Child welfare, foster care and drug addiction addressed at MHRH forum

POUGHKEEPSIE – The pressing issues of increasing child welfare, reducing the need for foster care and supporting families, and the impacts of the sweeping epidemic of drug addiction were addressed by community stakeholders at a forum on Thursday held by MidHudson Regional Hospital in Poughkeepsie.
The community discussion was initiated to create a bridge between the various agencies and representatives, who represent impacted children, families and communities, so they may be able to collaborate with each other on the issues.
“The partnership that has come together, with OCFS (Office of Children and Family Services) of the State of New York, enables us now, with this dialogue, really to bring all of the networks, all of the agencies, all the partners, in ensuring that we have a structure at the end of the day that helps young people, children, live in safe homes, helps families support their children and strengthens the family unit within the community,” said Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro.
Mecca Santana, the vice president for diversity and community relations for Westchester Medical Health Network, which represents both Westchester Medical Center and MidHudson Regional, said the community dialogue will continue.
“It’s one thing for us to all understand what each individual entity is doing; it’s another thing for us to all start partnering in a way to really drive change and that’s what these events are about,” said Santana. “It’s not just an event for us to sit around and report out. It’s really deep dive: how can we work better together, how can we really get some sustainable outcomes? How do we, a year from now, come back as a collective group and figure out, what was the change we made, where do we need to target resources, where do we need to shift our energy and our focus? And so, it’s an ongoing thing,” she said.
The all-day event presented many opportunities and many panels, made up of speakers from different sectors of healthcare, for connections to be made between entities that may have, otherwise, not been able to connect with one another.