On July 1, Dept. of Health officially merged with the Dept. of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Alcoholism Services. The move was intended to better coordinate city health and mental hygiene services.

On Nov. 1, four months later, the City Council Health and Mental Hygiene Committees conducted a hearing to assess the reorganization.

Among the dozen mental health professionals and labor activists who testified were two DC 37 leaders: Juan Fernández, President of Amalgamated Professional Employees Local 154, and Gloria E. Acevedo, President of Public Health Nurses and Epidemiologists Local 436.

Local 154 represents the Senior Consultant of Mental Health titles, who oversee contracts between the new Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene and private agencies and community organizations. These members audit the quality and quantity of services provided by those agencies, as well as their budget practices, assuring that taxpayers get their money's worth.

Staff has been cut

"The overall number of Senior Consultants - the backbone of the department - has been reduced," said Mr. Fernández. "Reducing their numbers impacts the quality of the Department's community outreach."

On the other hand, he said, administrative overhead has increased, "contrary to expectations." He testified that DOHMH has created several new deputy commissioner and director positions and hired back managers who took the early retirement package as consultants.

Local 154 has recommended that DOHMH reduce its "bloated unnecessary administrative costs. These dollars would be better utilized for services," said Mr. Fernandez. He also urged DOHMH to work with union representatives to ensure that workers are participants in the decision-making process.

Ms. Acevedo raised several of the concerns of her members, among them the inability to have school health records computerized. "In 1992, the recommendation of the Child Health Action Management Plan was to automate school health records," Ms. Acevedo said at the Nov. 1 hearing. "We fail to understand why 10 years later this has not been implemented. There are multiple software programs available that can be easily networked into the current Dept. of Health system and Department of Education ATS system."

Ms. Acevedo pointed out that besides not being cost effective, the outdated system makes poor use of the Public Health Nurses' time, which should be spent with children and families instead of paperwork.