The Notice of Proposed Rule Making regarding the regulations applicable to the Personalized Recovery Oriented Services (PROS) initiative will be published in the March 2, 2005 issue of the State Register to begin the formal 45 day public comment period.

The link (http://www.omh.state.ny.us/omhweb/policy/512pros.htm) will take you to the Regulations section of the OMH website where the Proposed PROS regulation is now available for review. Information regarding the submission of public comments is also provided. Please note that the final language is slightly revised from the version that appeared previously on this website.

The link below will take you to the section of the OMH website where the Draft PROS Handbook (January 20, 2005 draft) is now available for review. Please note that the draft handbook replaces the excerpts from the handbook that appeared previously on this website. Continue to check this website for additions and revisions to the Draft PROS Handbook. View Draft PROS Handbook at http://www.omh.state.ny.us/omhweb/pros/handbook.htm.

After reviewing the county PROS implementation plans, the Office of Mental Health has decided to begin the implementation process with a modest initial phase involving the following seven counties:
Western New York Region -- Allegany and Erie
Central New York Region -- Clinton and Jefferson
Hudson River Region -- Orange and Schoharie
Long Island Region -- Suffolk

The scope of this initial implementation phase has taken into consideration OMH's ability to support successful program transitions to the new PROS license with intensive technical assistance. The seven counties were selected based on the following criteria:

Each of the counties indicated an interest in being an early adopter of PROS.

All initial implementation issues in the county's PROS implementation plan have been satisfactorily resolved.
The counties are geographically distributed across all of the regions of the State, and represent a mix of urban, suburban and rural settings.

A modest initial implementation effort is also anticipated in New York City. However, since the New York City PROS implementation plan is still under development, this effort will commence at a later date.