored by Assembly members Tonko and Gotfried. [It does not have an official bill number.] • Support a bill that will establish two centers of excellence in culturally and linguistically competent mental health (A. 1612) Please contact your legislators to set up meetings. If you have any questions or problems regarding meeting with your legislator, please feel free to contact me at gliebman@mhanys.org. Hope to see you on Wednesday. Letter Sent to the Leadership of the Senate and Assembly Mental Hygiene Committees March 8, 2007 As we get closer to the budget deadline, we wanted to reiterate our positions on several initiatives. You have been a strong and passionate advocate for the mental health community and we urge your support for these items. We are seeking a $10 million increase in funding for local assistance programs to help to overcome the cuts in recent years to community run mental health programs. This funding would be used to help pay for peer run programs, children’s mental health services, integrated treatment for co-occurring disorders, services for individuals with mental illness leaving correctional settings, respite services, clubhouse programs and many other valuable community services. In recent years there have been funding decreases (outside of last year’s COLA), despite program costs increasing dramatically for health insurance, liability insurance, heating costs, gas prices, etc. This $10 million will help deflect the increasing costs of running recovery driven, community based programs. In a year in which over $70 million can be allocated to house sexual offenders in psychiatric facilities, policy makers should certainly be able to identify $10 million to help fund community run mental health programs which serve well over 500,000 New Yorkers with mental illness. We also ask for your help in seeking to make the COLA permanent. The one consistent message from every community run mental health organization in New York State is the inability to keep qualified staff. Though we know that the COLA should be greater than 2.5%, we also know that we have to begin to move forward by creating a permanent COLA. We urge you to help work with us to make the COLA permanent and work with us to increase the base in the future. We are also advocating strongly to insure that anti-depressants continue to stay part of the carve out of mental health medications in the Preferred Drug List (PDL). We are very concerned that if the anti-depressants do not continue to be part of the carve out than Medicaid patients will not have access to the medications that best meet their clinical needs. The implications of not providing the best medications will be costly to taxpayers as well. Without appropriate medications, individuals will likely end up in hospitals, jails, prisons and emergency rooms. Also, we urge you to support language that will allow for 500 of the proposed 2,000 new beds in the mental health budget to be specifically designated for adult home resident seeking to transition to other housing options. According to the New York State Office of Mental Health review of the adult home data, over 500 people have been identified who can live at a different level of housing than adult homes. Very few adult home residents have left their existing housing. This language change will create an ability for adult home residents to have other residential options in the community. We also urge you to add $3 million in funding for geriatric mental heath to meet the needs of this significant and often overlooked population as well as $1.5 million to continue the funding essential for suicide prevention efforts in New York State. Finally, we urge you to consider the addition of $1 million in funding for the issues of Parents with Psychiatric Disabilities. Over 60% of individuals in the adult public mental health system have children. Unfortunately, many individuals lose custody of their children based solely on their mental health diagnosis. Funding is needed to help pay for trainings, education and advocacy for this population. We look forward to working with both of you and the entire legislature to achieve those goals. Thank you very much for your time and consideration.
Yesterday
Congressmen Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) and Jim Ramstad (R-MN) introduced
a strong new version of the Wellstone bill for mental health fairness.
The Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act would
bar employers and health plans from imposing stricter limits on
insurance coverage for mental health care than care for other medical
conditions. Enactment of a strong parity bill is a critical first step toward improving access to health care and addressing mental health conditions with the same urgency and priority as we attach to other general medical conditions. For more information about parity legislation in Congress and other ways you can help, visit the Campaign to Insure Mental Health and Addiction Equity website, http://www.equitycampaign.org/.
IN THE NEWS: Confinement
Questions It now appears certain that New York will soon have a civil confinement law for sex offenders. All of the circumstances point to quick approval: Gov. Spitzer wants to make good on his pledge to end Albany's dysfunction and show that he can get results; the legislative leaders want to show they are tough on crime, and are willing to work with Mr. Spitzer despite their recent differences over the appointment of a new state comptroller, and polls show strong public approval for confinement legislation. No one doubts that sexual crimes are often gruesome, and made even more so because the victims are so often helpless children. And no one can deny the statistical evidence that show sex offenders have high rates of recidivism. Yet these are no reasons to rush through legislation that raises so many questions about due process. If anything, the Legislature should be taking a long look at the implications of adopting such legislation. Under the proposed law, medical professionals would evaluate those who are about to finish serving their sentences for serious sexual crimes to determine if they pose a risk of future assaults. If the answer is yes, then the offenders would be entitled to jury trials to determine whether they should be involuntarily confined to a secure facility, where they would receive treatment, after they have served their prison time. But how would a jury of ordinary people possibly be qualified to pass on the judgment of medical professionals? Granted, juries deal with medical testimony all the time, and often it is conflicting. But it is always within the context of a crime that has been committed, and with other evidence to consider. The testimony of doctors and other professionals is one factor among many weighed by the jury. But that would not be the case in a civil confinement trial. There would be no crime to look back on, only the likelihood that the defendant might commit a crime in the future. There would be no hard evidence to consider, no alibis, no witnesses to the scene of the crime. Jurors would, in effect, have one duty: To pass judgment on a professional's opinion about an offender's likelihood of posing a risk if released back into society. A New York Times article, reprinted in this newspaper Sunday, showed how expensive confinement laws can be, and often how ineffective the treatment programs are. The Legislature should consider a better solution, such as longer sentences for even first-time sexual offenses, with treatment mandated during incarceration. That, along with strict monitoring of offenders who are released into society, and laws requiring the public to be alerted when a sex offender is living in their neighborhood, should help to protect society. It's not foolproof, of course, but it is preferable to punishing people for crimes they might commit. Assembly
Approves Bill to Confine Sexual Predators
ALBANY - As the Assembly gave final passage yesterday to legislation
that would keep certain sexual predators locked up even after their
prison sentences ended, officials acknowledged that the practice
could cost the state an estimated $225,000 per offender per year,
compared with $32,000 annually for inmates in correctional facilities. |
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