Senate Passes Legislation to Keep WNY Children's Psychiatric Center as a Stand Alone Facility

Senator Patrick M. Gallivan (R-C-I, Elma) announced the Senate has passed a bill (S4630) which would require the New York State Office of Mental Health to operate the Western New York Children’s Psychiatric Center in West Seneca as a separate entity.  The legislation, sponsored by Senator Gallivan, would prevent the state from moving ahead with plans to merge the facility with the Buffalo Psychiatric Center. 

“I firmly believe that closing the Children’s Psychiatric Center in West Seneca and merging it with the Buffalo Psychiatric Center will jeopardize the care and safety of children and adolescent patients,” Gallivan said.  “Western New York CPC is rated among the best in the nation in the treatment of children and teens in need of behavioral health services.  Patients, families and caregivers attribute part of the center’s success to its unique location, separate from other facilities.  I have yet to hear a clinical reason for moving these children to an adult facility in an urban setting.  It isn’t fair to the children who need our care and support.” 

The bill would amend the state’s mental hygiene law to prohibit the collocation of WNYCPC and would require it to be operated as a separate and distinct entity both organizationally and physically.

Over the past several years, former patients, family members of patients, workers, community activists and academics have pushed to keep the WNYCPC open.  They argue the tranquil surrounding provided at the West Seneca campus is important for the children who are undergoing significant mental trauma and the families desperately trying to protect these children from danger.

The bill passed the Senate unanimously.

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