Members mobilize defense for psych centers
Middletown rally fires up opposition to budget cuts
ON THE HORN — PEF VP Joe Fox, above, and Sec.-Treas. Jane Hallum, below, lead rally. — Photos by Roger Scales
By SHERRY HALBROOK
It was a raw, snowy, February day in the Hudson Valley, but that didn’t stop 150 PEF Region 9 members and others opposed to the proposed closing of Middletown Psychiatric Center from rallying in front the Middletown City Hall.
“We used PEF’s Member Mobilizer Network to tell people about this event and they really turned out for us,” says Regional Coordinator Neila Cardus, chair of the Member Mobilizing Committee.
Led by Division 279 Council Leader Cindy Bartley-Horn, many PEF members and other employees from the psychiatric center came out to protest the budget proposal that would transfer the Middletown patients and many staff to Rockland Psychiatric Center.
They were joined by PEF members from other agencies, PEF Secretary-Treasurer Jane Hallum and Vice Presidents Joe Fox and Pat Baker.
“We had tremendous support from the community, too,” Cardus says. “Several county legislators and city council members joined us, as well as patients, their family members and members of the Middletown PC Board of Visitors.”
“This facility has been in the heart of Middletown for a long time, and the community really embraces it. The people here do not want to see these services and jobs leave the city,” she says.
The event paid off with more newspaper coverage and heightened public awareness, Cardus says, and that generated more political pressure on the state Legislature to block the governor’s proposal.
Less than two weeks later, the Republican majority in the state Senate issued a press release stating that it would not support the budget plan to close Middletown and Hutchings psychiatric centers.
While that news is encouraging, union leaders are taking nothing for granted.
“We will continue using our member mobilizing network to hold more events to warn the public about the threats to quality mental-health care,” Cardus says. “Our members are determined to keep the pressure on until it’s clear the state’s budget preserves all of our treatment options.”