ADVOCACY NEWS FROM NAMI NEW JERSEY:
1. CODEY REMOVES ROAD BLOCK TO RECOVERY
2. SENATE PANEL HEARS REQUESTS TO SPARE PROGRAMS IN
BUDGET
3. STATE TO ADD 50 BEDS TO NEW GREYSTONE
4. NEW ERA AT GREYSTONE DEMOLITION BEGINS
5. SENATE REJECTS PROPOSED MEDICAID CUTS
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CODEY REMOVES ROAD BLOCK TO RECOVERY
Acting Governor Signs "Lien Law" at Mental
Health Summit
Acting Governor Richard J. Codey today signed legislation
that wipes out existing liens for individuals who have been
hospitalized at a state or county psychiatric hospital and
prohibits future liens. "As of today, people who cannot
afford their stay at a state or county hospital, will no
longer have liens hanging over their heads when they are
released," said Codey. "We are wiping out a draconian
law that
penalized our most vulnerable citizens and made their recovery
that much harder."
Read the news release:
http://www.politicsnj.com/codey032405.htm
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SENATE PANEL HEARS REQUESTS TO SPARE PROGRAMS IN BUDGET
Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee heard from close
to 70 people at a public hearing on what the budget for
fiscal year 2006 should look like. Most prefaced their remarks
by acknowledging that the legislators face a tough task
in trying to craft a budget for a state with a looming deficit.
A number of speakers praised the governor for making mental
health care a priority and expanding programs and increasing
funding in that area and for "making a down payment on a
system that has suffered neglect" and for "beginning the
process of restoring promises made" decades ago when large
number of patients were released from mental institutions
to what was supposed to be better care outside.
Read the Courier Post story:
http://www.courierpostonline.com/news/southjersey/m031705l.htm#
Governor Codey’s Budget address and Mental Health
initiatives:
http://www.nj.gov/cgi-bin/governor/njnewsline/view_article.pl?id=2380
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STATE TO ADD 50 BEDS TO NEW GREYSTONE
Task force found the initial plan for 410 patients would
be inadequate
The state will add 50 beds to its proposed new Greystone
Park Psychiatric Hospital project at a cost of an extra
$18 million to ensure the state hospital is not too small
when it opens, state officials said. A detailed analysis
by a special governor's task force on mental health found
the proposed new Greystone, which was to have 410 beds,
was inadequate.
Read Lawrence Ragonese’s story:
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/sussex/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1110867751266050.xml
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NEW ERA AT GREYSTONE
It was a ceremony marking the demolition of the 103-year-old
dormitory, at 208,000 square feet the second largest building
on the Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital grounds. Closed
in 1992, the dorm now is being reduced to land fill and
will be replaced by what Codey declared "a smaller, better
and safer" treatment building "that reflects a new focus
on improving mental health care across our state."
Read the story in the Record:
http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2MTAmZmdi
ZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTY2NjY1NTEmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkz
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SENATE REJECTS PROPOSED MEDICAID CUTS
By a bipartisan vote of 52-48, the Senate stripped a proposal
to require $15 billion in cuts to the Medicaid program over
the next five years. The vote came on an amendment to the
FY 2006 budget resolution authored by Senators Gordon Smith
(R-OR) and Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) to remove the proposed cuts
to Medicaid and replace them with a commission to examine
long-term reforms to the program.
Read the NAMI update:
http://www.nami.org/template.cfm?
