BILL NUMBER:  S4630

 TITLE OF BILL :  An act to amend the mental hygiene law, in relation
to prohibiting the collocation of certain facilities

 PURPOSE :

To keep a children's mental health facility that provides a holistic
approach in treating children in crisis with mental health disorders,
in its therapeutic surroundings.

 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :

Subdivision ( c ) of section 7.17 of the Mental Hygiene Law to read
that the WNYCPC shall be maintained in a county with a population
between nine hundred thousand and one million people as separate and
distinct entity both organizationally and physically within the office
and shall not be collocated or merged with any other facility.

 JUSTIFICATION :

The Western New York Children's Psychiatric Center has received a
99.9% rating by the Joint Commission on Accredited health Care
Organizations in 2012. WNY CPC was given a special designation as
being in the top ten percent of hospitals accredited by the Joint
Commission in the nation. The Western New York Children's Psychiatric
              

Center leads all other facilities treating children in the 30 day and
90 day readmission rates - a statistic which shows that the long-term
institutionalization and hospitalization costs are drastically reduced
over the life course or lifespan of the person needing behavioral
health services.

The WNY Children's Psychiatric Center is in a school and urban
setting. A rural and environmentally friendly environment is
therapeutic for people with mental health disorders. Keeping the
WNYCPC in this environment and area is more beneficial than relocating
these children to a lockdown facility in an urban setting.  The
children are also in a school like setting which is extremely safe and
therapeutic for the mental health disorders and challenges.  Moving
this facility will create long-term aggregate losses to the state and
harm the state's most vulnerable populations.

 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

None.

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :

None.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
Immediately.