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Ogdensburg's St. Lawrence Psychiatric Center news 'better than expected,' Task Force Chairman says he couldn't be more pleased

Posted 12/20/13

 By JIMMY LAWTON OGDENSBURG – St. Lawrence Psychiatric Center Task Force Chairman Chuck Kelly said yesterday’s announcement that the state hospital would not shutdown its inpatients wards …

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Ogdensburg's St. Lawrence Psychiatric Center news 'better than expected,' Task Force Chairman says he couldn't be more pleased

Posted

 By JIMMY LAWTON

OGDENSBURG – St. Lawrence Psychiatric Center Task Force Chairman Chuck Kelly said yesterday’s announcement that the state hospital would not shutdown its inpatients wards and become a center of excellence was event better than he expected.

“For seven months our goal from the start was to save the inpatient services and keep the adults and children’s units open,” he said. “What we got was even better. I did not see it coming,” he said.

Kelly said the center will maintain all of the children’s beds and reduce the number of adult inpatient beds by 25. However, Kelly said outpatient supervised care will be expanded.

“They are going to put 50 beds in the community that will be under the control of the hospital,” he said. “We don’t know all the details yet, but that’s good news. All in all I couldn’t be more pleased.”

Kelly said there will be a discussion with the task force members and the Ogdensburg state hospital before the 25 beds are cut.

“It’s planned for sometime in the future, but we’ll know more about it before it takes place,” he said

In a meeting last week Kelly and other members of the St. Lawrence Psychiatric Center Task Force met with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and his staff. And while the meeting went well, no promises were made.

“What we were sure of last week was that the governor wasn’t just giving us face time. There was a good back and forth discussion and he was concerned. But we never expected to get all we got,” he said

Kelly who severed as the publisher of the Ogdensburg Journal, Daily Courier-Observer and Malone Telegram said this was the third time he has seen the City of Ogdensburg and surrounding communities sway the state’s plans for the North Country.

“We did it to get the prisons here. We did it to keep a prison open and now we have the hospital,” he said. “What I’ve learned is that you have to take the high road. You don’t get negative and you focus on the facts. You get a lot more from sugar and spice than you do from sour cream.”

Kelly said none of this would have been possible without community support.

“It took a lot of people and a lot of work to make this happen,” he said.