ADVOCACY NEWS FROM NAMI NEW JERSEY:
1. FREEDOM COMING FOR PSYCHIATRIC PATIENTS
2. HEALTH REFORM AT A CRITICAL STAGE YOUR HELP NEEDED
3. REGRETS CALL FOR AN AMBULANCE DREW COPS
4. FEDERAL LAWSUIT LINKED TO ARREST OF MENTALLY DISABLED
MAN
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FREEDOM COMING FOR PSYCHIATRIC PATIENTS
Nearly 300 patients kept in New Jersey psychiatric hospitals
for more than a year because they don't have homes or access
to treatment will be discharged over the next five years
under a settlement announced yesterday by a disability advocacy
group and the state. New Jersey will spend $5 million a
year until 2014 to break a longstanding bottleneck preventing
hundreds of patients from leaving its public psychiatric
hospitals, even though a physician has approved their release,
said Kevin Martone, deputy commissioner of the state Department
of Human Services.
Read more:
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-14/1248917111230190.xml&coll=1
Read the Department of Human Services press release:
http://www.state.nj.us/humanservices/news/press/2009/approved/20090729.html
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HEALTH REFORM AT A CRITICAL STAGE - YOUR CALLS ARE NEEDED!
As Congress moves toward its month-long summer recess, health
care legislation has reached a critical stage. While neither
the House nor the Senate is expected to move forward on
a final vote on legislation this week, a strong grassroots
push is needed to keep the pro-reform effort on track going
into the fall. A toll-free number is up and running to direct
calls to all House and Senate offices. While advocates can
also send e-mails and hand-written notes to members of Congress,
phone calls directly to congressional offices are drawing
the most attention in this critical stage in the debate.
NAMI will be engaging in a broad grassroots advocacy campaign
throughout the month of August - including efforts to reach
members of Congress while they are in their states and congressional
districts.
Act Now!
http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=Policy_News_and_Alerts&template=/ContentMana
gement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=83155
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REGRETS CALL FOR AN AMBULANCE DREW COPS
The husband of the knife-wielding Jersey City woman who
was shot by a Jersey City cop Tuesday night said yesterday
police could have subdued her another way. Brown confirmed
his wife was schizophrenic and stopped taking her medications
July 16. The night she was shot dead, Brown said, she was
acting strangely. She was hyped up and stopped sleeping,
getting "worse and worse," he said.
Read the Jersey Journal story:
http://www.nj.com/news/jjournal/jerseycity/index.ssf?/base/news-8/1248330390313550.xml&coll=3
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FEDERAL LAWSUIT LINKED TO ARREST OF MENTALLY DISABLED
MAN
A suspended Warren County police officer already under
investigation for undisclosed activities while on duty is
now the main defendant in a federal civil rights action.
The lawsuit, filed in Trenton, claims a township patrolman
used excessive force and illegally attempted to "seize"
a former township resident, who is mentally disabled.
In the 2007 incident, officers responded and repeatedly
sprayed the man with pepper spray. He also pursued him when
he retreated to a back room in the store, got on top of
him and resumed spraying with the pepper spray while beating
him, the civil action alleges.
Read the Express Times report:
http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/warren-county/index.ssf?/base/news-1/124892673096500.xml&coll=3
