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No word yet on Ogdensburg Psychiatric Center's fate

Posted 5/24/13

By JIMMY LAWTON OGDENSBURG – A task force dedicated to keeping the Ogdensburg Psychiatric Center open is still waiting to hear about the facility’s fate after the state announced plans to make …

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No word yet on Ogdensburg Psychiatric Center's fate

Posted

By JIMMY LAWTON

OGDENSBURG – A task force dedicated to keeping the Ogdensburg Psychiatric Center open is still waiting to hear about the facility’s fate after the state announced plans to make “strategic changes” to the metal health system.

“Right now it’s a waiting game. We are still getting letters of support and we are adding them to the list of support letters we received before,” Industrial Development Agency Director Patrick Kelly said.

Kelly is a member of the task force focused on convincing the state to keep the facility open. During a recent visit from Office of Mental Health Commissioner Kristen Woodlock, more than 300 people, representing a variety of organizations, called on the state to expand, rather than close the facility.

No state officials have confirmed that state hospitals will be closed, but implications such as focus on out patient care and cash-strapped state government, have many reading the writing on the wall.

The Ogdensburg visit was the commissioner’s last stop on a tour of many of the state’s facilities. The tour, Woodlock said, was designed to gather input from various communities.

Kelly said, “to the best of my knowledge,” the Ogdensburg meeting was better attended then any of the others, despite the low population of St. Lawrence County. Kelly said he believed those in attendance made a compelling case to the commissioner.

“The speakers were great. There was a very strong commentary in support of the facility. You had the colleges, you had people sharing personal experiences, you had people concerned about the jobs and local businesses worried about the economic impact,” he said. “There were a lot of different voices speaking to the same theme,” he said.

That message, according to Kelly, is that the Ogdensburg Psychiatric Center is a well-run, successful facility, that serves a very large geographical portion of the state compared many of the central and down state hospitals.

“We really are just so far away from other facilities,” he said. “The center is probably disproportionately appropriate to us compare to other state hospitals that are more concentrated,” he said.

Although, the need may be compelling, Kelly said he has no indication of the state’s plans.

“We haven’t heard a thing. We know they were supposed to have something this week, but we don’t know when they are going to make it public.”

The Ogdensburg Psychiatric Center employs more than 500 people, as is more than 100 miles from the next nearest state hospital.