Advocacy E-news January 11, 2019

January 11, 2019

 

THOSE CARING FOR A LOVED ONE DON’T GET ENOUGH HELP. N.J. WANTS TO CHANGE THAT

If you’re one of a million-plus New Jersey residents serving as an unpaid caregiver officials may soon be knocking at your door. A  new law establishes a task force is charged with evaluating existing caregiver support services in the Garden State, and offering recommendations for enhancing those services. The 11-member task force will pull representatives from a wide range of organizations including NAMI New Jersey who is a caregiver for a person with a disability.

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SUPPORT LEGISLATION TO RESTRICT SOLITARY CONFINEMENT IN NJ PRISONS

There are about 1,500 prisoners in isolated confinement at any given time in New Jersey jails or state prisons. Many allege they’re placed there for petty or arbitrary reasons. Isolated confinement results in trauma and mental illness, leading to its condemnation by dozens of religious, medical, humanitarian and psychiatric associations. The Isolated Confinement Restriction Act (bills A-314 and S-3261 in the state Assembly and Senate respectively would exclude certain vulnerable populations entirely from isolation, including those aged 21 and under, those 55 and older, pregnant women, and people with developmental disabilities, mental illness, or serious medical conditions.

If you believe this system must be changed, please urge your representatives in the Legislature to support bills A-314 and S-3261.

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N.J. TO GET FIRST URGENT CARE CENTER FOR PSYCHIATRIC EMERGENCIES UNDER UNIQUE HOSPITAL MERGER

New Jersey’s largest hospital chain on Thursday completed a merger with the state’s largest private mental health facility its executives say will create the state’s first walk-in “urgent care” center that will divert people in crisis from the emergency room. The merger between Hackensack Meridian Health and Carrier Clinic also will expand addiction treatment programs in a state where eight people die every day from an opioid drug overdose.

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STRESSED, SUICIDAL COPS IN NJ CAN CALL FOR HELP

The recent suicide of a beloved Mercer County Sheriff’s Officer has New Jersey law enforcement circling back to a trusted resource, a hotline called Cop-2-Cop. The peer-to-peer counseling hotline has been running in New Jersey in partnership with UMDNJ and Rutgers University since 1998. A decade after a state task force on police suicide, there’s still an uphill battle to remove the stigma of seeking help, advocates say.

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