PEF Leader to participate in round-table discussion on caring for the developmentally disabled

Caring for the state’s most vulnerable population will be the subject of a round-table discussion April 23 in Albany.  State Senator Roy McDonald, Chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities has reached out to PEF to participate.  Ed Snow, statewide labor-management chair of the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities will have a seat at the table to offer PEF’s input on safety, security and well being of the individuals under state care and how to better provide those services.

PEF remains committed to ensuring the safety of the vulnerable individuals we serve and advocating for enhancing the critical function that professional state employees provide in that endeavor.
 
The discussion will take place in Room 124 of the Capitol on April 23, from 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM.

PEF BUDGET LOBBY DAY

PEF members from seven state agencies met with legislators and their assistants March 6 in Albany to lobby for changes in the proposed Executive Budget that would affect their agency or department. Those who participated in PEF Lobby Day were from the state Office of Children and Family Services, Office of Mental Health, Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, Roswell Park, Belleayre Ski Resort, Civil Service, and the Department of Transportation. They visited and left materials with 12 Assembly Members and nine Senators.

Dozens of union members rally to oppose closures and diminishing services for those with mental illness and developmental disabilities

Albany – Hundreds of members from the New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF) lined the sidewalk in front of the state Office of Mental Health (OMH) at 44 Holland Ave. in Albany to protest the way the state is closing and shifting services in several state-operated psychiatric facilities.

The protesters, many who were bused from the New York City area, also chanted and waved signs opposing the shifting of services at the state Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD).

PEF Vice President Pat Baker said this rally, which is the third held since mid-January, is another step to rectify the injustice being planned for those with mental illness, and to bring attention to solutions which would benefit the state, and the thousands who rely upon its services.

“We have rallied, talked with our elected lawmakers and have presented a strong argument about preserving needed services throughout the state,” Baker said. “The plan to close the Kingsboro Psychiatric Center in Brooklyn will literally leave the largest population of individuals in the state with mental illness abandoned. And the plan to shut down wards in the Bronx, at Creedmoor and the children’s unit at Sagamore, plus the entire adult inpatient program at Mohawk Valley PC, is just another step towards privatization. OMH Commissioner Hogan should be proud to have a state workforce who are experts in their fields and dedicated to their professions. Instead he is listening to an investment banker who has earned a reputation for dismantling needed health care in New York.”

Ed Snow, a PEF Executive Board member who represents union members at OPWDD, said he was at the rally to protest the issues surrounding OPWDD.

“We don’t want to see a diminishment of services that our members provide,” Snow said. “The state is heading towards transferring the responsibility of providing services to voluntary operators. That’s the wrong direction to take. Closing institutional beds at Finger Lakes and the Taconic DDSOs and moving consumers with medical and behavioral problems into the community is not the way to put people first.”

Union calls on state to rethink plans to close Monroe DC

ALBANY – Speaking at a press conference today in Rochester, Kenneth Brynien, president of the New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF) which represents approximately 65 professional staff at Monroe Developmental Center, said he is very concerned about what is happening to its 125 residents with disabilities as the state moves them out and prepares to close it.

"The state Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD), which operates Monroe Developmental Center, is falling far short of its proclaimed mission of 'Putting People First,'" Brynien said. "In a headlong effort to save money, the agency is shoving these residents with disabilities, who require high levels of security, supervision and treatment, out of the center and into group homes or even sending them back to their families with inadequate services or professional support. The agency is on a fast track for closing residential facilities and transfering group homes it operates with state employees to private providers. It is separating families and uprooting the people with disabilities from the familiar therapeutic surroundings and care they know and need."

The process, which has already begun, is displacing individuals with critical needs for treatment and supervision, including some registered sex offenders. In addition, approximately 400 staff face transfer or job loss as a result of these facility closings. Monroe is scheduled to be closed by December 2013 and the 400 staff will be scattered to other locations or lose their jobs. Located at 620 Westfall Road in Rochester, Monroe is home to approximately 125 individuals with multiple disabilities and specialized health care needs.

"These people need specialized supports for their behavioral issues," said Randi DiAntonio, council leader of PEF Division 259 at Monroe. "Our members, who are doctors, nurses, psychologists, therapists, social workers and other professionals, are increasingly concerned about the safety and wellbeing of these individuals, their families and the communities where they are being sent. Some of those communities are hundreds of miles away and will be too far for their families to visit regularly. Meanwhile, other people with disabilities who have been living in the group homes for up to 20 years are now being uprooted to make way for those coming from the developmental center.

"Releasing residents with intensive needs from institutions into the community has been tried in the past. Some have succeeded in reintegrating safely, but experience has demonstrated that others have endangered both the community and themselves," DiAntonio said. "Judges ordered the civil commitments of some of these individuals to the developmental center because they were a danger to themselves, to the public, and sometimes to their own families."

DiAntonio said the union is calling on OPWDD to hold public hearings to allow greater discussion and better planning with all stakeholders before moving forward with its plans.

"Decisions such as this should be based solely on the treatment and safety needs of the individuals and not be made for political reasons," she said. "Otherwise, deeply regrettable results may ensue from our haste. We're just asking the state to really start putting people first."

PEF Raises Concern over the Future of Services for New York's Most Vulnerable Citizens

ALBANY, NY - New York State is on the fast track toward Medicaid managed care that would nearly, if not totally eliminate state-provided mental hygiene services. Today, Pat Baker, vice president of the New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF), warned lawmakers of the long-term implications on the most vulnerable New Yorkers if these proposals go forward.

"Several elements of the proposed Executive Budget aim to provide integrated health care at a much lower cost," Baker said. "What we should pay attention to is a diminishment of quality in services and the unraveling of the safety net on which our most vulnerable citizens rely in times of crisis."

Baker testified at the state Assembly Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committees' hearing on Mental Hygiene in Albany. The proposals include giving the state Office of Mental Health (OMH) unlimited authority to reduce beds and close facilities statewide with only 30 to 60 days notice and virtually no input from the people who depend on these services or the professionals who provide them.

"One facility slated for closure is Kingsboro Psychiatric Center in Brooklyn, which is identified as the single highest user of mental health services in the state," Baker testified.

Similarly the state Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) would provide managed care for the disabled by a network of not-for-profit providers.

"Long-term residents of state-operated group homes are being moved out of their homes to make room for individuals being discharged from institutions. For some, these are the only homes they have known for decades. OPWDD claims to put "people first," yet here the people are last, and the money is first. It is shameful," Baker said.

Additionally, the state hopes to privatize the care and security services for sexual offenders now in OMH units. Baker warned lawmakers the state determined these offenders to be too dangerous for release into the community at the end of their prison terms and not to become complicit in creating this threat to public safety.