NYAPRS Note: Here’s a contrast between 2 Albany rallies this week.
On Tuesday, NYAPRS brought 600 advocates to Albany to back state proposals to move savings from the downsizing of state hospitals and from the reduced use and need for Medicaid hospitals to ramp up community recovery systems of care. We know…and many in our community are the evidence….that people who often face the most challenging conditions and circumstances are recovering and integrating in their communities of choice, often with the support of a personalized mix of community services and supports.
As hundreds in our group met with their state legislators, about 150 hearty advocates rallied outside in the bitter cold, warmed by their passionate belief in recovery in the community. You can see an article and 2 photos of our rally below and can hear a radio clip at http://innovationtrail.org/post/mental-health-advocates-rally-albany.
Yesterday, an estimated 800-1,000 civil service employee union members came to Albany under the banner of ‘Save our Services.’ Based on the comments that ensued, it should have read ‘Save our Jobs.’ From the articles below, there was little mention of the recovering people who have the greatest standing to refer to state mental health services as ‘our services,’ except apparently to suggest that many would continue to need some form of institutional care.
There were, however, vulgarities and an increasing number of desperate sounding attacks on the quality of nonprofit services. Apparently it’s not ok for people to move to community settings if those services are not provided by civil service employees.
I was a union member when I worked at Albany’s state psychiatric center in the 1970’s. I never saw a recognition by the union of the system changes that were already beginning then….the move to recovery in the community. And I haven’t seen efforts since by union leaders to recognize where the system was heading and to arm their members with the understanding and the training to stay viable with the times.
The demands on the mental health workforce have increased tenfold as national and state system reforms require a complete overhaul and integration of our services and the need to demonstrate measurable indications that the people we serve are getting and staying well and capable of living more independently. This environment is requiring new skills, new partners and new expectations. The nonprofit community is working to adapt and retool to meet these new demands, and facing the challenge to keep up with the often dizzying pace of change…and doing so under difficult conditions that have been exacerbated by the state’s unwillingness to provide a COLA over the past 5 years to help the workforce to keep up with rising costs.
The dedicated and talented members of the civil service workforce (whose compensation has continued to steadily rise) have not been well served by a leadership stance that has steadfastly run in the other direction, trying to hang on to the approaches and jobs of the past, rather than to anticipate and fit into the system of the future.
Mental Health Advocates Rally In Albany
By Jenna Flanagan Innovation Trail January 30, 2014
Community mental health advocates descended on Albany Tuesday. They were there to voice their approval for more than 200-million dollars earmarked in the governor’s budget proposal for new community services and supports for New Yorkers with psychiatric conditions.
The group rallied on the east steps of the state capital chanting, ‘Reinvest in my recovery’ and ‘housing employment and peer support.’
The stakeholders praised Governor Cuomo’s proposal to downsize state psychiatric facilities and redirect those funds to local community mental health systems.
Harvey Rosenthal, Executive Director of the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services says community integration and engagement goes a lot further towards patient recovery than hospital services.
“We’re doing a better job to help people live in the community, we don’t need the money in the institutions, we want it in the community. A big source of where that money has to go is to increasing housing, employment and peer support.”
Steve Coe is CEO of Community Access in New York City. His organization provides housing, job skills, employment placement and support to break the cycle of homelessness, institutionalization and incarceration of people living with mental illness.
“If somebody moves into housing, their physical health improves and their mental health improves. So the public all they hear about is that people are dangerous and that’s just not true.”
Neil O’Connor, a recent graduate of Community Access program offered at the Howie T. Harp Peer Advocacy and Training Center in Harlem, said the course helped him turn his life around when he was struggling with depression.
He wants people to know those diagnosed with mental illness are dealing with more than a medical condition.
“They’re like, ‘hey the guy sounds like he’s alright, he’s labeled, he’s got a mental illness but he’s still got his wits about him. He’ll have his bad days he’ll have his good days, but in the end he’ll have more good days than bad days.”
Governor Cuomo’s budget plan for mental health services redirects 25-million in state psychiatric hospital resources, resulting in a reduction in more than 400 inpatient beds. 30 million dollars of redirected Medicaid funding would be channeled into peer and family support, community rehabilitation and employment initiatives.
The Civil Service Employees Association has called the Cuomo administration’s plans ‘flawed’, and that the plans underestimate the demand for ongoing longer-term care for people with mental illness who can’t be supported in the community.
In Albany, I’m Jenna Flanagan for the Innovation Trail.
http://innovationtrail.org/post/mental-health-advocates-rally-albany
Over 100 mental health self-advocates and community providers from across New York came to the east steps of the Capitol Jan. 28, 2014, in Albany, N.Y., to show their support for proposals that reinvest savings from state and Medicaid hospitals to ramp up local community mental health systems. (Skip Dickstein / Times Union)
http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/204535/photos-this-week-at-the-state-capitol/#20011-3
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CapCon: Public sector unions unload on ‘moron’ Cuomo
by Rick Karlin
Union leaders as well as some lawmakers took turns bashing Gov. Andrew Cuomo for “privatizing” and “downsizing” human services while at the same time calling for him to throttle back plans to continue closing disability centers, psychiatric hospitals and prisons.
“Keep your hands off our state workers,” Saratoga-area GOP Assemblyman Jim Tedesco said at a Wednesday rally attended by members of the Public Employees Federation, Civil Service Employees Association and NYSCOPBA, all of which represent workers at the targeted facilities.
CSEA President Danny Donohue, whose union is still upset over the governor’s institution of a less-costly Tier 6 retirement plan almost two years ago, took the rhetoric even farther, ridiculing as “bull___” the idea that Cuomo did everything he could to keep General Electric from closing an upstate plant late last year.
“Today should be the hue and cry for the governor,” Donohue said. ” … We the people of this state are sick and tired of being had by this moron.”
“I don’t want to hear anymore that you can be replaced by someone that doesn’t have your skills or experience,” said American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten. (PEF is an affiliate of the national teachers union.)
Weingarten did offer a conciliatory note toward the governor, saying “he and I grew up in politics together. … I always believe in redemption.”
The topic of Tuesday’s rally in the well of the Legislative Office Building was ostensibly to protest the ongoing transfers and downsizing of state institutions, including prisons, psychiatric hospitals and disability centers. Citing an easing of drug laws and other changes, the Cuomo administration has developed a long-term plan to downsize the vast upstate prison system.
And the governor wants to move more disabled and mentally ill people from large institutions to community-based settings including group homes or residential centers, which are often run by non-profits.
But that means the people who work as caretakers — ranging from nurses and social workers to prison guards — won’t be needed on the state payroll. The fear — which the administration’s statements have not assuaged — is that the downsizing will shift work to non-union shops operated by those non-profits.
Leaders of PEF and CSEA question the quality of services that non-profits will provide, but they are also fighting against job losses or forced transfers affecting their members.
The governor’s office has said the downsizing shouldn’t lead to layoffs — some agencies will be downsized through attrition — although some public employees may have to move to other parts of the state to remain employed.
“The governor continually says this is not about job losses. This is about mergers and consolidation,” noted PEF President Susan Kent.
Here’s video from the rally, courtesy Kyle Hughes of NYSNYS.com: http://bcove.me/d0ekuij4
http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/204734/public-sector-unions-unload-on-moron-cuomo/
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Union Leaders Offer Tough Talk About Cuomo At Rally
State Union Leaders Call Governor “Dictator,” “Monkey”
By Rick Karlin Albany Times Union January30, 2014
Gov. Andrew Cuomo hasn’t proposed laying off state workers. But that didn’t keep the leaders of several major state employee unions and a handful of lawmakers from tearing into him on Wednesday.
The complaints and insults came hard and fast at a rally aimed at reversing the long-term downsizing of state-run human services agencies and prisons.
“Stop doing these drive-by breaks in services,” said Susan Kent, president of the Public Employees Federation. ” … You are not a sole dictator here.”
And there was this from Danny Donohue, president of the Civil Service Employees Association: “We the people of this state are sick and tired of being had by this moron.”
“The state’s open for business,” Donohue scoffed, offering a Cuomo catchphrase. “Monkey business — and it’s Mario’s son Andrew, and he’s the biggest monkey that we’ve got.”
The longtime head of CSEA, Donohue has a reputation for using harsh language when tussling with governors.
In 2009, Donohue said then-Gov. David Paterson “needs a good psychiatrist, or at least he should share the drugs he’s on” after Paterson said there would likely be layoffs due to the 2008 financial crash.
Lawmakers also attended the rally.
“I don’t know if we should call him King Cuomo or Gov. Cuomo,” said Saratoga-area Republican Assemblyman Jim Tedisco, who also urged the governor to “keep your hands off our state workers.”
The event, called “Save Our Services,” focused on potential displacements from downsizing at several state agencies, including the Office of Mental Health, the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, and the Department of Correctional Services and Community Supervision.
In addition to PEF- and CSEA-represented workers, members of NYSCOPBA, which represents prison guards, will be affected. Among the facilities slated for closure are Camp McGregor prison in northern Saratoga County and the O.D. Heck developmental center in Niskayuna.
Many clients at state-run sites are slated to be moved to smaller community-based residences or facilities operated largely by nonprofit agencies.
Workers at those local facilities aren’t direct state employees — and generally aren’t members of the unions that represent the people who do those jobs. And while Cuomo has said the downsizing shouldn’t lead to state layoffs, some workers will likely have to move or commute long distances to keep their jobs, which also have the union riled up.
Union activists contend privatizing services removes state control, which could create problems.
Many of the participants at the rally said they believe lawmakers — who are typically allied with unions — should play a bigger role in enacting or fighting closures.
Tedisco and Sen. Kathy Marchione, R-Halfmoon, have introduced a bill that would prevent prison closures without legislative approval.
“Union leadership in New York isn’t what it used to be,” saidLarry Swartz, Cuomo’s secretary in response to the comments at the rally. Cuomo was not in Albany on Wednesday and few lawmakers were present of a non-session day.
Cuomo’s office has noted his poll ratings remain high statewide. A recent Siena Research Institute poll gave him a favorability rating of 61 percent among union households.
Union leaders like Donohue have long aimed harsh rhetoric at management during disputes. Rank-and-file members expect their leaders to fight, and they don’t mind if the battles are waged loudly.
Still, there was enough concern about the restructuring that the leader of PEF’s national affiliate, the American Federation of Teachers, came to speak.
“There are two roads you can take,” said Randi Weingarten, who was previously head of the New York City teachers union.
One path, she said, is the “cut-cut-cut-cut of trickle-down economics. … Or you can take the road that even the pope has said, which is that we invest, we rebuild.”
Striking a conciliatory note, Weingarten added that she’s known Cuomo for a long time. “He and I grew up in politics together in New York state,” she said. “I always believe in redemption.”