- Presumptive Medicaid Eligibility: Presumptive eligibility for New Yorkers with behavioral health conditions leaving the prison system will extend 60 days of access to critically needed Medicaid funded community services and supports at the time an individual is released. This is critical in facilitating safe and healthy community transitions before a more formal application and approval for full Medicaid benefits occurs. This policy will greatly reduce avoidable relapses and re-incarcerations while saving the state considerable money from the preventable use of criminal justice or inpatient facilities.
- Prescriber Prevails: The policy of Prescriber Prevails puts doctor and patient choice ahead of decisions that would otherwise be made by Medicaid payers. Many consumers require very specific medications (brand name over generic drugs at times) in order to get and stay well and to avoid harmful side effects. For the third year in a row, the Executive Budget proposes to eliminate this important protection that ensures safety and choice.
- Prohibit Solitary Confinement for people with psychiatric or physical disabilities by passing 1346A. Symptoms associated with psychiatric disabilities are often viewed as antagonistic behavior by officers and result in inhumane 23 hour-a-day isolation for people with serious mental illness. Solitary confinement exacerbates trauma for persons with pre-existing psychiatric disabilities and has been shown to cause serious psychiatric symptoms and conditions for people with no such past histories. The state must offer treatment not torture to its most vulnerable.
- Approve Mental Health Tax Check off Bill – A.833/S.632. Stigma is the number one reason why two out of every three people who need mental health services never seek them. Combating stigma can promote recovery for New Yorkers by providing education and resources about mental health diagnoses and services, reinforcing dignity through media campaigns, and promoting community inclusion (access to housing, jobs) by humanizing people with psychiatric disabilities. Supporting a tax check off bill is recognition of the need to combat stigma for New Yorkers with mental health needs, the proceeds of which will be utilized for public awareness campaigns to work against negative stigmatization.
