CARE FOR THE MENTALLY RETARDED

WHEREAS, the New York State Public Employees Federation, AFL-CIO, (PEF), New York's newest union representing close to 50,000 professional state workers, has formed a task force to deal with some of the problems facing our members working in mental hygiene facilities; and

WHEREAS, the doctors, nurses, social workers, therapists, psychiatrists, and other professionals working in institutions and developmental centers are gravely concerned about the future of their facilities and the whole mental hygiene system that is presently functioning; and

WHEREAS, the state of New York and its mental health facilities have been unable to put into practice the theories upon which the system was founded; and

WHEREAS, the emerging variety of services to the mentally handicapped (i.e. institutions, nursing homes, community care, foster care, day care, workshops, etc.) are so diverse that the hope of pulling together the parts into a workable "system" is not possible; and

WHEREAS, the cost of our present system to deal with the developmentally disabled and mentally ill is clearly higher than the cost of other systems that could be implemented; and

WHEREAS, the current system is designed to decrease the individual client's dependency on the services provided, and there is little evidence in ten years that the clients become less dependent; and

WHEREAS, the highly skilled, experienced traditional work force developed over decades to care for the developmentally disabled and mentally ill is quickly being replaced, as a result of contracting out, by an inexperienced, transient, work force:

RESOLVED, that the AFT state its opposition to the methods of New York State concerning the care of the mentally ill and mentally retarded; and