The road to recovery is rough enough, don’t make it any rougher. Keep Middletown Psychiatric Center open. The road to recovery from the devastating effects of mental illness can be long and hard. The support and encouragement of your family, your friends and your community can make the trip a little easier. They should be able to count on the state Office of Mental Health to help clear the way.  Instead, it’s going to make the road to recovery a lot rougher for individuals and families coping with mental illness. The state plans to close Middletown Psychiatric Center by April 2006, forcing more than 100 inpatients at the hospital and those awaiting treatment to leave their families, friends and community for inpatient services. The patients will be sent 51 miles away to Rockland Psychiatric Center.  The state wants to save money by closing one center and filling up extra space at the other — an idea better suited to objects than people, especially people who need a calm and therapeutic place close to their loved ones, to aid their recovery. We must keep the road to recovery as short, smooth and safe a ride as possible.  Keep the Middletown Psychiatric Center open — for the patients there now and for those waiting for treatment.  Don’t keep the mentally ill waiting for therapeutic care and don’t make their road to recovery rougher.  Tell state lawmakers to pass a budget for New York that preserves all the available treatment options in our communities. Download PDF print ad (File is black & white for faster download and printing) PEF Public Relations ad campaigns This ad was created by the PEF PR department and appeared as a black & white version in the January 24, 2005 edition of The Legislative Gazette. © Copyright 2005 NYS-PEF.