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MENTAL HEALTH UPDATE - INDEX

June 27, 2008

End of Session Update:

This is a brief encapsulation of this year’s Legislative Session. We will provide a more in-depth version in the upcoming days.

There are two seasons in Albany when the Legislature is in town. The first one is focused on the Budget which is due on April 1 and has been pretty consistent in recent years in terms of passing in early April. Then from early April through the end of June, the session is focused on legislation. The legislature left town earlier this week and the dust is settling on the impact of the hundreds of bills that were passed.

This year was an incredible year in New York politics. Over the last few months, we have a new Governor in former Lieutenant Governor David Paterson and a new Senate Majority Leader in Senator Dean Skelos from Long Island. There is no one who could have predicated any of this.

The one thing you can predict though is that it was another mixed bag year for mental health funding and legislation. Though we had some good thing that happened, there were several disappointments as well. The most significant advocacy strategy we have going for us is the continued strength of the grass roots. Many of the positive changes would never have come without your tireless continued strong advocacy.

As I have said time and time again, only through the collective voices of the stakeholders in the mental health community, will we be truly able to create the positive transformation of the mental health system.

Year in Budget

Without getting into great budget detail, we did have a good budget year especially given the tough economic times. There were several positive things in the Governor’s budget including largely a 3.2 COLA for the human service workforce as well as an agreement for an additional three years. There was also funding for additional mental health housing, children’s services, and co-occurring disorders. In addition, due to the leadership of Senator Morahan and the strong support of Assemblyman Rivera, we were able for the first time to get some funding for Health Care Enhancements, a MHANYS priority. The legislature was also able to add back funding in the budget to insure that anti-depressants remained part of the mental health carve out in the Preferred Drug List. There was also additional funding for the ENABLE program for Adult Homes and funding for veterans with mental health issues. Unfortunately, there was no new funding for Geriatric Mental Health and employment but we will continue to fight for those important issues to our members.

Of course, the negative consequence of the budget is that all agencies were asked to cut funding. Many of us are beginning to feel the impact of this to our mental health programs. We will be better able to discuss after we begin to recognize the impact of cuts to specific programs. However, MHANYS and our colleagues worked hard to insure that the COLA was left out of any budget cuts.

Legislative Priorities

The major legislative priorities since April included Adding Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to Timothy’s Law, A Housing Wait List Bill and more recently a Public Awareness Bill for Mental Health.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Timothy’s Law

Despite the very strong efforts by the Timothy’s Law Campaign, we were unable to add post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to the diagnosis covered in Timothy’s Law after the 30 in patient/ 20 outpatient days is exhausted. Despite strong evidence that veterans, sexual abuse survivors and others would be greatly impacted, the legislature did not pass the bill this year.

One of the major stumbling blocks was the feeling within the Legislature that Timothy’s Law is up for renewal next year and that there will be a study of the impact of the law coming out in April. We pointed out that we should not have to wait till next year to get PTSD added. It means that people desperately needing PTSD services will have to continue to pay out of pocket or not seek services because they are unaffordable.

We knew that undertaking the fight for PTSD would be a struggle given what we were up against. However, the good news is that this issue will be in the forefront of legislators’ minds when they come back next year.

Housing Wait List Bill

For the third year in a row, the Housing Wait List Bill has passed the Legislature. We have long supported this bill recognizing that there has to be a continued planning component to housing. How can you address housing needs without evaluating how many individuals with psychiatric disabilities need housing? In each county, there should be a prevalence number and advocates, state government, housing providers and local government can work together to build capacity based on the identified prevalence number in a county. This bill was vetoed by Governors’ Pataki and Spitzer. We are urging Governor Paterson to support the bill which he did support when he was in the State Senate. (A. 10079 and S.6819)

Tax Check off Bill

One bill that was the idea of MHANY in conjunction with Assemblyman Rivera several years ago was the idea of creating a tax check off in the New York State Income Tax dedicated specifically to a mental health public awareness campaign.

To the credit of Assemblyman Rivera, this bill passed the Assembly for the first time this year. We spent a lot of time trying to convince the Senate in the waning days of legislative session to support a Senate version of the bill. Despite the strong support of Senator Morahan, we were unable to get the bill passed.

I was told by Senate staff that it has been several years since they have supported a tax check off bill for any cause. I pointed out that the stigma of mental illness is keeping hundreds of thousands of people from getting mental health services and that a statewide public awareness campaign would help in dramatically changing perceptions. Though there was sympathy, there was no movement to pass the Senate bill. Now that we have momentum, we will be back next year and create a stronger campaign around this issue.

Gun Legislation

One of the surprises of the end of the session is the bills that come out from nowhere. Last month Governor Paterson introduced a series of bill regarding gun control. Several of the bills were very strong, positive measure.

Unfortunately, the one bill that was introduced in the legislature was part of federal legislation that created a registry that would not allow certain individuals with mental illness from possessing firearms.

In New York State one of those categories were individuals who were involuntarily committed to hospitals because they were a danger to themselves or others. There are many individuals who have been involuntarily committed who have never had a history of violence.

Most of us agree that if you have a history of violence, you should not be able to own a firearm, but many individuals involuntarily committed have never had any kind of violent history—why should they be discriminated against simply because of their hospitalizations.

Over the last twenty years, you could site chapter and verse of the people involuntarily committed having nothing to do with violence (eating disorder, anxiety disorder, clinical depression over death of a loved one, etc). Why should those individuals not be allowed to own a firearm in New York? It discriminates against an entire population of individuals.

To the credit of the state, they made the appeals process easier then the federal mandate which will certainly be an important step but this legislation should have never happened.

Regrettably, it appears that this bill will be signed into law.

Summary:

We started the year off well with a good budget from then Governor Spitzer and though the legislature did not have a great deal of money to spend on mental health, they directed much of the funding to the priorities of MHANYS including health care enhancements for direct care staff, funding of NASW initiatives on Veterans and mental health and restoring of the funding so that anti-depressants remained part of the mental health carve out in the Preferred Drug List.

We also were able to work with the Legislature and the Governor’s Office to get the successful passage of the SHU bill. No longer would individuals with mental illness in prisons be subject to having to stay in the SHU.

Though there were cuts to the passed budget across all areas including mental health (we tried arguing that the human service sector should not be cut), MHANYS and other mental health advocates argued successfully that this year’s COLA should not be subject to the cuts.

The legislative session itself was a mixed bag as the legislature continued their support of the Housing Wait List but we were unable to get successful passage of the bill to add PTSD to Timothy’s Law. We did make progress in having a tax check off bill in the state income tax pass the Assembly and now we will redouble our efforts for next year.

Finally, we were unable to stop passage of a bill that we believe does not allow certain individuals with mental illness who have never had a history of violence from owning a firearm in New York State.

Other Bills to Review:

There are several other bills which impact mental health in New York including a bill that mandates board member training on fiduciary responsibilities to all not-profit mental hygiene boards, there is an extension of Jonathan’s Law, there is legislation that broadens definition of abuse and neglect in children’s residential facilities, there is a bill that prohibits mandatory nurse overtime (that Governor Paterson has committed to signing), there are bills that would expand the Geriatric Mental Health Interagency Planning Council, there is a bill that brings together several state agencies to look at work hours for direct care staff in mental hygiene programs and there is a bill in response to the New York State/New York City agreement that creates legislation to allow for incident review teams to review critical incidents involving individuals with mental illness.

We will provide a full scale review in the coming days.