First of all, I want to thank the Board for allowing me to testify today. My name is Mark Mandyck. I am a Habilitation Specialist at the Valley Ridge Center for Intensive Treatment in Norwich, New York. As a Habilitation Specialist, I am responsible for providing active treatment including facilitating curricula in a secure facility for developmentally disabled consumers with offending behaviors. Most of these consumers are felony offenders who have been previously incarcerated for their crimes.

    I am the PEF Division #403 Leader at Valley Ridge. I am also a member of the State OMRDD Labor/Management Committee. Further, I co-chair the Labor-Management committee as well as other committees, including Safety and Health, at Valley Ridge. I was a member of the Office of Mental Health Statewide Labor/Management Committee as a Civil Service Employee Association (CSEA) Local President. As you may know, these state committees are responsible for recommending policies and procedures for their respective agencies, especially concerning safety and health issues.

    I worked at the Binghamton Psychiatric Center on the Secure Care Unit as a Secure Care Treatment Assistant and a Mental Hygiene Therapy Assistant for approximately nineteen years. My duties included providing treatment in a secure environment for a high-risk population of adult mentally ill persons who posed a risk for assault or self-injurious behavior. I also worked for the New York Department of Corrections at the Greene Correctional Facility in Coxsackie, New York, as an Alcohol and Substance Abuse Program Assistant (ASAT). Greene Correctional Facility is a medium security program facility for inmates twenty-one years and younger. My duties included: assessing inmate referrals to the Alcohol and Substance Abuse program; facilitating both group and individual counseling sessions with the inmates; and facilitating educational programs using the Alcoholics Anonymous Twelve Step model.

    Therefore, I have worked with a potentially dangerous population of consumers in secure facilities for nearly twenty-one years. Over the years, I have been the victim of physical assault on numerous occasions. One of these assaults resulted in a serious injury to my right knee. However, after successful surgery and rehabilitation, I have been fortunate to be able to work. Further, I have been the subject of verbal aggression including threats of death and dismemberment. Finally, my family has been threatened, insulted, and ridiculed as well. Ladies and gentlemen, the physical and emotional scars that come from these work environments are devastating to both the staff and consumers.

    In the early 1990s, however, I was fortunate to be part of a Pilot Violence Prevention Project at the Binghamton Psychiatric Center. This project was a Health and Safety endeavor between management and labor called the Safe Ward Environment Committee. This committee was made up of both labor and management, whose mission was to provide the needed resources to help make the work locations safer, and therefore more therapeutic. The committee strived to reduce the number of injuries associated with consumer assaults and incidents involving other potential dangers to consumers and staff. This project was the catalyst for a three-year, NIOSH funded Violence Prevention Intervention Study conducted by the University of Maryland, the New York State Office of Mental Health, PEF, CSEA, and NYSCOPBA. The study is now in its final year and sadly it may not continue.

    Violence in the workplace continues to undermine the quality of care that we in the helping professions are committed to providing. Unfortunately, workplace safety often takes a back seat to fiscal concerns. We cannot count on state or local governmental managers to take the actions necessary to make the workplace safe on their own accord. I ask you today to consider implementing safety standards throughout New York State to protect workers from needless workplace violence. Thank you.