Rallies For Fair State Budget |
COMMUNICATOR HOMEPAGE
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| Members at Middletown PC
rally, build lawmakers’ support to protect mental
health services By DEBORAH A. MILES and DENYCE DUNCAN LACY Scores of PEF members who work at Middletown Psychiatric Center stepped up the pressure on state leaders to keep the facility open by holding a “fight back” rally in March at the Middletown Community Campus, and a rally and news conference outside the psychiatric center in April. Carrying picket signs and chanting, “You say close, we say fight,” PEF members at the March rally joined with the Service Employees International Union, Civil Service Employees Association, the Hudson Valley Labor Federation, Teamsters and Laborers to raise their voices to protect the rights of people with mental illness. The rally featured testimonials from union leaders and other mental health advocates about why Middletown — a model psychiatric center — should stay open. Middletown PC has cared for mentally ill people in Orange and Sullivan counties for more than a century. Mental health model “Middletown is an innovative facility with a treatment mall and programs for the mentally ill that have been replicated in 60 programs and 30 states,” said PEF Secretary-Treasurer Jane Hallum. “Allowing the Office of Mental Health to close these doors would place a burden on those suffering from mental illness and their families. And the layoffs caused by this action would further cripple the local economy.” Gov. George Pataki’s proposed budget plans to transfer Middletown’s inpatients to the Rockland Psychiatric Center 60 miles away. Union leaders say that would force more than 300 employees to work outside Orange County, if those state workers remained in jobs at all. “This belt-tightening move by the governor will only cost the state more to try to replicate the services at another facility,” said PEF Vice President Pat Baker. “It would leave an enormous void in the system of care for some of the region’s most vulnerable citizens.” Lawmakers pledge support In April, PEF Region 9 Coordinator Neila Cardus and Division 279A Council Leader Cindy Bartley-Horn coordinated another rally and a news conference at the facility, featuring nearly a dozen state and local lawmakers, including Assembly Mental Health Committee Chairman Peter Rivera. “We are receiving some strong support from lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle,” Cardus said. “In addition to Assemblyman Rivera, our local legislators, Senators John Bonacic and William Larkin, and Assembly Members Jacob Gunther, Howard Mills and Nancy Calhoun, oppose the closing. So do several county and city officials. We are getting our message out there.” Cardus also blasted state Office of Mental Health Commissioner James Stone for a newspaper editorial in which he claimed the Middletown Psychiatric Center was no longer needed. “We need Middletown PC and we need strong mental health services because Orange and Sullivan Counties are the fastest growing counties in the state. Stop the lies, Commissioner Stone,” Cardus demanded. The rally and news conference also drew support from several patients’ family members and leaders of advocates for people with mental illness.  PEF Ad
campaign blitz breaks statewide on March 30, 2003Closing Psych Centers and Research Institutes across New York State opens us all up to disaster Bronx News - Bronx Times - Elmira - Middletown - NY Times - Rockland - Staten Island - Syracuse See the TV Commercials - 2 meg. each download (requires Quicktime) NYC - Syracuse - Middletown - Elmira See the TV Commercials - 2 meg. each download (requires Windows Media Player 7) NYC - Syracuse - Middletown - Elmira Hear the Radio Commercials NYC - Syracuse - Middletown - Elmira - (requires some type of media player)    |
WE SAY FIGHT
— PEF Secretary-Treasurer Jane Hallum and Vice
President Pat Baker lead members at Middletown
Psychiatric Center in a fight-back rally against state
plans to close the facility. — Photo by Margaret
Messe
