COLUMBIA COUNTY COMMUNITY SERVICES BOARD
The Columbia County Community Services Board (CSB) was designed and established through New York State Mental Hygiene Law. As Director of Community Services, Dan Almasi is responsible for the administration of a comprehensive planning process for local mental hygiene services. The CSB, under the leadership of Chair, Beth Schuster, assists in this planning process. Subcommittees, which report directly to the CSB, focus on identifying county needs as they relate to the three mental hygiene disability areas: alcoholism and substance abuse, mental health, and intellectual & developmental disabilities.
Through the work of the CSB and the Columbia County Department of Human Services, annual plans are submitted to the New York State Offices of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS), Mental Health (OMH), and People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD). Subcommittee reports and recommendations are included in these annual plans which are required for localities to be eligible for State Aid funding. Since state restructuring in 1978, day to day integration and coordination of planning and service efforts funded and certified by the three state offices rests with each county’s Local Government Unit (LGU) and the CSB. In Columbia County, the LGU is the Department of Human Services.
The fifteen member CSB and its subcommittees are nominated through board consensus and appointed by the County Board of Supervisors to four year terms. By law, the CSB must include, “whenever practicable”, a physician, and either a second physician or a psychologist, and other members who “represent the community interest in all the problems of the mentally disabled.” In recent years, OASAS, OMH and OPWDD have either encouraged or required that CSB’s and subcommittees include representation by consumers of local services and their families. The CSB also is vested with the authority to appoint and remove the Director of Community Services, on the de facto approval of the County Board of Supervisors, which funds the Director’s salary and budget. As a non-chartered county, Columbia County’s CSB is primarily concerned with policy and advocacy and the Board of Supervisors is primarily concerned with fiscal matters. The members of the CSB annually elect officers, including a chairperson, vice-chairperson, and secretary.
The three subcommittees, with respective chairpersons, each include nine members with the exception of the mental health subcommittee which has eleven members. Of the nine (or 11), three are required to be members of the Community Services Board.
The Columbia County CSB customarily meets on the last Wednesday of each month, except for a reduced schedule during the summer months. The subcommittees meet as needed at the discretion of the individual subcommittee chairpersons or at the request of the CSB chairperson. Historically, subcommittees meet on a regular monthly schedule to review county needs including those of provider agencies and service recipients. Special meetings may be held as subcommittees prepare to present their reports and recommendations to the CSB.
The Columbia County Community Services Board (CSB) was designed and established through New York State Mental Hygiene Law. As Director of Community Services, Dan Almasi is responsible for the administration of a comprehensive planning process for local mental hygiene services. The CSB, under the leadership of Chair, Beth Schuster, assists in this planning process. Subcommittees, which report directly to the CSB, focus on identifying county needs as they relate to the three mental hygiene disability areas: alcoholism and substance abuse, mental health, and intellectual & developmental disabilities.
Through the work of the CSB and the Columbia County Department of Human Services, annual plans are submitted to the New York State Offices of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS), Mental Health (OMH), and People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD). Subcommittee reports and recommendations are included in these annual plans which are required for localities to be eligible for State Aid funding. Since state restructuring in 1978, day to day integration and coordination of planning and service efforts funded and certified by the three state offices rests with each county’s Local Government Unit (LGU) and the CSB. In Columbia County, the LGU is the Department of Human Services.
The fifteen member CSB and its subcommittees are nominated through board consensus and appointed by the County Board of Supervisors to four year terms. By law, the CSB must include, “whenever practicable”, a physician, and either a second physician or a psychologist, and other members who “represent the community interest in all the problems of the mentally disabled.” In recent years, OASAS, OMH and OPWDD have either encouraged or required that CSB’s and subcommittees include representation by consumers of local services and their families. The CSB also is vested with the authority to appoint and remove the Director of Community Services, on the de facto approval of the County Board of Supervisors, which funds the Director’s salary and budget. As a non-chartered county, Columbia County’s CSB is primarily concerned with policy and advocacy and the Board of Supervisors is primarily concerned with fiscal matters. The members of the CSB annually elect officers, including a chairperson, vice-chairperson, and secretary.
The three subcommittees, with respective chairpersons, each include nine members with the exception of the mental health subcommittee which has eleven members. Of the nine (or 11), three are required to be members of the Community Services Board.
The Columbia County CSB customarily meets on the last Wednesday of each month, except for a reduced schedule during the summer months. The subcommittees meet as needed at the discretion of the individual subcommittee chairpersons or at the request of the CSB chairperson. Historically, subcommittees meet on a regular monthly schedule to review county needs including those of provider agencies and service recipients. Special meetings may be held as subcommittees prepare to present their reports and recommendations to the CSB.
