Elmira Psychiatric Center
Elmira Psychiatric Center is a state psychiatric hospital in Elmira, New York, operated by the New York State Office of Mental Health. The facility provides inpatient care and community-based psychiatric services in New York's Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions.
History
The center was developed as part of New York State's late-1960s and early-1970s mental-health capital construction program. It was affected by major flooding in the Elmira area during Hurricane Agnes in late June 1972, shortly after the facility opened.In the early 2000s, New York State considered a consolidation plan under which EPC's inpatient services would be consolidated with Rochester Psychiatric Center and the facility would close on July 1, 2003, with services planned to continue elsewhere in the state system. This was met with public opposition. In 2013, Governor Andrew Cuomo reversed that decision
Also in 2013, OMH announced a statewide reorganization plan to shift its public inpatient system toward a network of Regional Centers of Excellence with associated community service hubs. In 2014, EPC was listed as a community service hub within the Great Lakes region network and was included in systemwide inpatient capacity tables for children's services.
In a 2010 report on restraints of children and young adults, released by the New York Office of Mental Health, the rate was.35 per 1,000 patient hours, or approximately 4.5 hours per month -- the highest in New York State.
Campus and facilities
The campus comprises nine buildings. The facility's inpatient section can accommodate 52 adults and 12 adolescents at once, and they also offer treatments on an outpatient basis. In 2024, Governor Kathy Hochul announced an award of $5 million for a psychiatric emergency program.Cornell University digital collection
Architectural photographs and models for the center, dated 1970, are preserved in Cornell University Library's John Clair Miller digital collection. Items depict a multi-building campus that included an Administration/Education building, a dining hall and shared common space, and multiple dwelling units organized with exterior courts and terraces. A representative interior view from the collection identifies the complex as a contemporary American psychiatric-hospital/extended-care facility.Services
OMH describes EPC as providing inpatient treatment on its Elmira campus for children, adolescents, and adults, as well as community-based psychiatric services across the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions. OMH's facility profile lists community-based programs that include Assertive Community Treatment; clinic treatment; community residences; school-based day treatment; drop-in centers; family care residences; intensive case management; and mobile mental health.OMH's EPC service matrix indicates that EPC-affiliated inpatient and outpatient services are delivered across multiple counties, with program locations that include Elmira, Horseheads, Wellsville, Geneva, Rushville, Shortsville, Watkins Glen, Seneca Falls, Bath, Waverly, Ithaca, Lansing, and Penn Yan.