By Adam Kramer
Two Queens politicians said residents will not sit idly by and watch the Queens Children’s Psychiatric Center move across the street to a permanent location on the grounds of the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center.
The state Office of Mental Health has proposed the move as part of a cost-cutting measure that would consolidate children’s psychiatric facilities with mental hospitals for adults at several sites around the state.
State Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Bellerose) and state Assemblymen Mark Weprin (D-Bayside) spoke to more then 70 residents Friday at QCPC in Bellerose and told them the plan, which they contend is harmful to children, would not pass the Senate or the Assembly.
“All of the kids over there are doing virtually nothing,” Padavan said as he pointed to Building 38 on the Creedmoor campus where the children were transferred late last year when QCPC was preparing to be renovated. “This is criminal. Forget about it. The move is not going to happen.”
Building 40 is the 17-story edifice on the Creedmoor campus that towers over Bellerose and Queens Village. The psychiatric hospital is located in the high-rise.
The plan for consolidating both facilities into one building was discovered after Gov. George Pataki sent his state budget to the Senate and Assembly.
Padavan questioned how in January QCPC was slated for $17.5 million worth of renovations and then all of a sudden the Office of Mental Health vetoed the project in favor of relocating the hospital.
“I cannot see how they are going to pull it off with both the Assembly and Senate against it,” said Weprin. “It is outrageous to balance the budget on the psyches of children. It sounds to me as they are treating all the children like inventory at Walmart.”
The relocation of QCPC to the Creedmoor campus is one of several proposed moves of other children’s psychiatric hospitals into adult facilities around the state. All of the moves are viewed as a cost-saving measures designed to generate combined savings of $64 million, according to OMH.
The Senate Budget Subcommittee earlier this month rejected OMH’s plan to merge QCPC and the Creedmoor adult facility as well as plans to consolidate and close psychiatric facilities throughout the state, but the proposal still needs to go before the full Assembly.
Creedmoor is located on a swath of land in Bellerose stretching from Winchester Boulevard to Commonwealth Boulevard along Hillside Avenue. The Queens Children’s Hospital sits across the street from Creedmoor on Commonwealth Boulevard.
Queens Children’s Psychiatric Center treats 84 inpatient and 225 outpatient children with mental health problems from around the borough. The hospital’s community-based system of care teaches children how to cope with their families, schools and the community.
Opponents of the plan have said that moving the children into the adult facility would not be in the best interest of the children.
Alan Homes, OMH’s associate commissioner for psychiatric management who was at the meeting, said the decision to move QCPC was based on the shrinking patient population in both the adult and child psychiatric facilities across the state. He said QCPC would keep its existing hospital staff and maintain its 500 beds.
Roger Klingman, a spokesman for OMH, said the move did not signal a merger of the two facilities but more of a cohabitation in the same building. He said QCPC would take over four of the 17 stories in Building 40 and would have a separate entrance as well as separate living and recreation space.
“Every child has the right to a safe environment that is developmentally appropriate,” said JoAnn Guida, a parent advocate and Queens Village resident. “It is our right — those in the field of delivering mental health services to children — to protect patients and their families from strife by creating a safe environment.”
She took issue with the state’s contention that the proposed move was a cost-saving measure, saying in her opinion the relocation was designed to generate profits. She said the state would make money from selling off the land under QCPC.
The 350-acre Creedmoor property consists of 75 buildings used to house a wide variety of city and state agencies. The state psychiatric hospital is concentrated in Building No. 40, the largest structure on the campus, and uses five other buildings to house a chapel, its administration and a museum.
Faced with a shrinking patient population, the state in recent years has been selling off sections of the Creedmoor complex for schools, community organizations and private development.
“Creedmoor will never provide the safety and care for children that this place can,” said Jerome Rosenblit of Bayside. “This is an oasis in the desert. You are tampering with something that is not broken.”
Reach reporter Adam Kramer by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 157.
