The New York State Office of Mental Health has unveiled a new reconfiguration plan impacting psychiatric centers across the region. The office’s plan is to merge the Greater Binghamton Health Center, the Hutchings Psychiatric Center, and the Mohawk Valley Psychiatric Center into two inpatient campuses which will be known as the Empire Upstate Regional Center of Excellence. One facility will be located at Hutchings in Syracuse and will serve up to 185 adults, and the other will be at Mohawk Valley in Utica and be able to serve up to 75 children and adolescents. Senator Tom Libous says the state’s merger plan is flawed, and hurts hundreds of local families and mental health professionals at the center in Binghamton. Libous also states that forcing parents from the Southern Tier to drive hours to visit their children in the facility in Utica is unacceptable. The closures are slated to take place one year from now, according to the Office of Mental Health. The office also says employees will not be laid off, instead they will be given the opportunity to transfer or retrain for other jobs.
