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Volume 11 Issue 6                                                                                              June 2012

Update: State and Federal Advocacy Efforts to Create Supportive Housing

 

The advocacy efforts to save the municipal housing trust funds in New Jersey continue. Municipal trust funds have the opportunity to create new affordable homes for people with disabilities and the homeless. Advocates have been pushing

for legislation to extend the deadline for continued use of municipal housing trust funds for local projects by two years. This would save the funding from being forfeited to the state this July and would protect the funds until July 2014. The legislation would also provide that any dollars forfeited after six years will either be transferred to the State Affordable Housing Trust Fund or to the County if it has established a Homelessness Trust Fund or if it serves an urban county. This provision allows for the trust fund dollars to be retained and used locally.

 

At the federal level, work to increase funding for programs that end homelessness -McKinney-Vento and HUD-Veterans

Assisted Supportive Housing (VASH) - also moves onward.   On June 7, 2012, the House Appropriations Subcommittee

on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (T-HUD) approved its funding bill for fiscal year (FY) 2013.

Click here to read more. 

 

Mental Illness Noted as Major Factor in Homelessness for Vets

The Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program (HUD-VASH), which provides supportive housing to homeless veterans, has been extremely successful in helping to end veterans homelessness. A study published by the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) Inspector General points to mental illness as a key risk factor for homelessness among veterans. According to the study, "Presence of mental disorders (substance-related disorders and/or mental illness) is the strongest predictor of becoming homeless after discharge from active duty." Click here to read more.  

 

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MHANJ and Other Organizations Join together to Urge Governor Christie and Legislature for Continued Support of Community Mental Health System


The Mental Health Association in New Jersey is one of twelve members of the Mental Health Coalition of New Jersey, a group of non-profit organizations concerned with the mental health needs of New Jersey citizens. While we are making progress with developing appropriate placements and services for mental health consumers in the community, we cannot risk losing any funding for these efforts that still have many unmet needs for consumers.

 

We are pleased to see that in the Governor's proposed FY'13 budget, funding is designated for community services including those for persons living with mental illness. However, the recent projections for a revenue shortfall in the FY '13 budget have caused a great deal of unease in the mental health community.  

 

The MHANJ supports the proposed FY '13 budget that includes continued investment in community housing and support resources and redirects savings from the closing of state hospitals to more appropriate service settings in the community. To reduce any of those proposed funds would cause serious harm to persons living in the community in need of mental health services.  In a letter to the Legislature, the coalition urged they do not allow any reductions to the community mental health budget. We thank you for your continued support for the mental health community.     Click here to view the MHANJ Budget Advocacy Message. 

Monitoring of All Residents Discharged from Hagedorn Still Needed

 

The Mental Health Association in New Jersey has called upon the Department of Human Services to systematically follow all of the patients discharged from Hagedorn Psychiatric Hospital as part of the closure plan to determine that placement has been "as good as or better than" their former hospital setting. The MHANJ is in favor of closing state psychiatric hospitals and believes that monitoring the success of the placements and making the outcomes public is needed as an integral part of the process. Consumers, families and the public need to have accurate information - not rumor or fear-based concerns - about the outcomes for these former residents.  If we are to successfully move treatment to the community (including inpatient care) it has to be proven that a majority of those placed have benefited from the move.  

 

In a letter to Assistant Commissioner Lynn Kovich, Carolyn Beauchamp, President /CEO of the MHANJ, stated "this is especially difficult with this closure since Hagedorn served as the site for elderly and those physically compromised as well as the usual admissions that occur at state hospitals. Many of the residents must remain in a supervised setting due to their physical conditions or ongoing psychiatric problems or a combination of both. Transfers to nursing homes and other psychiatric hospitals have raised concerns and questions about capacity of care for these special populations." In 1995, during the closure of Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital consultants assessed the 324 patient placements over a period of 42 months. People were interviewed twice while in the community - at four to six weeks post-discharge and then at six months. Information was also gathered from families as well as hospital and community staff.  It is this type of comprehensive follow up that is critical for those discharged from Hagedorn to insure their appropriate care as well as for future planning.

Social Security Disability Counseling Loses Federal Funding

 

The Work Incentive Planning and Assistance (WIPA) and Protection and Advocacy for Beneficiaries of Social Security (PABSS) programs, funded by the Social Security Administration, provide vital information to individuals with disabilities regarding their public benefits, along with advocacy and information on the work incentives that allow them to go to work and increase their self-sufficiency. Without these programs, many people will have no place to turn for benefits counseling and employment advocacy services.  The Congressional authorization for the WIPA (formerly known as Benefits Planning Assistance and Outreach - BPAO) and PABSS programs has expired.   

 

In New Jersey, two of the three programs will cease operations by the end of this month, with NJWINS continuing its operations on a month to month basis, as they seek new sources of revenue to maintain their services.  The benefit counseling and employment information and advocacy infrastructure that has been built over the past decade has become a critical component in assisting individuals to become part of the general workforce, and it must be preserved.    Ongoing advocacy with our Federal representatives is critical if funding is to be reinstated by Congressional action. Click to here to take action and for more information.  

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www.mhanj.org

 

  Learn more about 

MHANJ's Government Affairs efforts

 

Director of Advocacy:

Barbara Johnston

[email protected]