Hutchings Psychiatric Center bringing “mind and body together” at renovated Madison Street Clinic

SYRACUSE — The Hutchings Psychiatric Center is “finally pulling mind and body together.”

Dr. Ann Sullivan, commissioner of the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH), said it’s an approach that, “for whatever reason,” the medical and psychiatric communities have “kind of kept a bit separate over decades.”

“And all that’s happening today in collaborative care, integrated care is really to make sure … that we treat the whole person and that we treat them well,” said Dr. Sullivan.

She made the comments in her remarks at the July 6 formal opening of Hutchings’ Madison Street Clinic at 660 Madison St. in Syracuse.

The clinic is now the largest adult-outpatient clinic in the area, the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) said in a news release issued the same day.

The clinic plans to add primary health-care services to the existing behavioral-health services that Hutchings Psychiatric Center provides.

Construction on the Madison Street Clinic began in June 2015 and involved asbestos abatement and the rehabilitation of the first floor of the three-story building.

The $2 million renovation project added a new lobby and reception area for all patients, along with a primary-care suite.

The suite includes three outfitted exam rooms, a medication room, phlebotomy center, primary-care provider office, and nursing-manager office.

Crews also updated fire and security systems.

This space is a lot more than a “new, shiny environment,” Dr. Mark Cattalani, executive director of the Hutchings Psychiatric Center, said in his remarks at the clinic’s formal opening event. Syracuse–area state lawmakers and OMH’s commissioner were on hand to help cut the ribbon.

“By integrating primary care with our pre-existing behavioral-health services, we’re creating a whole health opportunity for those we serve that is greater than the sum of its parts,” said Cattalani.

OMH and the New York State Division of Budget financed the $2 million project, Cattalani later said while speaking with media members. 

The Dormitory Authority of the State of New York and the New York State Office of General Services handled the construction on the renovation project, Cattalani said.

He also told reporters the renovated clinic will require some new hiring, “but it won’t be a great number.”

With the addition of primary care, the facility will need doctors and nurse practitioners, he noted.

When asked the same hiring question, Sullivan indicated, “We’re in the process of setting that up.”

Upstate University Hospital is one of the groups that OMH is talking to about that, she added.

Earlier, in her remarks during the formal-opening event, Sullivan said it’s a facility that’s going to integrate behavioral-health care and physical-health care.

Sullivan noted that one in five people in the U.S. are suffering with some kind of mental illness or mental-health problem, and only 40 percent of that one in five receives any kind of care.

“That’s woefully inadequate,” Sullivan said.

The renovated facility also provides space for CommonGround, the clinic’s peer-supported, shared decision-making program.

The program, which OMH developed, combines the efforts of peers, computer software, and patients to support a client’s involvement in treatment decisions.

Individuals can access the service “directly” before their psychiatrist appointment.

The clinic currently serves about 1,000 individuals with behavioral-health needs and in the past, has been able to provide about 200 of those patients with additional physical health-care services.

The updated facility now enables Hutchings to provide primary health-care services to the majority of the clinic’s client base to “better help” Central New York residents “coordinate their health-care needs and improve population health,” according to the OMH news release.                            

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com