Page 7 - Work Force January 2017

Union, allies concerned over plan to move children’s psychiatric services
WEST SENECA — CSEA is expressing strong concerns over the state’s plan to move Western New York Children’s Psychiatric Center patients and services to the adult Buffalo Psychiatric Center.
For the past several years
since state officials have initially proposed closing Western New York Children’s Psychiatric Center and moving the services to the Buffalo center, CSEA members and our allies have been speaking out to ensure that the children in Western New York continue to receive
the proper level of mental health services and resources. Specifically, children receiving mental health services need a safe, comfortable environment where they can also be
CSEA Western New York Psychiatric Center Local President Tom Weston stands in support of maintaining children’s psychiatric services at the West Seneca center at a recent news conference.
near their families.
The governor and state Office
of Mental Health officials recently announced that the state has put out Requests for Proposals to build a separate children’s unit at the Buffalo Psychiatric Center. Under the plan, no jobs would be lost and the number of beds for children will remain the same.
While state officials have noted that the new facility would ensure that child and adult patients would remain separate and have no contact, CSEA, along with other unions, state legislators, local officials, community members and families of the child patients, are concerned about the plan.
CSEA Western Region President Flo Tripi and Western New York Children’s Psychiatric Center Local President Tom Weston were among those who recently denounced the state’s plan.
“CSEA represents more than 2,100 workers who deliver mental health services to an 18-county
area of Western New York. No one knows how to deliver these services better than the employees who are professionally and occupationally trained to do so,” Tripi said. “Not one member who works for DDSO or OMH thinks this move will help families in crisis — as a matter of fact, those in the know say it will create more barriers to treatment. Why are we trying to fix something that isn’t broken?”
Also expressing strong opposition to the plan were state legislators from Western New York, including State Sens. Patrick Gallivan, Robert Ortt and Tim Kennedy, and state
CSEA Western Region President Flo Tripi speaks at a recent rally in support of maintaining children’s mental health services in Western New York.
Assemblyman Mickey Kearns. “Efforts by the Office of Mental
Health to close this center and move these patients to an adult oriented facility like the Buffalo Psychiatric Center make no sense,” Gallivan said. “I have worked with families of patients, mental health experts and others who believe such a move will jeopardize
the mental health and well-being of children who receive care at the West Seneca location.”
“It is not a difficult
decision
to permanently keep this facility
in West Seneca,” Kearns said. “On virtually every metric, this institution excels and exceeds other similar institutions in New York state. WNYCPC has the lowest 30 and 90- day readmission rates in all of New York state. This is important from a long-term cost perspective because readmissions for mental health case over the course of a lifetime can
result in many thousands of dollars for the treatment of a single person. The savings to New York state are long term and real. Not keeping
the facility in this setting is penny wise and pound foolish, because it overlooks the long-term savings and the input and voices of those treated by the state and surroundings.”
Union, elected
officials and community members will continue to fight to ensure that all people who need mental health
care they
“I have worked with families of patients, mental health experts and others who believe such
a move will jeopardize the mental health and well-being of children who receive care at the West Seneca location.”
services get the level of need.
“For the governor and the Office of Mental Health to dictate policy to us knowing full well our community’s long standing opposition to this move is undeniably offensive and reprehensible,” Tripi said.
— Ove Overmyer
January 2017
The Work Force 7