ADVOCACY NEWS FROM NAMI NEW JERSEY:
1. DIEGNAN, RAMOS, VAINIERI HUTTLE BILL CREATING MENTAL HEALTH FACILITIES EVALUATION TASK FORCE APPROVED BY ASSEMBLY
2. CONTRACTOR WHO PROTESTED HAGEDORN HOSPITAL'S CLOSURE IN LETTER GETS NEW ASSIGNMENT
3. GREYSTONE PRESERVATION MOVEMENT GATHERS STRENGTH
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DIEGNAN, RAMOS, VAINIERI HUTTLE BILL CREATING MENTAL HEALTH FACILITIES EVALUATION TASK FORCE APPROVED BY ASSEMBLY
Measure in Response to Proposed Closing of Hagedorn Psychiatric Hospital
(TRENTON) - Legislation sponsored by Assembly members Patrick J. Diegnan, Jr., Ruben J. Ramos, Jr., and Valerie Vainieri Huttle that would establish to create an evaluation task force for mental health facilities was was approved 78-0 Monday by the Assembly.
The legislators sponsored the bill in response to a line item in Gov. Christie's proposed budget that would have closed the Senator Garret W. Hagedorn Gero-Psychiatric Hospital - the only geriatric psychiatric facility in New Jersey - at the end of the 2011 fiscal year. Thanks to a budget compromise reached on the 21st, Hagedorn Psychiatric Hospital is no longer slated for closure.
"To put it bluntly, closing the only gero-psychiatric facility in the state is a mistake," said Diegnan (D-Middlesex). "The top priority of this task force must be to take whatever actions are necessary to keep Hagedorn open. The patients and their families deserve nothing less."
Read the announcement:
http://www.assemblydems.com/Article.asp?ArticleID=2780
Thank the bill’s sponsors
Assemblyman Diegnan
http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/members/BIO.asp?Leg=203
(908) 757-1677
Assemblyman Ramos
http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/members/BIO.asp?Leg=293
(201) 714-4960
Assemblywoman Vainieri Huttle
http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/members/BIO.asp?Leg=259
(201) 541-1118
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CONTRACTOR WHO PROTESTED HAGEDORN HOSPITAL'S CLOSURE IN LETTER GETS NEW ASSIGNMENT
After spending two months in job limbo over a letter she wrote protesting the proposed closing of Hagedorn Psychiatric Hospital, a woman who oversees mentally incapacitated patients is working again — but not at Hagedorn. Following state health officials’ review of her actions, she was back at work this week as a guardian, but the state did not send her back to Hagedorn Those patients are now under someone else’s care.
Read the full report:
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/06/contractor_who_protested_haged.html
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GREYSTONE PRESERVATION MOVEMENT GATHERS STRENGTH
Preservation advocates of the old Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital hope public lectures about the abandoned 134-year-old building’s past draw enough support to provide the massive stone structure a future. The most recent presentation was at the Denville municipal building last Monday — the same day the state senate approved a bill that establishes a preservation task force for the building.
The old building is one of a few “Kirkbride” buildings remaining in the country. It was part of physician Thomas Kirkbride’s push to standardize asylum construction and mental health treatment. The nearly half-million square-foot structure was built with personalized care and humane treatment in mind, with spacious rooms and an intended capacity of 600 patients. The hospital reached its peak around the 1950s, with roughly 7,000 patients.
Read more:
http://www.nj.com/news/local/index.ssf/2010/06/greystone_preservation_movemen.html
