New legislation to delay the state’s plan to end inpatient services at the St. Lawrence County Psychiatric Center was introduced today by Sen. Patty Ritchie to give mental health officials and community members additional time to seek alternatives.

“The state’s plan puts our most vulnerable citizens and children in danger, without a clear alternative that ensures sufficient, continued mental health care services close to home and in our communities,” Ritchie said.

The state Office of Mental Health’s plan would shrink the state’s system of 24 psychiatric hospitals to just 15, with none located north or south of the Thruway, leaving millions of North Country residents without sufficient nearby treatment options in their communities.

Senator Ritchie’s bill would freeze that plan until at least 2015, giving state leaders more time to come up with other options.

The “Freeze Unsafe Closures Now Act,” S.5986, is jointly sponsored by Senator Ritchie and Senator Thomas Libous, the peputy Senate leader, whose district also is hard hit by the state’s plan that slashes inpatient mental health care.

Under the existing plan, adult and children’s inpatient treatment services at the St. Lawrence Psychiatric Center are to be shifted to Syracuse and Utica beginning next year.

Senator Ritchie has been critical of the OMH plan because it would require families to travel 100 miles or more to find inpatient care for serious mental health issues, and because the state has offered nothing more than vague promises to improve community-based care.

“The changes envisioned by the state are too drastic, and they come too quickly for communities and the mental health care system to adjust. We need to take a step back and come up with a better way of improving mental health care that doesn’t leave patients, families and communities stranded,” Ritchie said.

She also has cited the plan’s economic impact on a region that already struggles with high unemployment.

More than 500 jobs will be impacted by the plan.