N.Y. Facilities Development Corporation Act 359/68 § 2: Statement of legislative findings and purposes

§ 2. Statement of legislative findings and purposes. It is hereby

found and declared that the provision of new and improved state

facilities relating to the care, maintenance and treatment of the

mentally disabled must be accelerated if the state is to meet its

responsibilities in the face of an increasing state population, a

growing awareness that mental disability can be treated effectively, and

new research advances in treatment methods. An expanded construction

program is essential to relieve overcrowding in the state hospitals for

the mentally ill, to provide treatment and care for the increasing

population of people with developmental disabilities in state schools,

and to permit the establishment of special treatment programs for

mentally ill and emotionally disturbed children and for the mentally ill

blind and the mentally ill deaf. Existing state facilities require

substantial modernization and structural change to accommodate new

concepts of treatment for the mentally disabled and special units for

the treatment of alcoholism and narcotics addiction. Larger and better

equipped research facilities must be installed in order to insure that

state treatment units are in the forefront of applying and developing

advanced therapeutic methods. At the same time, improved training

facilities and quarters are needed to attract and retain the

best-qualified staff personnel.

To assure that the required facilities are completed and ready for use

as promptly as possible, the legislature hereby finds and declares that

there should be created a corporate governmental agency, constituting a

public benefit corporation, to be known as the "Facilities Development

Corporation", which could receive and administer monies for the

construction and improvement of mental hygiene facilities and provide

such facilities in accordance with the foreseeable needs for the care,

maintenance and treatment of the mentally disabled. The legislature

further finds and declares that while responsibility for the

professional care, maintenance and treatment of the mentally disabled at

all mental facilities should continue in the department of mental

hygiene, exclusive possession, jurisdiction, control and supervision of

the physical facilities used therefor should be vested in the

corporation in order to facilitate the exercise of its powers.

It is further found and declared that the provision of new and

improved community mental health and developmental disabilities

facilities must be accelerated, in order to provide comprehensive care

and treatment of the mentally ill and developmentally disabled. Such

community mental health and developmental disabilities facilities should

be located close to the people they serve, in order to speed

rehabilitation and restoration, by involving families and community

resources to the extent practicable. Such an accelerated construction

program will also help relieve overcrowding in state facilities for the

mentally ill and developmentally disabled and will afford treatment and

care for the increasing number of people with developmental

disabilities. Such a program will increase the number of local

facilities for out-patient care and short-term in-patient care,

including after care, diagnostic and rehabilitative services, training

and research. While the responsibility for the professional care,

maintenance and treatment of the mentally ill and developmentally

disabled at all such community mental health and developmental

disabilities facilities should continue in the local governments,

subject to the provisions of article forty-one of title E of the mental

hygiene law and the regulations of the commissioners of the offices of

the department having jurisdiction thereof, the legislature further

finds and declares that the Facilities Development Corporation should be

empowered to aid cities and counties, at their request, to provide new

and improved community mental health and developmental disabilities

facilities in order to insure their timely construction, acquisition,

reconstruction, rehabilitation and improvement in relation to current

and foreseeable needs and the emergence of new patterns of treatment and

care and should be empowered to receive and administer monies for such

purpose.

It is further found and declared that hospital and related services of

municipalities are of vital concern to the health, safety and welfare of

the people of the state. Many municipal hospital facilities today are no

longer adequate to meet the needs of modern medical care. Because of the

rapidity of technological change in the medical field, a great number of

such facilities require substantial structural and functional changes.

Many municipal hospitals are overcrowded in their ancillary service

areas. Many still have large open wards, while the growth of

hospitalization insurance has brought increased demand for semi-private

accommodations. Many of such hospitals have permitted their buildings to

deteriorate prematurely and other suffer inefficiencies caused by

piecemeal and uncoordinated additions. The educational programs of

hospitals have become indispensable. Many hospitals are, in fact,

educational institutions but their plants and equipment are not equal to

their educational commitment. They lack facilities for needed

conferences and seminars and their libraries and medical records

departments do not meet the needs of individual studies and research.

Many of such hospitals no longer have adequate protection against the

hazards of fire, explosion and infection. Many of such hospitals lack

facilities for ambulant or wheelchair patients, and are inadequately

designed for the tremendous increase in personnel traffic and movement

of supplies and equipment within the hospital.

It is further found and declared that the construction, modification,

reconstruction and rehabilitation of municipal hospitals and related

health care facilities, including the provision of equipment, are public

purposes and are necessary for the protection of the health, safety and

welfare of the people of the state. To assure that such purposes are

carried out, it is further found and declared that the facilities

development corporation created by this act should be empowered, in

cooperation with the state, municipalities and the New York state

housing finance agency or the New York state medical care facilities

finance agency, as the case may be, to provide for the timely

construction and modernization of municipal hospitals and related

facilities at a reasonable cost and in accordance with the health needs

of the community.

It is hereby found and declared that the acquisition, construction,

reconstruction, rehabilitation and improvement of facilities for the

department of corrections and community supervision are public purposes

which are essential to enable comprehensive modernization of the state's

programs of corrections. To assure that such purposes are carried out,

it is further found and declared that the facilities development

corporation should be empowered in cooperation with the department of

corrections and community supervision to provide for the acquisition,

construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation and improvement of

facilities for the department of corrections and community supervision.

In order to accomplish all of these purposes, the legislature hereby

declares that the existing corporate governmental agency constituting a

public benefit corporation, created by article two-B of the mental

hygiene law, shall be reconstituted and continued as the facilities

development corporation which corporation shall also have such

additional powers and duties as are granted to it in this act.