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  Youth and Adults Need Each Other For Their Health!

Mental Health Legislation in Albany Became Personal for One Father

by Jennifer Medina

New York Times, Published: July 4, 2006

ALBANY — Night after night, Tom O'Clair watched the clock tick past midnight in the halls of the Capitol. He buttonholed all the lawmakers he saw, reminding them about his son, Timothy, who killed himself in 2001 at age 12.

More times than he can recall, Mr. O'Clair, who has an image of Timothy tattooed on his arm, drove about 20 miles to Albany from his home in Schenectady to explain to strangers that he gave up custody of his son to the state, essentially making the boy an orphan so that he could qualify for treatment for his emotional problems under Medicaid. The benefits under Mr. O'Clair's health insurance had run out.

. . . After years of wrangling, the State Senate and Assembly reached an agreement that would require health insurance companies to cover treatment for mental illness.

Mr. O'Clair sat a few feet away, on one of the plush green chairs outside the Senate chambers. As a passer-by offered congratulations, Mr. O'Clair gave a weary smile. He noted that the next morning he planned to attend what would have been his son's high school graduation.

After this year's school graduation at the hospital, one of our teachers wrote:

"Dear Administration:

We were especially thrilled by the comment of an older patient, who stated that he came to graduation because he missed his son's special days.

He stated that the poems written by the students really expressed the feelings held by all.

The students made us proud and we share a deep appreciation of their achievements."

             --Valerie 6/23/06

      


 

 

 
Transition-Age Services of note:

Phelps Memorial Hospital Hospital Center, in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y, whose Inpatient Psychiatry unit is certified by the N.Y. S. Office of Mental Health, advertises to the public that their:

"Inpatient Psychiatry Unit is a 19-bed acute, general psychiatric unit for adolescents over the age of 14, adults, and geriatric patients."

One more acute-treatment psychiatric hospital that recognizes the value of integrated experiences for youth and older patients with "emphasis on: thorough and continuous assessment, stabilization, symptom management, and the development of comprehensive coping skills."  (Emphasis ours.)

This is precisely the underying intent of the U.S. Supreme Court holding in Olmstead v. L.C. (click), reversing the tired concept of keeping adolescents from engaging with adults--leaving them to fend for themselves in the "betwixt-and-between" world of isolation of adolescents from adult society.