Advisory Panel Recommends New York State Build 5,000 More Adult Homes

A New York state panel on Sept. 23 released recommendations calling for more than 5,000 new units of housing for people with mental illnesses to be built over the next 10 years, the New York Times reports. The panel, established in May to address the conditions in the state's adult homes for the mentally ill, stated that the new housing should include both private apartments "visited regularly by case managers" and supported housing developments with on-site social services. The new facilities would be part of a "long-term plan" to create "less of an institutional setting" and emphasize helping residents become self-sufficient. The recommendations, which Gov. George Pataki (R) requested after a Times investigative series found that the homes had become "little more than psychiatric flophouses," also call for the hiring of up to 1,000 nurses and trained mental health workers to "improve conditions immediately." Hiring nurses and workers to staff the new facilities would cost the state up to $100 million per year, while the new housing units -- expected to take 10 years to build -- could cost more than $500 million. The recommendations were developed by state officials, advocacy groups and others, including State Health Commissioner Dr. Antonia Novello, and are the "first significant attempt at reform of a system that arose more than 30 years ago," according to the Times. Geoff Lieberman, executive director of the Coalition of Institutionalized Aged and Disabled, said, "Adult home residents with psychiatric disabilities have finally found their time." He added, "This is as significant and far-reaching as" the reforms that deinstitutionalized state mental hospitals during the 1970s (Levy, New York Times, 9/24).