[NYAPRS Enews] NYAPRS Psychiatric Emergency Care Forums Set for LI, NYC, Buffalo, Rochester

[Matt Canuteson]

NYAPRS Psychiatric Emergency Care Community Forums

October 22nd, South Oaks Hospital, Long Island NY

October 24th, St. Francis College, Brooklyn NY

November 12th, Erie County Medical Center, Buffalo NY

November 13th Strong Memorial Hospital, Rochester NY

 

Background

Over the years, NYAPRS has participated in numerous efforts to help
reform the care of people in the mental health system. These efforts
have included advances towards a more person centered model of care, the
use of advance directives, the use of natural supports, and an overall
culture shift towards one focused on recovery, community integration,
and culture competence. 

In recent months, the need to reform our psychiatric crisis service
system has come to the forefront. From raising the standards of care
within psychiatric emergency rooms to promoting the utilization of
community based alternatives to emergency room settings, NYAPRS seeks to
promote collaborative efforts to find solutions to the various
challenges our communities face in delivering top of the line emergency
and crisis services.

 

Most studies bear out that people in the midst of psychiatric crisis all
too often face:  

*         a lack of sensitive and empathetic attention to people in
highly distressed states

*         very long wait times for emergency room attention, all too
often in overcrowded and uncomfortable facilities

*         preventable overuse of emergency rooms due to the lack of good
routine crisis management planning, provisions for emergency
medications, and the absence of adequate crisis prevention and early
response services

*         inadequate treatment of physical disorders of those with
co-occurring psychiatric symptoms

*         an overuse of inpatient care referrals in the absence of an
adequate array of alternative or 'step down' crisis services and
settings

 

We Want to Help!  Regional Emergency Care Forums

In keeping with a strong outpouring of concern by our members and Board,
NYAPRS is organizing a series of statewide regional forums on
psychiatric emergency care. The goal of the forums is to pull together
mental health experts, peer service specialists, advocates, public
officials, and local mental health providers to jointly assess the
effectiveness of local crisis service systems, and to identify
strategies to improve those services based on local, state and national
input.

We are very gratified by the support these forums are getting from
county and state officials, local hospitals and statewide hospital
groups, peer advocates and providers. Additional forums are currently
being scheduled for Westchester, Binghamton and the North Country. Stay
tuned for more details.

 

Contact NYAPRS Policy Specialist Matt Canuteson for more information:

mattc at nyaprs.org <mailto:mattc at nyaprs.org> 

518-542-0655

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://kilakwa.net/pipermail/nyaprs_kilakwa.net/attachments/20081008/384bed1a/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 2634 bytes
Desc: image001.jpg
URL: <http://kilakwa.net/pipermail/nyaprs_kilakwa.net/attachments/20081008/384bed1a/attachment.jpg>