Denial of Crisis Stabilization Center Highlights Putnam Hypocrisy
Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.
Recently, I attended a meeting for the public featuring a presentation by Steve Miccio, CEO of People USA, which had plans to launch a crisis stabilization center in Putnam County. The location was set to be in Brewster and the center would have been a sorely needed option for Putnam residents experiencing mental health crises.
Unlike other mental health services that may be available in the county, the center would have provided a walk-in option for people in need of emergency assistance, but who don’t meet the criteria for hospitalization. People USA operates such a facility in Dutchess County, and it has been wildly successful.
At the public meeting, a group of parents shouted down the idea of the center for the sole reason that the planned location was near a day care center. Despite the fact that another mental health facility – MHA Putnam – operated in the same space for years, the parents made ignorant comments about hypothetical clients of the center, who they seemed to think would overwhelmingly consist of pedophiles, criminals and active drug users.
Never mind that Miccio’s presentation noted that 50 percent of the Dutchess center’s clientele are children and their families and that the top three diagnoses are depression, anxiety and trauma. The assumption that children are better off WITHOUT more mental health services in the county than WITH them is completely backwards.
I just learned that, for some reason, the center was “denied.” I’m not sure by whom (possibly the county executive) or what the logic was, but the hypocrisy is mind-blowing. A county run by Republicans, the party that protects and defends the Second Amendment at all costs and regularly blames the “real problem” on inadequate mental health services, just shot down the one opportunity this county has had in decades to provide some better options to people.
I see an inordinate number of parents in Putnam wasting time screaming on social media about drag queens and drag story hours or filing false reports about LGBTQ+-affirming teachers and curricula – and now shooting down access to mental health services – under the guise of concern for kids.
No one is buying it anymore. It’s painfully clear that the true motivations stem from the age-old, incredibly unimaginative Fear of the Other.
The parents who complained and the decision-makers who denied this center should be ashamed for contributing to a future where people who need help simply won’t get it.
Eileen McDermott
Brewster
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