PO Box 974, Schenectady, New York 12301

NAMI Schenectady E-News March 2019 Edition

Acting Editor*: Cynthia Seacord Send address changes, requests to discontinue and comments to: namischenectady@gmail.com or contact temporary acting editor at 518-374-8071 (home #) * Please NOTE: We need one or two members to take on the editorship of this newsletter!

Support Group Meetings Ellis Family Support Group – Ellis Hospital’s Mental Health Department is continuing the Family Support Group meeting on Wednesday nights in Classroom B-3 (B-wing, 3rd floor) at 6 pm for friends and families of adults living with serious mental illness. Park in the Rosa Road Radiation Lot; press button to get buzzed in, or use the parking garage, and follow signs to B wing; take elevator to 3rd floor classroom B-3. To verify the meeting is still on call the Ellis Psychiatry Department, (518-243-4000) or Joel Haynes at 518-605-6537.

CDPC Family Support Group – Family Resource Room at the Capital District Psychiatric Center, 75 New Scotland Avenue, on Tuesdays at 5 pm. Contact Frank Greco, Dir. of Family Services, at (518)-549-6816. If enough interest is expressed, CDPC will run a similar family support group at the CDPC Schenectady clinic.

NOTE: Your family member does not have to be getting treatment at either Ellis Hospital or CDPC in order for

you to attend either one of these support groups.

CDPC’s Up-Coming Programs (NOTE LOCATIONS)

On Monday, March 25th, NAMI Schenectady will co-sponsor with CDPC Family Services The Effects of Marijuana on Someone with Mental Illness….at 5-7 p.m. at CDPC’s Schenectady Co. Support Center on 738 State Street Schenectady (parking in back off of Albany Street). Our speaker will be Deowchand Depoo, MD.

On Tuesday, March 26th, a program will be presented at 5 p.m. prior to the regular Family Support meeting at CDPC’s Family Resource Center in Albany. Davin Robinson, Deputy Director of Outreach Prevention & Support of the Justice Center, will give An Overview of the NYS Justice Center and Family Support Services.

To register contact Frank Greco at: 518-549-6816

NAMI SCHENECTADY WANT ADS

Folks, we are forced to cut back from monthly publication because the acting editor cannot do it all. Member(s) to help are vitally needed! Contact us ASAP to edit or co-edit our E-News. Will train.

Reporters are needed for our newsletter and website. Review a book or movie, advocate, or share recovery and wellness-related tips.

A webmaster or co-webmaster of our website, namischenectady.org, is needed. Put your technology know-how to work today.

Create and maintain a Facebook account for our affiliate.

People needed to serve on the board and on committees (examples: nominating committee, planning committee, finance committee).

Drivers for events, especially peer activities.

NAMI Family to Family class graduates to become certified Family to Family teachers so we can offer more classes. (ask us how!)

New item!!! Members to set up and take down a NAMI Schenectady information table at upcoming community events (example being: the one listed below) and be there to answer questions, etc.

MEMBERS: Please volunteer! To apply write to us at: namischenectady@gmail.com

Schenectadyy

UP-COMING on March 25 Marijuana

and Mental Illness

talk co-sponsored by

NAMI Schenectady

& CDPC -

Schenectady

(see below left

Family to Family Class News Anne Marie Heim & Cindy Seacord,

Certified Family to Family Instructors

We are actively seeking family members to take NAMI’s Signature Program, Family to Family, in Schenectady beginning sometime this spring. With a minimum number of students registering their interest (we need at least 8-10 students) we will hold a 2019 spring or summer session on an agreed upon weekday evening from 6-8:30 (12 sessions - 2½ hour long). Class will be held at a convenient location in Schenectady County. Pre-registration with a minimum number of participants is required so please contact us ASAP via e-mail at: namischenectady@gmail.com.or call us (Anne Marie at 518-941-4974 or Cindy at 518-374-8071). This class is FREE and you do not have to be a NAMI member to attend. For information on Family to Family and other NAMI programs search the NAMI websites (nami.org, namynys.org or our website namischenectady.org)

Darin Samaha Outlines Major Challenges for Mental Health Providers and Families in 2019

by Cindy Seacord There was so much to say about the challenges facing all who work in and advocate for mental health that our annual meeting guest speaker, Darin Samaha, Director of the County Office of Community Services gave a talk with attendees that stretched beyond the time that had been set aside on our agenda. Questions and answers were many (and you missed a great talk, if you weren’t there!) (Please read about it in “Challenges” continued on Page 7)

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NAMI SCHENECTADY’s ANNUAL MEETING: Impacted by Winter Weather or Other Factors?

By Cindy Seacord, Out-going President

NAMI Schenectady elected a “new” board of directors at its annual meeting held at the Swanker Room of the Schenectady County Public Library on February 26th. This is your Board of Directors: Ann Ashley, Art Collins, Bob Corliss, Cindy Sood, Cindy Seacord, Kevin Mccormick and Roy Neville. We thank Glenn Raymus and Annette Kane for their service over the past two years, and welcome two new directors to the board, Ann Ashley and Cindy Sood. The new executive committee members are: Cindy Sood, President; Bob Corliss, Vice President; Roy Neville, Secretary, and Cindy Seacord, Treasurer. After having completed 2 years as treasurer, Glenn Raymus has become a “Friend of the Board.” He will continue to bring to the table his great ideas and insights. We hope that more of you will express an interest in following in his lead. We want to be more responsive in terms of setting meeting times and dates, and topics, when we have speaker meetings, that are convenient and relevant, not just to the board, but to as many of our members as possible. Multiple generations are represented within our membership, and MEMBERS, WE NEED YOU! It is the membership, not the leaders, who make NAMI work. Therefore, as was proposed last year, we will be sending members a questionnaire to complete so that we can find out if it was, indeed, “the weather,” or some other reason(s) we had a lower attendance at the annual meeting this time around than previously. A member questionnaire will help us learn a number of things – most importantly, about our members’ needs, talents, and preferences – so that we might not only grow our membership, but be more responsive to current members’ wants and needs There can be no NAMI Schenectady without your help! So, watch for the questionnaire to hit your mailbox and PLEASE, complete it and return it promptly. We thank you in advance for your ideas and the invaluable information we are looking for to make our organization even stronger!

The first regular meeting of NAMI Schenectady for 2019 will take place on March 25th, 5-7 p.m. at the CDPC

Schenectady County Support Center with Dr. Deowchand Depoo MD speaking on Marijuana and

Mental Illness. See page 1 column 1 for more details.

NAMI Schenectady Achieves Re-Affiliation

On December 19th we received official notification from Ian Andrus at national NAMI in Virginia “that NAMI Schenectady (NY) was voted by the NAMI Board at their December 13, 2018 meeting to receive a new Affiliate Agreement with NAMI.” We received our official affiliation in early February, and the board of directors signed off on prior to seating our new board for 2019-2020. Mary Giliberti, the Chief Executive Officer of NAMI, stated in her congratulatory letter of January 28th, “This action puts NAMI Schenectady in the fore of our collective pursuit of organizational excellence.” Cited in the recommendation for our reaffiliation were our affiliate’s strengths “in communication with NAMI-NYS, communication with members, monthly newsletter, community outreach and involvement, and partner (sic) with neighboring NAMI affiliate to bring Signature Program F2F (Family to Family) to community.”

Seven years in solitary confinement—why we

must fight for the HALT bill

by Mark Chiusano in AM New York, February 19, 2019. We urge the legislature and governor to approve HALT legislation (Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement) that will end the use of solitary confinement for people with disabilities, young people, seniors and pregnant women. – submitted by Roy Neville

For close to a decade, advocates and formerly incarcerated individuals have gone to Albany pushing for legislative restrictions on the use of solitary confinement behind bars. The HALT Solitary Confinement Act would mandate reduced use of the practice and create alternative options.

Hundreds of individuals are held in "special housing units" around the state, locked in place for nearly 24 hours of the day. Those who’ve been through solitary describe a nightmare experience of loneliness and deprivation that has, in some circumstances, lasted for years. The practice has faced mounting criticism nationwide, but the previously Republican-controlled State Senate blocked reform. Tyrrell Muhammad, 59, is hoping the politics have sufficiently changed. Muhammad and a group of others committed a robbery decades ago where an associate ended up killing someone, he says. He was convicted of second-degree murder and spent more than 25 years behind bars— approximately seven of them in solitary. He was released in 2005 and eventually went to work for the nonprofit Correctional Association of New York. For years, he has lobbied for legislation to limit the use of solitary. Can you describe solitary confinement?--I equate it to the whipping post in slavery. Because everybody in the facility knows that you’re being punished. So now you’re ridiculed. Everybody sees you going to solitary. And once you get there, you don’t see nobody, you don’t hear from nobody. So now you’re paraded and ridiculed in front of the men and then you’re vanished. And when you’re vanished, you’re left to your own thoughts, your own behavior, whatever that was when you went in there, now it becomes exacerbated. If you went in there as a young man, 19 or 20, you might turn 45 but still behave like you’re 19 or 20. We call that arrested development. Why were you in solitary?--I went into solitary confinement because I missed the count. I didn’t stab nobody. I didn’t have a fight with nobody. I wasn't in no riot. I missed the count. This was in 1981. What is missing the count?--I was coming from the rec area and you know you’ve got 1,500 people trying to come into the building. So everybody’s not gonna get where they need to go on time. And because I wasn't there on time, they said I missed the count. And because I missed the count and that’s a very big thing in prison, the count, they called it attempted escape …So they took me to the box and gave me 60 days. That 60 days wound up to 6.5 years.. Why?--Because when you get there, you get more infractions. If you don’t eat all your food, you get an infraction….If you’re talking too loud on the gate, you get an infraction. If I put down for recreation and decide at the last minute I don’t want to go, I get an infraction

(HALT BILL story continued top of page 4)

Schenectady NAMI E-News page 3

(HALT Bill story – continue from page 3) How long were you in solitary every day?--They’re supposed to let you out for one hour a day ... In certain facilities, you still have handcuffs on so they’d put you out the yard in handcuffs. Or, in certain facilities, they’d put you in a cage that was no bigger than your cell, you see. What was your experience like?--Some people say, "Well, you look like you're pretty alright." And I say, "Well, how can you determine that?" I hallucinated in solitary. I became an introvert. I don’t talk much. I sleep maybe four to five hours tops seven days a week. I wake up every day at 4:30 [or] 5 [a.m.], seven days a week. I’ve been home 15 years and I’ve never slept past 8 o’clock. My physical body won’t let me.

What did you have in the room with you?--What you have is maybe a pack of bar soap, a toothbrush, a broken pencil, maybe some writing paper. And you have maybe some underwear and clothes. Did you read a lot?--Well that’s all you can do. You become an avid reader. What did you read?--Everything. Reader's Digest. National Geographic. The stuff that they had. Nonfiction. Autobiographies. Anything to break the monotony of the time. Have discussions been different in Albany this year?--It’s different because we have a Democratic Assembly and Senate. So the talks are different. You know that. But everything remains to be seen. I don’t go about what people say, I go about what people do. They’re saying it’s not a problem, the law is going to pass. Do you believe that?--I could never believe that. I’ve been in prison. I only go for what I see, you see? That’s where I’m at. People will tell you anything. They will promise you, and the next thing you know, you won’t get the email back; they won’t call you. They just lied to your face and kept it moving.

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‘Bring It Home’ Rallies Continue at the

Capitol – submitted by Roy Neville

(from story in The Review, newsletter of Rehabilitation Support Services, Inc., edited by Michelle Ciko, March 7 2019. This covers month-long actions of the allies advocating for more state housing funds, better salaries for direct care workers in mental health and passage of the HALT bill, as priority demands. NAMI-NYS’s executive director Wendy Burch has been among those protesting at the Capitol.)

Throughout the week, rallies were held all across NY State protesting the lack of funding for mental health housing programs in Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Budget. Advocates gathered in Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse,

Long Island and New York City. Forty people attended the Albany rally, held just outside the Governor’s offices on the 2nd floor of the NY State Capitol. Many thanks to the 24 staff from RSS who participated on February 26.

The “Bring It Home” Campaign has galvanized advocates who have turned out in large numbers calling attention to Governor Cuomo’s lack of a cost-of-living adjustment for thousands of human service workers in the 2019-2020 executive budget. Just a few weeks ago, advocates came to Albany for ACL’s (Association for Community Living) Legislative Day to meet with over 140 members of the NY State Senate and Assembly. Since the beginning of the year advocates have sent over 29,000 letters to their elected representatives expressing their support for increased funding for community mental health programs.

We see Union win fierce hockey match March 3 By Roy Neville

Best sports action in the Capital District came Saturday, March 3 and we were there, our little band of NAMI faithful, watching Union College’s Dutchmen hockey team overcome powerful Harvard with a 4-3 victory at Messa Rink. It was a thriller with both teams battering one another end to end and the outcome only sure after the clock ran out in the last 18 seconds with Union up by a single goal. The action was packed up to the final horn as Harvard scored first, then Union went ahead and held a lead the rest of the way that kept getting narrower. Union killed off Harvard’s vaunted power play during a third period penalty with two men down, 5 to 3, that proved a key turning point in the win.

Messa Rink was deliriously loud all night, the base drum pounding and trombones blaring. Every menacing shot on goal or streaking down the ice by a Harvard player was met with loud moans from the Union crowd. Every spirited chase downs the sidelines or sudden breakaway by a Union player was greeted with huge cheers. The real action came with heavy pressure around both goals as clumps of players wrestled and tangled together again and again in efforts to control the puck or force it through. In one encounter that drew indignation from the crowd, a Harvard player climbed on the back of the Union goalie who was thrown on his back while a scrum of players fought at the goalmouth. There were sticks and bodies tumbling all over until whistles blew. Union played on through all these heroics and outlasted favored Harvard as the final moments wore down. This was Union’s last regularly scheduled home game and had something of an international flair. The game honored departing Union senior wing Sebastian Vidmar who finally got his 100th career point. The band played the Swedish anthem before the game and they displayed the blue and gold Swedish flag on the scoreboard video screen for several minutes in honor of Vidmar, a senior playing his last game for Union. His mother traveled from Sweden to Union to watch him play here for the first time.

Our group was disappointingly small as three people dropped out at the last moment. So five of us, Mike and Mariah, Steve, Art and Roy Sr. were left. We had supper together at Burger King before the game. Seats were good. Roy sold the unused three $15 tickets for $35 outside the rink’s front door, making up for most of our losses. We felt the game was truly exciting and (it was) satisfying to see Union get the win.

Our team braves storm for NAMI Legislative Day in Albany on February 12th

By Roy Neville Three of us from NAMI Schenectady ventured to Albany ahead of an expected snowstorm Tuesday, February 12 to meet with state legislators as part of the annual NAMI NYS Legislative Advocacy Day. Not all was normal that day as the snowstorm closed in by late morning. Most of the NAMI out-of- towners who had arrived early were edging to head for home or else find motel lodging for the night. The state legislature is usually in hectic mode on days when they go in session to hear and debate bills. This particular day was a session day but it felt far different for all those who trekked to Albany in the face of the storm. As our little trio of NAMI Schenectady members searched out our hometown legislators in the cavernous Legislative Office Building we found the halls and elevators much easier to negotiate than in the past. Bob Corliss drove. I was his passenger and we found parking in the huge garage under the Empire State Plaza because the crowd was thinner that day. Cindy Seacord took the State Street/Central Avenue corridor Bus Plus directly to the Capitol from the Park- and-Ride in Woodlawn. The threatening weather and a serious health problem at home kept two others on our team, Art Collins and Patti Costa, from coming. Some of the NAMI faithful traveled up from NYC and Long Island. Normally NAMI’s legislative day occurs on one of the busiest days of the legislative calendar with hordes of lobbyists, tourists and other citizens descending on the

NAMI Schenectady E-News Page 5

lawmakers’ offices, creating a great buzz throughout the place and causing some pushing and shoving around the elevators. The expected crush wasn’t happening even as the throngs strode by us in the Empire State Plaza Concourse. Those heading for appointments in the LOB had to wait in long lines down the hall before clearing the security screeners. That was inexcusable. Luckily, Bob knew how to go out of the building and re-enter at the Capitol, which had faster screening. The legislators’ offices, normally full of visitors like us who come representing all kinds of groups, and well-wishers, weren’t packed this time. We’re glad to schmooze with the lawmakers, pleased to be treated so importantly. But we weren’t so fortunate to meet them in person this time.

Visiting our Legislators in Albany on Advocacy Day February 12

th

are, left to right, Cindy Seacord, Roy Neville and Bob Corliss.

On our first 10 am visit we just missed Senator Jim Tedisco, who some of us have known for many years; he had already left for the Senate session. That was the pattern for the rest of the day; we had to talk with a staffer rather than the legislator. It was disappointing because staffers didn’t seem like they knew the material as well, we had no clash of opinions worth hashing out, and changed no one’s mind. Why were we there except to see that the legislator hears us out? After all, in the end we want to get his/her vote or at least explain why we want “prescriber prevails” legislation or support for the governor’s anti-gun laws, for example. Our other morning meetings came a half hour apart, up to noon, with only one break. We met with staffers sitting in for Assembly members Phil Steck and Mary Beth Walsh. Senator George Amedore’s office had already met with a NAMI contingent earlier and dissuaded us to stay. As snow fell more heavily, we decided to cancel our 2 pm date with Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara, and get home safely. At each visit we took turns at leading the discussion with the respective staffer. We adhered to the NAMI Action Agenda which describes the main advocacy issues and we added our own stories. We pointed out there’s still a great need for more government-provided and private treatment

services in the community; too many mentally ill people are still left out. A big part of this is the need for more supportive housing with wrap-around services, holding onto existing hospital beds, and better pay and a 2.9% cost of living adjustment for mental health service workers. The job vacancy and worker turnover rates are horrible. Housing providers like RSS, Inc. and Mohawk Opportunities close to us need higher payments from the state for rents the agencies pay to landlords for subsidized apartments. Landlords keep jacking up the rents and the providers can’t bid on the housing or keep a dependent person there. That’s where the “Bring It Home Campaign” which NAMI and the other statewide advocates in the mental health arena are currently fighting for, comes into play. We also called on the state to provide more funds for homeless services, especially critical at this time of year. We urged that the choice of medicines to be administered to psychiatric patients should be at the discretion of the doctor (called prescriber prevails) rather than that of an agency or insurance company or other provider which attempts to keep down costs by limiting medications first to cheaper brands or generics. In the criminal justice arena, we said we supported the HALT bill to exclude people with mental illnesses, teenagers, pregnant women, the elderly and certain others from serving time in prison solitary confinement. The Senate, in the past a stickler in passing the bill, is considering passage. With the controversy raging over security of children in our schools and the backdrop of the shootings that have alarmed the nation, we said we didn’t think guns should be brought onto school campuses, and that’s a provision of a recent anti-gun measure the governor signed into law. We also didn’t see the benefits of a state law being considered to legalize marijuana for recreational as well as medical use because this would promote the drug culture and could wreak additional havoc for mental health and substance abuse clinicians. At noon, back at the NAMI meeting room, we learned that our speakers had cancelled, and only 20 people were there for lunch, some of them members of the NAMI NYS board of directors who had met the day before. Several NAMI-NYS staff members were there — Wendy, Matt, Tina, Tammie and Christine. It must have disappointed them to have planned on so many more people with the work involved. They did themselves proud. We enjoyed Au Bon Pain boxed lunch prior to our early departure.(Last year a major snow storm that hit earlier than expected caused the cancellation of Legislative Advocacy Day, forcing NAMI NYS to turn to plan B, calling for a less structured but still meaningful set of rescheduled meetings between NAMI folks and legislators later on that week. - Editor)

(Story finishes on page 7) NAMI Schenectady E-News Page 6

(Legislative Day story continued) Heading home along the Thruway the wind gusted against caravans of cars and trucks creeping along in the same highway lane. We felt good that we had taken part—joining a small band of stalwarts who had come in from many other places around the state. We believed it was the right thing for us to do. And we were inspired by the dedication of others in NAMI to make it a success despite the wintry weather.

Darin Samaha Outlines Major Challenges for Mental

Health Providers and Families in 2019 (cont’d)

Top priorities summarized by Samaha (and there’s always more to be done) are:

Strategize an approach to the need for more housing, given changes in how NY State is awarding funding

Adapt to a changing and more challenging population requiring services, especially now that our community is seeing more symptomatic people than ever before due to many factors including shorter hospitalizations

Meeting the challenge of the heroin-opiate crisis, especially when 67% of the people getting treatment for opiate addiction also have mental illness (Yes, dual diagnosis is REAL!)

Mr. Samaha indicated in his opening remarks that the state budget currently being worked on is relatively “ok” but even if proposed cost of living increases for mental health workers of up to 2.9% pass, these COLAs never keep abreast of wages offered elsewhere. Housing providers, for example, cannot maintain staff, and vacancies and turn-overs wreak havoc on our folks who require provider stability as they struggle to recover. Hardest hit appear to be health homes for children, and oftentimes, the amount of paperwork required keeps services staff from doing what they prefer to do hands-on. More housing is always high on the list, even more so since OMH is no longer allotting new beds to each community. Rather, the Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative works with agencies who pool together their resources and write grants to obtain new housing, such as Bethesda House’s 25-bed facility which will be built in Schenectady. Our communities’ desire to obtain funding is there, but oftentimes the development piece is missing, save for those communities that are accustomed to writing grants and are “ready” to jump into the competition to get their projects funded. RSS’s Latham Hills project has been fighting to be approved after a multiple-year struggle.

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Our area is attempting to adapt to another challenging change, Darrin says, which is that the Capital District Psychiatric Center (CDPC) is evolving from a hospital into an “intermediate term facility.” This means people who are admitted to CDPC in Albany as an intermediate term facility, said Samaha “should not be there for more than 90 days.” Once again hospitals with psych units, outpatient mental health clinics, and other service organizations are forced to deal with the additional folks coming out of this type of facility earlier, perhaps, than they should, adding additional pressures to an already-stressed mental health system. Darin is much more hopeful when it comes to talking about issues at the jail. A different company is managing at the Schenectady County Jail, and its medical director, on board for 4 months or so now, is more in tune to what our folks need when discharged from custody. He is a local man who worked for years in the Department of Corrections, and he understands and supports the need to discharge folks with mental illness with an adequate supply of medication (7 days) AND a 30-day script, not to mention, appointments with clinicians to pick up treatment, including prescription-writing within that window of time. It was exciting to hear that with respect to “wait time” for our folks, Hometown Health, across State Street from the Ellis Mental Health Outpatient Clinic, is expanding its mental health services so that there is a third “hub” on State Street for mental health care. Dr. Espinoza, its new medical director, has been on board for awhile, and seems very adept at integration of mental health and substance abuse services into Hometown Health. Hometown has 17 medical staff who will all soon be able to prescribe the drug suboxone, one of three prescriptions used to help opiate addicts. It’s a medication someone might be on for life, due to the amount of brain damage that long-term opiate usage causes. Samaha has learned that addictions are often not taught in medical school, which can explain in part why so many doctors prescribe opiates for long-term use. We were happy to learn that Schalmont, Duanesburg, Mohonasen and Niskayuna school districts have plans, nearing OMH approval, to provide satellite mental health clinics for their students. The plan is nearing the approval process with OMH which be like the one at the Schenectady City School district. Services will be provided discreetly to minimize stigma by Northern Rivers. On a somewhat positive note, Darin concluded with encouraging statistics about decreasing numbers of suicides within Schenectady County. Data shows that the number was cut in half between 2016 and 2018. Darin invited interested persons to attend the Suicide Prevention Coalition program on Wednesday, March 13 beginning at 3:30 sharp in the downtown public library McChesney Room to hear Garra Lloyd-Lester speak.

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Healthy Minds = Healthy Communities

NAMI Schenectady PO Box 974 Schenectady, New York 12301