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PHOENIXPage 8 April 11, 1974C a i %u25a0 I Negotiations with AAethodist I V I %u25a0 Ito Establish Slope Psychiatric ClinicThe Park Slope Health Task Force, the organization that for two years has been working with the City%u2019s Dept, of Mental Health to create a psychiatric outpatient clinic, last week announced that it would seek alternative sponsorship for the clinic. The group had been negotiating with Methodist Hospital.A representative of the Task Force stated, %u2018%u2018We are interested in offering a broad variety of services to the people of our community. This includes not only follow-up care, to those returning to the community from a stay in a psychiatric hospital, but counseling services in the community designed to keep people out of psychiatric hospitals. This is very significant preventive medicine. It is better to catch an emotional problem before it becomes extremely serious and a person can no longer function, than to allow a breakdown. We hope that the counseling, social servicesand other services we offer will keep people healthy.%u201c We will not just be a clinic for %u2019crazy people%u2019-anyone having an emotional problem in their family will be able to get help, whether rich or poor, regardless of age or race. Services will be free to anyone who can%u2019t pay,%u201d the representative continued.The Task Force had been in negotiations with Methodist Hospital, which was originally designated as the provider of psychiatric services for Park Slope. It is City Department of Mental Health policy to obtain community input in psychiatric service planning thru the Department%u2019s %u201c Sub-Regional Mental Health Planning Boards.%u201d The Task Force is the community group operating on this project in the local Subregional %u201c A.%u201dNegotiations were held under Subregional auspices and were delayed by Hospital refusal, initially, to allow the community to play ameaningful role in the selection of the head of the clinic, over whether the clinic would be at the Hospital or in an area where most of the people who use it live, and over the basic question of whether the clinic would be a medically-oriented follow-up to inpatient stay unit, or a counseling and social serviceoriehted preventive health unit.While some of the specifics relating to the basic orientation were successfully negotiated, many others, such as whether the clinic would be off-site on a permanent basis, whether a psychologist or social worker could head it (as opposed to only a psychiatrist), were left unresolved.The psychiatric clinic issue has long been regarded by many observers as a microcosm of the hospital expansion issue, say Task Force organizers, with the basic issue being one of community involvement in planning and delivering services provided by a privateinstitution at public expense.The Task Force spokesman also indicated that a community advisory board to the new clinic will be started. This board will help organize the service and is open to all community members interested in this vital need.Anyone interested in this issue is asked to contact the following Task Force members: Victor Hausner, days, 566-0205; nites, 768-7915; Robert Furman, days, 433-4623; nites, 965-4575; Gary Wallach, days, 677-0300; nites, 783-7679.NaturalClassesBirth at YWThe Lamaze Method of Natural Childbirth course will be offered at the Bklyn. YWCA Women%u2019s Center beginning April 17. The course will include six classes, given Wednesdays from 8 to 9:30 p.m. at the YW%u2019s 30 Third Avenue building. The fee is $30 per couple.Course instructor Ginny Brooks is a certified Lamaze teacher andIiASSEMBLING the (ID fxLhe NEW k j Hie cj the l^ th , ,3oth,and 2LsL Centuries%u2022ASSEMBLAGES and SCULPTURES T A riuiyePtm Lirw M aterials%u2022. .designed And constructed at the AsaeinblAge oT RjchiW a Hill%u2022ASSEMBLAGE MATERIALS ..jor make, ipur-ouneis %u2022OONTEMPORAKY SOFTWARE DaroUrd feverlq Straus %u2022FANCIFUL ARTIFACTS, o f YESTERDAY and MUSEUM PIECES ' NOSTALGIA GRAPH ICS . Jrw u G w acte r ftiss %u25a0GknzCm'Fimm hardware%u2022BeverlyRCONTEMPORARY HARDCORE %u2022FABULOUS FAKES jo r Fabulous Kaket-j,The ASSEMBLAGE