ADVOCACY NEWS FROM NAMI NEW JERSEY:
1. NEW JERSEY BUDGET APPROVED
2. PATIENTS BRIEFLY VISIT NEW HOSPITAL
3. DRUGMAKER LOBBYING HITS RECORD
4 'DEFICIENCIES' AT REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER LISTED
5. N.J.'S PAROLE OFFICER OF THE YEAR ANNOUNCED
6. NAMI NEW JERSEY MOURNS THE LOSS OF 2 LEADERS
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NEW JERSEY BUDGET APPROVED
New Jersey legislature has approved a $32.9 billion budget
for the Fiscal Year 2009 that cuts spending by $600 million
from the current year's budget. Assembly Budget Committee
Chairman Louis Greenwald, D-Camden, acknowledged the plan
contains painful cuts, but said it is moving the State toward
leaner government.
In response to the Advocacy of NAMI NEW JERSEY members
and fellow stakeholders the budget eliminates the proposed
Medicaid co-payments, which would have been applied to prescriptions,
outpatient hospital visits and hospital visits to emergency
rooms for non-emergent care. The fiscal plan also replaces
some of the Charity Care dollars to hospitals that were
cut in Governor Corzine's budget proposal, but still slices
$111 million in funding.
The Division of Mental Health Services would receive $323.5
million for community services with $40.4 million to be
dedicated to Olmstead Support Services. The budget does
not include a new Cost of Providing Care (COPC) increase
for the Fiscal Year 2009 for community providers. However,
the proposed budget does include $41 million for the annualization
of the FY 2008 provider cost of living adjustment.
Read more Newsday:
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj-xgr--njbudget-glan0618jun18,0,1838559.story
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PATIENTS BRIEFLY VISIT NEW HOSPITAL
Greystone transfer targeted for mid-July
Finally, more than seven months after its grand opening
ceremony, some patients were allowed into the new Greystone
Park Psychiatric Hospital. A small group of higher functioning
patients entered the 450,000-square foot, state-of-the-art
state hospital in Parsippany for a music program and get-acquainted
tour, state officials said. After the tour, they returned
to the old hospital.
Their entry came a week after Gov. Jon Corzine and state
Sen. President Richard Codey expressed anger that the $170
million facility remained closed, with a breach of contract
notice going to the general contractor.
Read Lawrence Ragonese's Star Ledger report:
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/morris/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1214283390179390.xml&coll=1
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DRUGMAKER LOBBYING HITS RECORD
The nation's drugmakers spent a record sum last year on
lobbyists to influence Congress and Bush administration
policymakers on a broad array of issues affecting their
financial well-being. The Center for Public Integrity, a
Washington, D.C., watchdog group, reported yesterday pharmaceutical
manufacturers and their trade groups doled out $168 million
on lobbying in 2007, a 32 percent jump over 2006. The 2007
expenditures raised the amount spent by drug interests on
federal lobbying in the past decade to more than $1 billion,
the center said.
Read more:
http://www.nj.com/business/ledger/index.ssf?/base/business-1/1214368590122650.xml&coll=1
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'DEFICIENCIES' AT REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER LISTED
Bergen Regional Medical Center could not produce consent
forms and medical histories for patients who had undergone
surgery and did not respond with urgency to emergency room
patients reporting suicidal or homicidal thoughts, according
to recent state surveys. Examiners listed a host of legal
and medical "deficiencies" at the county-owned,
privately managed hospital, based on reviews of patient
case files, tours of care units and a review of staffing
levels.
The findings come against the backdrop of loud complaints
by the nurses union and leaders of the medical staff that
the for-profit managers of Bergen Regional have been cutting
costs at the expense of patient care.
Read more in the Record:
http://www.northjersey.com/news/Deficiencies_at_regional_medial_center_listed.html
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N.J.'S PAROLE OFFICER OF THE YEAR ANNOUNCED
A Camden-based senior parole officer who works with mentally
ill parolees has been named New Jersey's 2008 Parole Officer
of the Year.
Michael Sass "has developed a real understanding and
concern for this special needs population," said State
Parole Board Chairman Peter J. Barnes Jr.
Sass supervises a caseload of parolees who have been diagnosed
with severe and persistent mental illness. He serves the
Program for Returning Offenders with Mental Illness Safely
and Effectively (PROMISE), a Camden-based parole program.
Read the Courier Post story:
http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080623/NEWS01/806230337/1006/news01
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NAMI NEW JERSEY MOURNS THE LOSS OF 2 LEADERS
June has seen the death of two founding members of the mental
health family movement in New Jersey. Dorothy Ambruso in
Middlesex County and Norm Shanteau in Atlantic County led
tireless lives of advocating for persons with a mental illness
and served as beacons of hope and inspiration for a generation
of families affected by mental illness. Though they will
be sorely missed the contributions they made to improve
the lives of persons with a mental illness will live on.
Read more about their lives:
Dorothy Ambruso:
http://www.mycentraljersey.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080619/OBITS/806190358/1013/NEWS0203
Norm Shanteau
http://www.legacy.com/pressofatlanticcity/Obituaries.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonId=111029403
