Orange County mental health department details program closures, client transfers and new supports

Orange County Department of Mental Health officials told the Health and Mental Health Committee on March 19 that several contract-operated treatment programs across Orange, Sullivan and Ulster counties will close this spring and that the department is arranging transfers and ‘‘soft landings’’ for affected clients.

The department said two locations—Monroe and Walden—did not reopen in 2025 because of staffing shortages. Port Jervis is scheduled to cease operations on March 21, and that location had 29 clients who were either completing discharge or being transferred. Newburgh’s program is slated to close in mid-April; staff reported 28 clients there had received referrals and were awaiting first appointments. The provider’s largest site, in Goshen, had 81 clients and officials said it planned to try to wind down that program by May.

Why it matters: County officials said the closures are driven by staffing shortages at the contract agencies and that state aid allows the county to roll over certain unspent funds to support home-modification services and other elements of the program. County staff emphasized they were coordinating with community partners to avoid service gaps and to place clients in other programs when appropriate.

Department of Mental Health Commissioner Lacey Bridal (as introduced at the meeting) told the committee the county has a draft RFP to replace the services and is meeting regularly with the named providers and local partners to ensure continuity. Bridal said some clients will be served by other county clinics, and that the county hopes to preserve the Restart program, which offers substance use disorder treatment to students through BOCES and helps them continue their education.

The department also outlined prevention and response work: a ‘‘Substance Use Summit Part 2’’ is scheduled for April 27 with a daytime session for providers and an evening session for community members and first responders; the county’s ADAC poster contest drew more than 1,600 entries from 33 schools across 10 districts and selected a sixth grader from Monroe-Woodbury as the overall winner; and the county’s Disaster Mental Health Team has been deployed twice since the last report, including once to support cheerleaders after a stir at a Texas competition and once as a potential resource for correctional institutions (that request had not yet resulted in deployment of county staff).

First-responder peer support funding: The county won New York CARES grant funding to support first-responder peer support. The award supplies $30,000 a year for two years to train staff, and the department said the total commitment will amount to $60,000 for each of three responder groups—fire, law enforcement and dispatchers—over two years. Officials said EMS was not included in this award and staff are seeking clarification.

Clinic operations and outcomes: Department leaders provided clinic performance data showing increased service volume compared with the prior year: they reported 11 more admissions, an 8% increase in people served and 16% more services in 2024 than in 2023, with numbers trending higher so far in 2025.

What the department said next: Staff asked the committee to approve a small supplemental appropriation earlier in the meeting to roll unspent state 2024 funds into the 2025 budget for the home-modification portion of an OMH-funded program; the committee approved that appropriation by voice vote.

Ending: Department officials said they would continue to coordinate transfers, post the RFP for replacement services, and work with community partners and county clinics to minimize interruption while the contracted providers reduce or cease operations.