Advocacy E-News March 27, 2017
March 27, 2017
CHRISTIE TOUTS MENTAL HEALTH SYSTEM
Gov. Chris Christie on Friday championed what state officials are calling a transformation of New Jersey’s mental health system, a week after his administration announced it has met the settlement terms of a long-standing lawsuit against the state. Christie inherited the 2009 settlement from the administration of his predecessor, Gov. Jon Corzine. The settlement required the state to provide community housing for people with significant mental illnesses and promptly discharge patients from state hospitals once they have been medically cleared to leave.
LAW COULD USE THERAPY AS WAY TO SEIZE GUNS FROM TROUBLED OWNERS
Mental health professionals are raising concerns about a proposed bill that would require them to report to the attorney general any patients they feel are likely to harm themselves or others, allowing authorities to seize firearms from those who are registered gun owners.
EARLY INTERVENTION COULD HELP PEOPLE STEER CLEAR OF PSYCH ER
New Jersey lawmakers are seeking to significantly expand initial screening programs for mental illness in an effort to divert patients in crisis from hospital emergency rooms into more appropriate community-based treatment. Hospital officials claim a growing number of patients with psychiatric problems coming to their emergency departments when they are unable to find affordable care elsewhere.
FORMER JERSEY BOARDING HOME DESTROYED IN FIRE
Just days before a massive blaze burned a vacant Ocean Grove hotel to the ground, township officials signed off on plans to return the once historic building to a semblance of its former glory. The Warrington Hotel was built in the late 1800s and then converted into a boarding house in the 1980s. By 1995, the Warrington served as a home for people suffering from mental illness. It served as a boarding house for mentally and physically disabled people until the state Department of Community Affairs decertified it in June 2012 because of poor conditions. It has sat vacant ever since.
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