Photo: First Lady of New York City Chirlane McCray at Bellevue Hospital on Tuesday. Courtesy of Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.
As part of the de Blasio administration’s continuing efforts to build a “more effective and inclusive” mental health system in the city, a new proposal announced last week would provide more than 80 schools with mental health clinics, a victims advocate for each police precinct and social workers to arrange psychological care for thousands of families in homeless shelters.
The plan, part of a budget proposal to be negotiated by the City Council and unveiled by First Lady Chirlane McCray, who has championed mental health reform in the city, calls for a major new investment in mental healthcare in the city that would incrementally rise beyond $78 million over the next few fiscal years.
New York currently spends about $300 million annually in mental health services, with much of that money coming from state aid.
The city said it is looking to reverse a 30-year trend of neglect regarding mental healthcare and become a national model for other cities by pursuing a “coordinated, multi-agency approach.”
“We can’t really be a healthy city if we don’t address mental health,” McCray told the Huffington Post during a recent interview.
McCray, while recounting her own daughter Chiara’s struggles with depression and addiction, reiterated statistics showing that in any given year, one in four adults in the state experiences a mental health challenge, while one in 17 has a serious mental illness.
“The first step of recovery is reaching out to others,” McCray added.
Further, a 2015 Mental Health America report found that in New York, only 39 percent of adults with any mental illness report receiving care, while 18 percent of adults with any mental illness report having an unmet need for treatment.
As part of a comprehensive plan to provide mental health services “where people live,” senior citizen centers, runaway youth shelters and even correctional facilities, such as Rikers Island, will receive on-site mental health assistance.
McCray and city Health and Hospitals Corporation President Dr. Ram Raju on Tuesday announced a new mental health program at Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan called the Children’s Partial Hospitalization Program that will provide day treatment that bridges the gap between hospitalization and outpatient care for patients 6 to 17 years old, thereby reducing the need for inpatient care.
“The launch of Bellevue’s Children’s Partial Hospitalization Program brings us one step closer to the inclusive and interconnected mental health system that New York families need,” McCray said.
In the borough, a variety of mental health services are available through Queens Hospital Center that include psychiatric emergency services as well as inpatient/outpatient and mobile crisis professionals that can make on-site assessments and link patients to treatment.
Other area care sites include Elmhurst Hospital Center and Steinway Child and Family Services in Astoria.
Steinway provides services including mental health, case management, HIV/AIDS and residence-based programs for nearly 3,500 adults and children in Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Manhattan.
A final plan quantifying how mental health resources will be allocated, by borough, is expected from the administration this fall.
By Alan Krawitz alan.krawitz1@gmail.com
