A roundup of several IMPORTANT items --
CAMPAIGN BLOGS
Today you will find links to what I hope are only the first of several blogs by candidates in this year's primary races. Councilor Cory Storch, who is seeking re-election, and challenger Tony Rucker have both put up blogs. You will find them on the CLIPS front page. Candidates will be listed in alphabetical order (Linda, you can be top dog if you want!). Read them and use any opportunity they give you for feedback!
NEEDLE EXCHANGE
New Jersey is the dead-last state to adopt some form of needle exchange program for intravenous drug users.
Even then it didn't come without embarassing an important State Senator on the floor, and the result was a half-step experimental program to be made available in only 12 communities statewide -- one of them being Plainfield.
In today's Courier, we learn five communities are planning to implement lifesaving needle exchanges shortly.
But not Plainfield.
Why?
JERRY GREEN BILL
You may have missed a brief item in Friday's Ledger (archived here) that the Assembly Housing and Local Government committee, chaired by Assemblyman Jerry Green, approved a bill (A1343) setting aside at least 25% of affordable housing for very-low-income families. The bill now moves to the full Assembly for consideration.
ER CRISIS: PSYCHIATRIC BEDS
Sunday's Ledger ran an long story on the crisis in psychiatric beds in New Jersey's hospitals, causing ERs (emergency rooms) to have to take up the slack.
Muhlenberg is listed as providing 8 beds dedicated to psychiatric patients. The only other hospital listed in Union County is Trinitas in Elizabeth.
I noticed that Muhlenberg's 'partner', JFK in Edison is not listed as having any psychiatric beds, nor are RWJ or St. Peter's in New Brunswick.
The article points out that the crisis arises in part because some hospitals have given up psychiatric beds in favor of more lucrative services. Get my drift?
Would a fairer arrangement be to share this responsibility among more hospitals, including those, like JFK and RWJ who currently have opted out? Legislators would benefit from your opinion.
MUHLENBERG & CHARITY CARE
A related issue is charity care reimbursement. A story in today's Courier points out the dire need to reinforce funding for charity care -- which hospitals MUST provide to patients who have no financial resources.
I have been told that the charity care reimbursement to Muhlenberg is one of the two problems that chronically cause deficits (the other being Medicare/Medicaid reimbursements) in the hospital's balance sheet.
As both our only general hospital and the community's largest employer, we all have an interest in seeing equitable funding of charity care. Speak out!
CABLE ADVISORY COMMISSION
With the additional appointments of Jan Massey and Quadir Lewis to the Cable Television Advisory Committee, it looks like the BEGINNING of some oversight of Plainfield's public access channel.
Couldn't come a moment too soon, since we must soon also have on our plate the statutory review of the City's franchise agreement with Comcast.
Though the franchise review is NOT part of the Advisory Committee's portfolio (an ordinance set up a separate committee to negotiate the Comcast franchise and its review), perhaps the Advisory Committee can get the Administration to put the matter on the front burner.
Not only is the City's franchise with Comcast a complicated agreement, the ordinance requires participation by the school district in the process.
Additionally, the entry of Verizon into the cable market and the proliferation of satellite access have now complicated the entire business. Plainfielders will not be well served if attention is not devoted to this matter.
'WALK-ON' COUNCIL ITEMS
Annoyance Dept.: After mending its ways under tongue-lashings by the late Council President Ray Blanco, the Administration has backslid into sneaking items into the queue by bringing them unannounced to the Council's Monday agenda-setting sessions, asking for consideration and vote on Wednesday -- two days later. Sneaky!
Thank God Councilor Storch is not cowed by this technique and asks for more details.
Today's Plaintalker takes up one such 'walk-on' -- an amendment to the West Front Street Marino's project area.
The Administration wants to add the Brown Funeral Home property to the plan -- something originally planned by the McWilliams administration, but ixnayed at the time by Very Important People. Has something changed?
Meantime, the Administration deserves excoriation every time it uses this sneak-on tactic.
JERRY & SHARON GET AWAY TO HOUSING MEETINGS?
Who's paying for the junket? Not to worry -- housing authorities are federally funded agencies, so the money came out of your income taxes, not your property taxes. If that's any comfort.
Some of the items noted above can be helped along by expressing your opinion to your Assembly delegation. Email contact info below --
- Assemblyman Jerry Green
- Assemblywoman Linda Stender
View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.
http://plainfieldtoday.blogspot.com/
Posts
1 comments:
Regarding psychiatric beds at Muhlenberg, your information is not completely correct. Muhlenberg has about 24 psychiatric beds, 8 of which I believe are STCF beds. Those are beds for pts who are committed involuntarily. The psych beds are looked at by county, so the sister hospital JFK would be in the same catchment area as RWJ or St. Peters (i.e. Middlesex county). I am not sure which of those hospitals has designated beds for psych pts. In Union County I believe there are also beds in Summit, I believe at Overlook. The last I knew there was a large psych unit in Elizabeth at Trinitas that had about 40 beds for adults and also a unit for children. I do not know how many beds there are for children. The hospital based beds are intended for short term stays. If a pt requires a longer length of time in the hospital they are then sent to Runnells for further stabilization. I have no idea how many beds there are at Runnells, but pt's do wait at the hospital level for available beds at Runnells or Trenton Psychiatric. A larger part of the issue is that the "Total Institutions" such as Marlboro and Greystone have been either shut down or greatly reduced in size. This causes a back up for pts in hospitals that might otherwise move on to another facility for further (need more time for) stabilization. I do not believe there has been reduction of hospital based psychiatric beds in Union County. The focus over the past decades in the US has been to close the "Total Institutions" and mainstream folks with psychatric illnesses into the community at large. The Park Hotel is an example of this. There are many boarding homes, group homes and apartments serving this population of mentally ill clients in NJ. I hope this has increased your understanding of the crisis of psychiatric beds in NJ. ;}
Post a Comment