[NYAPRS Enews] PJ: CUCS Brings Wellness Self Mgt into NYS Prisons

[Matt Canuteson]

NYAPRS Note: NYAPRS applauds the news of this new initiative by member agency Center for Community Services that will help people with psychiatric disabilities better manage their own wellness in three New York State prisons. 

 

While this is good news, NYAPRS joins advocates across the state in being extremely concerned about the 3 year delay and reduction in funding for the implementation of New York’s SHU Bill: look for more details about NYAPRS Legislative Day advocacy items in the coming days. 

 

Initiative Aims To Aid Mentally Ill Inmates; Help Managing Own Care To Be Offered
By Larry Hertz Poughkeepsie Journal  December 31, 2008

For more than a decade, social workers and counselors at the Center for Urban Community Services in New York City watched clients with mental illness move through the criminal justice system's revolving door.

When they failed to take their prescribed medication, these men and women would experience behavioral problems that would land them in jail or prison. And too often, caseworkers found, the staff at the jails and prisons were either unable or unwilling to help mentally ill inmates manage their illness, triggering more behavioral problems behind bars.

"Too often," said Paul Howard, director of development at the center, "people with mental illness never sat down with prison officials and talked about their diagnosis. And then corrections officers were caught off guard by their behavior."

Starting early next year, caseworkers and researchers from the center, the state Office of Mental Health and the Department of Correctional Services will launch a pilot program at Fishkill Correctional Facility in Beacon in an effort to help inmates help themselves manage their mental illness. Similar programs will be launched at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining and at the Bedford Hills women's prison in Westchester County.

In February, inmates with mental illness at the Beacon prison will begin attending seminars on how to cope with their conditions. They will learn how to obtain information on the proper medication and its possible side effects and how to communicate with clinicians at the prison when they determine they need more help.

Howard said recent state studies have found more than 10 percent of the state's 63,000 prison inmates have been diagnosed with mental illness. And he said the number of men and women in the prison system who are ill but have not been diagnosed probably makes that figure a lot higher.

"Most people with mental illness are never asked to sit down with their doctors or counselors and told the specifics about their diagnosis," he said. "Common sense tells you that if you educate someone, he or she will manage their illness better."

Prison and mental health experts said they were looking forward to the outcome of the new initiative.

Effectiveness 'Proven'

"Wellness self-management has been proven to help individuals with mental illness monitor and manage their own physical and mental health, and to live successfully in community settings," said Michael Hogan, commissioner of the Office of Mental Health. "While these skills are important for all people recovering from a psychiatric disability, they can be especially helpful to individuals who are returning to community settings from an institutional environment."

Brian Fischer, commissioner of the Department of Correctional Services, agreed.

"People with mental illness are a growing part of New York's incarcerated population, and we are grateful to the Center for Urban Community Services for bringing this foundation-funded program into our correctional system," Fischer said. "In addition to providing critical assistance for mentally ill inmates to cope with life in prison, Wellness Self Management will help them prepare for life in the community afterwards - a transition that is tough even for offenders without mental illness."

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20081229/NEWS05/812290321 

 

 

 

 

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