Rallies For Fair State Budget |
COMMUNICATOR HOMEPAGE
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| PEF shows legislators how OMH
budget cuts could cripple research By SHERRY HALBROOK The state’s two renowned mental health research facilities are waging extensive campaigns to save their pioneering investigations into the causes, prevention and treatment of mental illness from a state budget proposal. PEF members at the internationally recognized Nathan Kline Institute (NKI) in Orangeburg and the NYS Psychiatric Institute (NYSPI) in Manhattan are inviting state legislators to visit their facilities and see for themselves how the proposed budget cuts would damage public programs and services.  SEEING FIRST HAND — PEF member Victoria
Arango explains to state Sen. Eric Schneiderman and other
legislators how co-worker Manuela Douglas is preparing a
very thin slice of brain tissue for research at the NYS
Psychiatric Institute in Manhattan. PEF invited the
lawmakers to tour the facility and learn how proposed
budget cuts will damage the research and clinical
services. — Photo by Bill Sachs“Research represents the only hope of recovery for people stricken with such devastating mental illnesses as Alzheimer’s Disease and schizophrenia,” PEF Vice President Joe Fox told state lawmakers and throngs of NKI supporters at an April rally. “Yet the proposed state budget would eliminate 113 state jobs and seriously damage this research that has attracted $100 million in federal and private grants at both institutes,” Fox said. Just two weeks earlier, PEF members led state and city lawmakers in a tour of NYSPI to show them how the cuts will affect patient services, research and staff if the funding is not restored. During their visit, the legislators and New York City Council representatives saw first-hand the services, clinics, and counseling NYSPI provides to patients, many of whom are from the Washington Heights and Inwood communities of upper Manhattan. The political leaders also learned about special programs for suicide prevention and the deaf mentally ill. And they visited the facility’s labs to learn about wide-ranging research into such disparate ailments as bipolar disorders, schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s, eating disorders and HIV. At a press conference following the tour, the elected officials joined PEF and representatives of community groups and advocates for the mentally ill in calling on Gov. George Pataki to find alternatives to cutting the research and merging the remnants of NKI with NYSPI.  “NYS Psychiatric Institute and Nathan Kline conduct vital, distinct mental health research and provide different services for their clients,” said PEF Region 10 Coordinator Jennifer Faucher. SUPPORT RESEARCH — State legislators and New York City Council members join PEF at an April press conference to demand restoration of state funding for research at the NYS Psychiatric Institute in Manhattan. — Photo by Bill Sachs  At the
NKI rally, PEF Region 9 Coordinator Neila Cardus said,
“Some parts of the research would be saved, while
the essential clinical trials or support services for
these same programs would be trashed, crippling the
scientists’ ability to complete their
research.” Henry Sershen, a PEF steward and research scientist at Nathan Kline, pointed out that the state recently invested $40 million in renovating the institute to ensure its state-of-the-art capability and tripled grant funding there as a result. Now, it would shut Nathan Kline down permanently. “We are worried that when the National Institutes of Health and other organizations that fund research see how New York is closing its programs and facilities, they may be reluctant to entrust future grants to any state research in New York,” Sershen said. In March, PEF obtained a temporary restraining order preventing the state’s Office of Mental Health from taking any further action to close NKI, abolish positions at NYSPI and close three state psychiatric centers. As this issue of The Communicator goes to press, the state Supreme Court is still considering whether to issue a preliminary injunction that would block closing the facilities.  PEF Ad
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