State questions N.Y. mental patient's move to O'ahu
By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer
State health officials want to know who is paying for a New York mental health patient with no apparent ties to Hawai'i to fly to O'ahu where he would have no choice except to live in a homeless shelter.
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The patient is scheduled to arrive Monday. He would then be taken to the Institute for Human Services and stay in its shelter for men because he has no family here or any money.
State health director Bruce Anderson said he is concerned that a New York nonprofit agency had paid for the ticket, a practice he said is unacceptable
State health director Bruce Anderson yesterday said his department's Adult Mental Health Division is working with the New York commissioner for mental health in Albany to see who bought the ticket. Anderson said he is concerned that a New York nonprofit agency had paid for the ticket, a practice he said is unacceptable.
And regardless of who purchased the ticket in this case, Anderson said he plans to remind New York officials that paying for one-way tickets to Hawai'i is a bad idea.
"They are simply thrusting the individual on our public service programs and we will have to provide care at our expense," Anderson said.
On the Mainland, moving patients to another city or state is a common practice called "Greyhounders" — putting patients on a bus and sending them off, Anderson said.
The patient is being helped by a treatment center run by the Federation Employment Guidance Service, a large private nonprofit organization established by the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York to provide health and human services.
Officials with the employment guidance service told New York mental health officials that the situation has been misrepresented by Hawai'i officials, Anderson said.
Officials with the New York facility did not return repeated calls for comment yesterday.
Bud Bowles, executive director of United Self Help, a support group for mental health patients, was asked to meet the man at the airport and drive him to the men's homeless shelter at the Institute for Human Services. Bowles said yesterday that the patient's caseworker was specifically asked about air fare and the response was that New York officials were footing the bill.
"It could be the guy has paid for his trip; I don't know," Bowles said. "They are still dumping a guy here who has no money. Why should we be treating him? He should be in New York. I just don't want to see a strain on Hawai'i."
Lynn Maunakea, executive director for the Institute for Human Services, said one individual will not create a burden. But he arrives at a time of year when cooler, rainy weather frequently increases the number of men at her shelter to 250 a night.
Roughly 25 to 30 percent of them are highly mobile and move from state to state, she said.
"We are free in this country to travel," she said. "I don't know if you can prevent someone from traveling."
New York mental health officials were criticized recently for sending hundreds of patients from psychiatric hospitals to facilities in neighboring New Jersey.
New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey is upset that New York Gov. George Pataki's administration has sent some of the state's most troubled patients to out-of-state nursing homes and adult care homes.
Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8012.
