ADVOCACY NEWS FROM NAMI NEW JERSEY:
1. MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCATE EXPOSES HORRID CONDITIONS
2. INVOLUNTARY OUTPATIENT PROGRAMS AWARDED
3. JUDGE APPROVES AGREEMENT ON COUNTY JAIL CONDITIONS
4. CHRISTIE CREATES COUNCIL TO EXAMINE HOMELESSNESS IN NEW JERSEY
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MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCATE EXPOSES HORRID CONDITIONS
What disturbed Bob Davison the most was the constant screaming. For about 51 hours late last month, the director of the Mental Health Association of Essex County posed as a homeless man inside Dover Woods, a state-licensed residential health care facility in Toms River that is often home for patients discharged from psychiatric hospitals. In just two nights, Davison said, he broke up a fight, turned down oral sex for money from a hallucinating woman, and tried to sleep on a bed with a busted spring and no blanket. Now Davison is calling on Gov. Chris Christie’s administration to demand these facilities be made safer or stop using them.
Read the Star Ledger story:
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/04/mental_health_official_poses_a.html
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INVOLUNTARY OUTPATIENT PROGRAMS AWARDED
The New Jersey Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services has announced the award of Involuntary Outpatient Commitment Programs (IOC) in the first five counties in what is to become a statewide program over a three year period. IOC allows for the involuntary commitment to outpatient treatment of individuals who meet the state’s commitment standard as an alternative to an inpatient commitment. The program’s implementation had previously been delayed over budgetary concerns.
Programs have been awarded in the following counties:
Burlington - Lester A. Drenk Behavioral Health Center
Essex – The Mental Health Association of Essex County
Hudson – Jersey City Medical Center
Union - Trinitas Hospital
Warren – The Family Guidance Center
Learn more about the program:
http://www.state.nj.us/humanservices/providers/grants/rfprfi/RFPfiles/RFP%20-%20IOC.pdf
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JUDGE APPROVES AGREEMENT ON COUNTY JAIL CONDITIONS
A federal judge has approved a settlement of a class action lawsuit filed in 2008 against Passaic County for unconstitutional and inhumane conditions at the Passaic County Jail. The lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey (ACLU-NJ) and Seton Hall University School of Law’s Center for Social Justice (CSJ) on behalf of prisoners at the jail.
Under the terms of the agreement, the jail will agree to rectify the conditions that led to the lawsuit. The jail will screen and treat mental illness among inmates more aggressively, including through programs to place inmates on special watch and to prepare mentally ill prisoners for discharge back into the community.
Read more:
http://thealternativepress.com/articles/judge-approves-agreement-on-county-jail-condition
The documents can be found online at the ACLU-NJ’s website.
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CHRISTIE CREATES COUNCIL TO EXAMINE HOMELESSNESS IN NEW JERSEY
Gov. Chris Christie has signed an executive order creating the Interagency Council on Homelessness as part of what he describes as an effort to end homelessness with 10 years.
The governor wants the council to develop a method to better identify and address the needs of the homeless as part of a long term plan to prevent homelessness.
According to a January report from the National Alliance to End Homelessness, New Jersey’s homeless rate of chronic homelessness has decreased by 20 percent, indicating progress in identifying and working with individuals with substance use disorders, disabilities, mental illness or medical issues. However, overall homelessness has increased over that same period 7 percent.
Read more:
http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/state/christie-creates-council-to-examine-homelessness-in-new-jersey
View Executive Order 92:
http://nj.gov/infobank/circular/eocc92.pdf
