Protestors: Keep Hutchings PC open!
Members rally for ‘sane’ mental-health care

By DENYCE DUNCAN LACY
PEF members and leaders from the Syracuse area marched and rallied at Hutchings Psychiatric Center in late June, to renew their plea for state leaders to preserve the locally based mental-health services.

With uncertainty still surrounding the details of a final state budget, they called on state lawmakers to reject the governor’s budget proposal to close Hutchings and other psychiatric centers,

Keep treatment options
Nearly 100 union members donned rally signs, buttons and stickers bearing the slogans, “Sane mental-health care: keep kids with kids,” and “Keep Hutchings open: Keep the road to recovery short,” and marched and chanted around the perimeter of the facility.

“Our members are concerned that the clients and families who rely on these facilities will be left with less than adequate treatment options if these psychiatric centers close their doors,” said Maureen Hogle, a social worker at Hutchings and the PEF Council Leader for members there.

“And until state lawmakers and the governor agree on a new state budget that excludes these proposals, there is still a very real threat that these doors will close. ”

PEF Vice President and Statewide PAC Chair Ken Brynien, who is a psychologist at the Central New York Developmental Disabilities Services Office, and Region 4 Coordinator David Stallone also spoke at the rally. They warned that the proposed closures would erode the quality and accessibility of the state’s mental-health-care system.

“Thirty years ago, New York’s elected representatives recognized that people with mental illness recovered better if they received care close to their homes, and that children with mental illness needed care in their own facilities,” said Brynien.

“New York should not be turning back the clock on mental health care.”

We know what works
“PEF’s doctors, nurses, social workers and other union members who work directly with clients in mental-health facilities know first-hand what works, and Hutchings and Middletown and the four children’s psychiatric centers work,” Stallone added.

State Sen. Nancy Larraine Hoffmann and Assembly Members Joan Christensen and William Magnarelli also turned out in support of preserving the services.


RALLYING FOR HUTCHINGS — Region 4 Coordinator David Stallone draws applause from demonstrators near the Hutchings Psychiatric Center in Syracuse, telling them PEF will keep the pressure on the state’s elected officials to keep the facility open. — Photo by Maureen Hogle

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