New NYS regs (see pg 17) require Adult Homes to kick mentally ill out, not allow more in, while simultaneously failing to provide anywhere for them to go
Today, new regulations issued by the NYS Department of Health limit the percentage of residents with serious mental illness in certain adult homes to less than 25 percent of the resident population.
If they did that to any other group, it would be called, "Discrimination"
The regulations arise from the New York State Office of Mental Health’s clinical determination that while mixed use, larger scale congregate housing is an important and viable form of community living, certain housing settings in which there are a significant number of individuals with serious mental illness are not conducive to the recovery or rehabilitation of the residents.
So they just kick the mentally ill out. And the real reason is bureaucratic
This is particularly so when the settings: are not specifically designed to serve people with serious mental illness; are not under the license and control of OMH...
As long as they are kicking people with mental illness out, OMH will also make sure no more get in
OMH will be issuing regulations applicable to all OMH licensed psychiatric hospitals and units that prohibit the discharge of a patient to a transitional adult home, as defined in the regulations of the Department of Health, unless the patient was a resident of the home immediately prior to his or her current period of hospitalization.
These regulations require the operator of every adult home with a certified capacity of 80 or more in which the number of residents with serious mental illness is already 25 percent or more of the resident population ...to reduce that number to a level that is less than 25 percent of the resident population,...through the lawful discharge of residents to alternative community settings with appropriate community services.
Memo to OMH: "Alternative Community Settings" are already full. There are none left. If you built and ran more of them, then that would allow Adult Homes to still kick people out, but it could be done safely and humanely.
As a result of the Compliance Plans required by these regulations, many adult home residents with serious mental illness are expected to transition to alternative community settings, including but not limited to OMH-funded Supported Housing.
OMH: Can you tell us where these vacancies in "OMH-funded Supported Housing" are? Let me guess: you're going to create vacancies by kicking mentally ill out of those too?
However, while OMH is engaged in a multi-year effort to expand development of Supported Housing units to serve individuals with serious mental illness, including adult home residents, it is not possible to project the precise number of Supported Housing units that will be needed for this population, which will depend on factors including resident assessments and the need to target units throughout the state.
Moreover, it is expected that when adult home residents with behavioral health needs transition to appropriate community housing, coupled with appropriate supportive services, their overall utilization of Medicaid-funded services will decrease.
Another win-win for OMH: Fewer seriously mentally ill getting services. Fewer dollars expended.
For a copy of regulations issued without public comment go to top of page 17 here
Skipping meals can cause the nervous system to malfunction due to the fact that there are no vitamins and minerals transported to the brain and thus disable the individual to think well and to make firm decisions.
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