ADVOCACY NEWS FROM NAMI NEW JERSEY:
1. PSYCHIATRIC PATIENTS ARE GETTING A PLAN TO END DISCHARGE
DELAY
2. IMPROVED CARE FOR MENTALLY ILL WILL BE COSTLY
3. ATTORNEY GENERAL'S ADVISORY COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS REVISIONS
TO USE OF FORCE POLICY
4. UMDNJ MAY RUN MENTAL HOSPITAL
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PSYCHIATRIC PATIENTS ARE GETTING A PLAN TO END DISCHARGE
DELAY
Hundreds of patients who remain in public psychiatric hospitals
long after doctors have recommended their release would
be placed in supervised housing and community treatment
programs under a six-year plan released by the state Department
of Human Services. The plan targets the widely criticized
practice of preventing patients from leaving state psychiatric
hospitals even though doctors have deemed them stable enough
to be released.
Read Susan Livio's Star Ledger Report:
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/morris/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1203140108304900.xml&coll=1
View the Olmstead Home to Recovery CEPP Plan:
http://www.state.nj.us/humanservices/dmhs/CEPP_Plan_1_23_08_FINAL.pdf
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IMPROVED CARE FOR MENTALLY ILL WILL BE COSTLY
To examine conditions at Ancora, the Assembly Human Services
Committee will be conducting a hearing in Trenton. As the
committee prepares to meet, the key questions are: Does
New Jersey have the will - and the money - to make the hospital
better? And if the desire is there to help Ancora's involuntarily
committed, seriously mentally ill patients, what sort of
changes can and should be made?
Read this and Alan Guenther's full Asbury Park Press Series
on Ancora:
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080219/NEWS/802190385&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL
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ATTORNEY GENERAL'S ADVISORY COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS REVISIONS
TO USE OF FORCE POLICY
The Attorney General's Advisory Committee on Less-Lethal
Force has recommended that the Attorney General's Use of
Force Policy be revised. The committee recommended a policy
change that would authorize officers to use less- lethal
ammunition against a person who is threatening or actively
engaged in suicidal or other self-destructive behavior.
The committee also recommended that police training include
instruction on how law enforcement officers should deal
with persons who appear to be suffering from mental illness.
Read the Attorney General's Press Release:
http://www.nj.gov/oag/newsreleases08/pr20080213c.html
Read the full Advisory Committee Report:
http://www.nj.gov/oag/newsreleases08/AttorneyGeneral-AdvisoryGroup-Report.pdf
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UMDNJ MAY RUN MENTAL HOSPITAL
State mental health officials are negotiating with the University
of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey to run the state's
largest psychiatric hospital, which has been beset by a
string of deaths and mistakes that led to the recent ouster
of its top manager. Human Services officials have approached
the state's medical university to run Ancora, according
to the sources who declined to be identified because the
agreement is under review by the Attorney General's Office.
See Susan Livio's Star Ledger report:
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-9/1203658527146420.xml&coll=1&thispage=2
