Mental health department reports PROS transition, licensing progress and plans for mobile crisis response

County mental health leadership briefed legislators on service volumes, regulatory changes and staffing shifts tied to the 2017 recommended budget.

The department reported serving 2,314 unduplicated individuals so far in 2016 across adult, forensic, children/adolescent and elderly programs. Leadership said New York State licensing allowed the department to transition from Continuing Day Treatment (CDT) to a PROS (Personalized Recovery Oriented Services) model; the initial licensing visit “went well,” though staffing challenges delayed full implementation, and three positions associated with the PROS/open‑access initiative are expected to be filled in the near term.

Officials noted that some local increases in the mental health budget reflect mandated growth in hospitalization costs for people unable to stand trial and salary/fringe mandates. The department also described creation of a quality assurance unit and a dual‑diagnosis training push: a named coordinator has overseen training and roughly 70% of staff completed online dual‑diagnosis modules this year.

When asked whether PROS will help individuals who have been in continuing‑day programs for decades, officials said the model allows individualized recovery planning and community integration, aiming to link people to other supports and to take “small steps” toward community reintegration rather than defaulting to long‑term institutional placements.

The department said it expects to return to the legislature within six months with details of a proposed mobile crisis intervention team aimed at preventing arrests and hospitalizations by responding to crises in the community.

Next steps: staff will follow up with a plan for the mobile crisis team and with data clarifications requested by legislators about how forensic and other populations are counted.