 |
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
||
March 20, 2007Call
In for Funding for Community Mental Health Services
On Wednesday, March 21, 2007, we urge you to make four phone calls;
Please take ten seconds to deliver the following message: “Please build on the $2 million in additional funding for community mental health services in this year’s budget that will help fund vital services that keep individuals with mental illness recovering in the community”
Budget Update Last week at our MHANYS Legislative conference, we sent out a very important message about the significance of funding more community services as well as several other key issues (see attached Legislative Gazette Article about the MHANYS Legislative Conference). This message was delivered by the MHA members to their legislators from around the state. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to speak with the members of the Conference of the Local Mental Hygiene about the need for more local assistance funding. Like many of us, they too remember the broken promises of reinvestment and the impact that funding would have had to community services.
As the Conference Committees in both the Senate and Assembly continue to meet (there is a scheduled meeting for later today), we have to continue to make calls to both the Senate and Assembly to increase the funding for these services.
Parents with Psychiatric Disabilities Last week, MHANYS participated in a press conference with NYAPRS about the issues of Parents with Psychiatric Disabilities. As we have pointed out on many occasions, it is shameful that many people with psychiatric disability lose custody of their child solely because of their diagnosis. MHANYS in conjunction with NYAPRS has requested $1 million in the budget to help pay for the costs of legal and lay advocacy, education and training for family court judges and other personnel and funding to help build capacity for support groups for Parents with Psychiatric Disabilities. The newest MHANYS staff person Lorraine McMullin, the project coordinator for Parents with Psychiatric Disabilities, spoke at the press conference about the need for these services for this frequently neglected population. (The article from this story is attached)
Michael Hogan Officially Confirmed as Mental Health Commissioner Last Wednesday while we were having our Legislative Day, Michael Hogan was officially confirmed as Mental Health Commissioner by the New York State Senate. Though he did not make it to our Legislative Day (we understand that confirmation hearings do take precedent), he did speak the evening before at our Community Mental Health Promotion Team Dinner. He has impressed many of us with his candidness and a vision that is shaping up to be one that is strong on community based services, recovery and a system driven by the needs of recipients of services and their families. This is consistent with the mission of MHANYS and we look forward to working with him for many years to come.
Governor Spitzer Signs Civil Commitment Bill Despite our long standing disagreements with the bill and those of most of the other members of the mental health community, Governor Spitzer signed a law creating civil commitment in New York for sex offenders. As we have said throughout, we have been very concerned that this bill will result in the inappropriate use of psychiatric facilities for sexual offender and also result in the possibility of losing future funding in the mental health system because it would go to the housing of offenders in psychiatric facilities. This bill also continues to perpetuate the stigma that equates people with mental illness with sex offenders. Though we do appreciate that the bill has stronger safeguards than earlier iterations and a well defined mental health component, it still represents a step backwards for stakeholders in the mental health community.
State
Asked to Address Mental Health Community’s Concerns Thomas O’Claire, MHANYS vice president of government affairs and father of Timothy O’Claire, the 12-year-old boy whose suicide in 2001 spawned a movement that led to the passage last year of the mental health insurance parity measure Timothy’s Law, presented Assemblyman Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, with an award for his efforts to get the legislation adopted. “Sometimes government just does what is right, and this was doing what is right,” said Tonko as he accepted the award. But in the spirit of most legislative lobbying efforts, which focus on reform, Tonko added, “We’re not done with this law. We’re going to make it perfect.” Tonko announced his plans to introduce a bill to expand Timothy’s Law to include mental health coverage through state-funded insurance plans. Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, D-Endwell, also spoke to the crowd of mental advocates on the need for reforms. The first topic she addressed was the recent decision to legalize civil commitment of sex offenders in mental health facilities. “Many of use were not that happy about the law to pass civil confinement,” she said, stressing that state leaders need to “make sure we don’t end up with another Rockefeller drug law.” The civil confinement of sexual predators who have finished serving their prison sentences has long been opposed by the mental health community. And while Glenn Liebman, executive director of MHANYS, conceded “the law is better than it would have been if it was passed last year,” concerns over the safety of mental health patients, draining of mental health resources and attaching stigma to the mentally disabled that civil confinement might lead to were cited in the group’s legislative agenda. To address some of those concerns, MHANYS has called for a separation of civil confinement funds from mental health funds within the state budget. Also at the legislative conference, reform of the criminal justice system was cited by advocates as imperative. They called for a ban on special housing units, or solitary confinement, for the mentally ill, and for the creation of additional mental health courts. MHANYS has attributed the mistreatment of the mentally ill in the prison system in part to a lack of appropriate community-based funding and services. “They can find $46 million for civil confinement but they can’t find $10 million for local assistance,” said Liebman. More mental health housing was requested to help take homeless individuals off the street and to move those in unsuitable adult homes where they are given few freedoms and often have no option of leaving even when they feel ready to live independently. MHANYS also called on the state to create a waiting list for mental housing that would clarify the need for these residences and the funding required for them. MHANYS is also requesting the state place anti-depressants back on the preferred drug list so they would be covered my Medicaid and Medicare Part D. Special attention at the legislative conference was also paid to geriatric mental health care needs, with a request for $3 million in the state budget. Speakers reminded those attending the conference that mental illness is not a typical symptom of aging and needs appropriate attention. A million dollars is being requested for increased services to parents with psychiatric disabilities, including parent training and supports services, oversight by the Commission on Quality Care and Advocacy for People with Disabilities, and training programs for judges and judicial staff. According to MHANYS, more than 60 percent of adults in the mental health system are parents and many have lost custody of their children based solely on their diagnosis. Mentally
Ill Parents Seek Assistance for N.Y. Legislators At a news conference, a group of parents blamed the problem on a stigma surrounding people with mental illness, particularly in the court and child-protection systems, and a lack of education and community support. They met with various state legislators and officials in an effort to secure $1 million to expand parent training and services, boost legal services, and train judges and judicial staff about the needs of parents with psychiatric disabilities. Between 70 percent and 80 percent of parents with psychiatric diagnoses lose custody of their children, said Lorraine McMullen of the Mental Health Association of New York State. "Too often the state has taken custody of the children simply because the parents have a diagnosis. There's no attempt to determine if or how long it's been since parents were symptomatic or to assess how much support parents would need to keep their child safe," she said. The consequences are costly, McMullen said, putting an extra burden on the child welfare system with children who are not abandoned or neglected, and breaking up families. "This is perhaps one of the more pressing issues that we're hearing now on the grass roots from people with psychiatric disabilities," said Harvey Rosenthal, head of the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services. Parents with mental illness are "a stigmatized group within a stigmatized group whose rights are diminished and whose capacity is questioned unfairly," Rosenthal said. The Assembly's budget proposal, released this week, would provide $600,000 for provider training and consumer support. The Senate's plan includes $400,000 for legal representation. Both have a substantive amount in their budgets for separate aspects of services, Rosenthal said, and he is hoping all elements will make it in the final budget. Lawmakers are supposed to adopt a budget plan by the start of the fiscal year, April 1. Dally Sanchez of Yonkers, a 26-year-old single mother, said she had to get inpatient treatment for a mental illness when her now-9-year-old daughter, Victoria, was about 2. She had arranged for her mother to care for the girl. A community-service provider called child-protective services and raised the question of Sanchez's ability to care for the child. Sanchez claimed she was threatened with the removal of her daughter. "I had to give up voluntary custody to my mother in order to prevent (Victoria) from going into the (foster-care) system," she said. Sanchez said she wasn't aware at the time that she could challenge the charge of neglect, a charge that continues to be on her record. Fourteen months ago, when she gave birth to her second daughter, Alexandria, the hospital required her to get a psychiatric evaluation before she could take the baby home. "We're people and we have and should be able to receive the same rights as everyone else, and the violation of our rights should really stop now," said Sanchez, who works for the Westchester Independent Living Center in White Plains. |
||||
 |
||||
