Advocacy Newsletter --- NAMINJ

ADVOCACY NEWS FROM NAMI NEW JERSEY

1. PRISONS MORE POPULATED WITH MENTALLY ILL INMATES

2. HOPE FOR VETERANS INITIATIVE

3. SOMERSET HOSPITAL TO REOPEN PSYCHIATRIC UNIT

4. PATIENTS TO GET $5,000 APIECE IN STRIP-SEARCH SETTLEMENT

5. FEMALE GREYSTONE WORKER ACCUSED OF SEX ASSAULT

6. ADVOCACY NEEDED TO PREVENT REDUCTION
IN DUAL ELIGIBLE MEDICAID DRUG BENEFITS IN 2006*

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PRISONS MORE POPULATED WITH INMATES WITH MENTALLY ILLNESS

Some 3,200 New Jersey prisoners,13 percent of the total have been diagnosed with mental illnesses, according to the Department of Corrections. That is an increase of 200 in three years, according to the department, and is 900 higher than patients in the state's six mental hospitals.

Those statistics show the state is part of a nationwide trend to incarcerate rather than treat those with mental illness

Read the Trenton Times report:

http://www.nj.com/news/times/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1090571735236551.xml

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HOPE FOR VETERANS INITIATIVE

Through the cooperative efforts of the Veterans Administration and a nonprofit housing agency, two floors of that building will be brought back into active use as the state's largest transitional housing facility for homeless veterans.

The whole project is being coordinated by the Veterans Administration and the Parsippany-based nonprofit housing agency known as Community Hope. The first-time collaboration by the Bernards-based VA hospital and the agency is shaping up to be something to be proud of, something that can serve as a role model for other agencies to emulate

Read the full story:

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/somerset/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1090732475235560.xml

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SOMERSET HOSPITAL TO REOPEN PSYCHIATRIC UNIT

Medical center was cited by state last fall for improper closure

Somerset Medical Center yesterday says it intends to reopen its psychiatric unit on Sept. 1, nearly a year after it closed. The state Department of Health and Senior Services had cited the hospital for improperly shutting it down last October and levied fines amounting to nearly $1 million. Princeton Behavioral Health, which provides health care services to people in Mercer, Middlesex and Camden counties, will run a unit that will have 18 beds for adults and 12 for adolescents -- the same number as before.

Read the Star Ledger story:

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/somerset/index.ssf?/base/news-3/109057067250900.xml

Hospital settles suit by fired employee

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/somerset/index.ssf?/base/news-2/108996668819110.xml

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PATIENTS TO GET $5,000 APIECE IN STRIP-SEARCH SETTLEMENT

Revised policy to be implemented at all state psychiatric facilities

More than two dozen state psychiatric patients will get $5,000 apiece and the state has formally agreed to new procedures for searching patients, in settlement of a federal lawsuit stemming from strip-searches of 26 people at a state hospital.

The settlement also provides $70,000 to New Jersey Protection & Advocacy, a patients' rights agency that filed the class-action lawsuit in 2001, according to court papers. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Trenton on behalf of patients at the Garrett W. Hagedorn Gero-Psychiatric Center in Glen Gardner.

Read Larry Ragonese's report:

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1089358263198620.xml

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FEMALE GREYSTONE WORKER ACCUSED OF SEX ASSAULT

Man says he was threatened with delay in release from hospital

A female worker at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital has been charged with forcing a male patient to engage in sexual relations, threatening to allege rape or hinder his release from the state facility if he failed to comply, according to police.

July 26, 2004