American Health Council Calls for Support to Prevent Closure of Children's Psychiatric Center

BUFFALO, N.Y. - Nov. 6, 2017 - PRLog -- Currently on the state's closure list, the Western NY Children's Psychiatric Center (WNYCPC) is facing a possible shutdown with plans for absorption by the Buffalo Psychiatric Center (BPC), a facility that only serves long-term adult psychiatric patients. NYS Gov. Andrew Cuomo may soon sacrifice the health & well-being of WNYCPC's adolescent patient population for what many see as strictly a shortsighted financial decision.

Gov. Cuomo is currently reviewing legislation that would prevent the merger of the children's facility with Buffalo's adult center. The Buffalo Psychiatric Center is a crowded, urban setting that would be detrimental to the progress and healing of developing children and adolescents. Children would be subjected to a more restrictive, less nurturing & therapeutic environment, surrounded by long-term adult psychiatric patients who are themselves recovering. As recently as 2016, an adult outpatient from Buffalo Psychiatric Center attacked a 14-year-old girl, nearly strangling her to death (http://news.wbfo.org/post/attack-teen-cited-psych-center-...).

Consolidation of this invaluable resource for the residents of Western NY would hamper the recuperation of adult & child patients alike. To protect the children, both children & adults would have restrictions on the days & times they could use recreation facilities like the gym, pool & bowling alley. For their own safety, children would need to be escorted/guarded by adult staff whenever they are on the grounds. The exception would be a yard, surrounded by a 14' fence attached to one end of their residential building. These conditions highly contrast the existing nurturing environment at the WNYCPC.

WNYCPC in West Seneca

Founded in 1970 to treat community children with severe psychiatric problems, the WNYCPC remains committed to the recovery of its young charges through therapeutic atmospheres & highly-trained staff members.

This NYS Center of Excellence boasts an impressive record over its almost 50 years open with one of the lowest rates of seclusion and restraint, clearly indicating a better approach to care. In 2012, WNYCPC received a 99.9% rating by the Joint Commission & was given a special designation as being in the top 10% of accredited hospitals in the nation.

Consolidation's Effects on Healthcare Delivery & Access

Many of the WNYCPC patients, between ages 4-17, have serious mental illnesses & suffer from severe emotional trauma. Some have, in fact, been abused by adults. Squeezing these children into 4 floors of Buffalo's eight-story institutional building will greatly encroach on their space to develop & will diminish their quality of life experiences.

The WNYCPC builds and nourishes hope in their child patients — instilling a hope that they can & will heal, & through getting better, these children may return to their homes & families, schools & neighborhoods, & go on to live productive lives.

Although the state may allocate funding to dress up the facilities at the Buffalo location, these children will see beyond the revamped interiors and develop a different impression of their recovery. Looking out from their bedroom windows & around the grounds, they will inevitably encounter a wide range of long-term adult psychiatric patients, some well into their 60's. Surrounded by an adult population still unable to rehabilitate from institutional treatment, how will this impressionable, young population perceive their feasibility for reintegration into their community?

The degree of oversight required to separate children from the adult population at the Buffalo Psychiatric Center would trap these traumatized & emotionally fragile patients in a near lockdown atmosphere. If this merger is successful, this would be the only psychiatric facility across the entire state where children would be housed & treated in the same building as adult psychiatric patients.

The Fight to Keep WNY Children's Psychiatry Center Open

Led by Assemblyman Michael Kearns & Senator Patrick Gallivan, & supported by a bi-partisan alliance of more than 90 elected officials on the local level, legislators are urging the governor to reconsider the facility's relocation. In August 2017, Assemblyman Kearns and Senator Gallivan's sponsored bills to keep the facility open. The bill passed unanimously in both the Assembly & Senate, & is presently awaiting Cuomo's signature.

WNYCPC also has overwhelming community support from individual residents & various faith-based organizations. The petition to keep the WNYCPC open has received more than 15,000 signatures from people throughout Western NY.

Additionally, a group of advocates are suing Gov. Cuomo & State Mental Health Commissioner Ann Marie T. Sullivan to halt the transfer of child psychiatric patients to BPC. State Supreme Court Justice Catherine Nugent Panepinto recently denied a motion to dismiss the litigation, allowing the lawsuit against Cuomo to proceed & temporarily preventing the merger.

How You Can Help

Approached by an Affiliate of the American Health Council, currently employed at WNYCPC & morally unsettled by the tragic circumstance facing the center, the AHC has initiated its own Change.org petition to garner further support. The AHC hopes to assist the movement ensuring that these already distraught children receive the highest recovery potential & are not further disadvantaged. Please make this a legislative priority for Gov. Cuomo by joining others in signing the petition: https://www.change.org/p/the-honorable-andrew-m-cuomo-governor-of-new-york-state-prevent-closure-of-children-s-psychiatric-center

Most importantly, "Save Our WNYCPC" is seeking donations to cover their steep legal representation costs in their battle with the state. You can learn more about the movement & the status of the legislation on their website: http://www.saveourwnycpc.org/


Please provide "Save Our WNYCPC" with assistance for their legal defense fund via GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/saveourwnycpc

Assemblyman Michael P. Kearns, Assembly District 142, is currently accepting petition submissions with a mail-in form on his website: http://nyassembly.gov/member_files/142/pdf/2017_75976.pdf

Assemblyman David DiPietro, 147th Assembly District, has an online petition open accepting submissions on his website: http://nyassembly.gov/mem/David-DiPietro/story/77330/

Please share any thoughts or experiences with healthcare access & delivery obstacles. Contact us at advocacy@americanhealthcouncil.org (mailto:advocacy@americanhealthcouncil.org?subject=ARTICLE:%20Closing%20of%20WNYCPC).