No person with a mental health diagnosis wishes hospitalization for themselves, just as no one wants to be sick. Hospitalization is intrusive and disruptive to a person’s personal and professional life. Not only is it costly, but for the mentally ill the recovery time is computed in weeks, rather than days. Hospitalization can therefore be fatal to employment and relationships, thereby making it much longer for life to “return to normal.”“Diversion Services” was a concept initially championed by the peer movement of consumers of mental health services to mean “alternatives” to inpatient hospitalization.In Dutchess County, the powers-that-be created a state-run facility in Hyde Park known as “The Alliance House,” which alongside a partial-hospitalization program acts as a diversion from full-time hospitalization. Furnished like a home (rather than a hospital setting), The Alliance House provides temporary stabilization in a supervised community setting for those consumers of services in minor distress, or in the final weeks of their recovery. This in turn frees up expensive hospital beds for the next person in need. Others in need of more long-term care report to Hedgewood, a state-run assisted living facility in Beacon.This transitional system is a welcomed change — and cheaper — from the past practice where a patient stayed in the hospital for a month to six weeks at a time. Instead, patients transferred to the Alliance House or Hedgewood report to county-provided wellness programs at partial hospitalization or PROS (Personalized Recovery-Oriented Services), and then can return to The Alliance House at night. Unlike the hospital, patients can keep a cell phone on them and come and go as they please, so long as they are back before curfew. This allows them to reintegrate into society more easily, and is less disruptive to their life than month-long hospitalizations.Like inpatient hospital beds, Alliance House beds are scarce, largely due to funding sources. In this cash-strapped economy further challenges are on the horizon. An early proposal for the county Department of Mental Hygiene suggests a defunding of the county’s three partial hospitalization programs in the 2013 County Budget. To do so would eliminate even further the available outlets to divert someone in crisis.With Hudson River Psychiatric Center now closed, inpatient hospital bed reductions at St. Francis Hospital and possible closure threats to partial hospitalization on the horizon, let us hope the county retains a sufficient mental health safety net in place. If not, the default safety net will become law enforcement with the county jail as the catch-all depository for the mentally ill who cannot find medical help anywhere else.Michael N. Kelsey represents the people of Amenia, Washington, Stanford, Pleasant Valley and Millbrook in the Dutchess County Legislature. Write him at KelseyESQ@yahoo.com. View the Part 1 of this essay at blog.votemikekelsey.com.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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