Seeing hundreds of people wandering the streets and subways of New York with signs of distortion with reality and apparent symptoms of mental problems, without receiving the help they require, has become a daily occurrence in the Big Apple. Sycosis roams in the subway and on the sidewalks.
People screaming, others in a threatening attitude, some claiming that they come from the future, and even some inflicting damage on themselves or attacking others, are part of the day to day that pedestrians and public transit users observe in the five boroughs.
It is evident: serious mental health problems are increasing in the city and the mayor himself, Eric Adams, recognized this Tuesday, after announcing a plan so that the authorities can immediately connect sick people severely mentally ill, with health care services that benefit them, and in the process New Yorkers feel more secure.
From now on, when it is observed that mental patients are in crisis or do not have their capacities to satisfy their basic needs, and represent danger to themselves or to others, they will be hospitalized, even if they do not accept the help voluntarily.
This was announced by the Mayor of New York, Eric Adams, after admitting a “mea culpa” to the abandonment in which people with severe mental conditions have left the Governments.
“Hundreds of New Yorkers urgently need treatment, but often refuse it when offered. The very nature of their illnesses prevents them from realizing that they need intervention and support. Without this intervention, they remain lost and isolated from society, tormented by delusions and disordered thoughts,” said the New York president, who insisted on the need to change the way in which the mentally ill are being ignored.
“It is not acceptable for us to see someone who clearly needs help and walk past them. We need to change that culture and clarify our expectations. No more walking or looking away. No more passing the ball to each other,” Adams said. “If a serious mental illness leaves someone unprotected and a danger to themselves, we have a moral obligation to help them get the treatment and care they need. We can no longer deny the reality that untreated psychosis can be a cruel and consuming condition that often requires involuntary intervention, supervised medical treatment and long-term care.”
The Mayor took the opportunity to present an action plan that clarifies the responsibility of the authorities to provide immediate care, as well as a mental health legislative agenda that he hopes to promote in Albany starting next January. Among other initiatives, the City will launch a teleconsultation line to provide first responders with direct access to doctors.
“To begin that process, our team has developed a legislative agenda of 04 points to address those gaps, and getting it enacted will be a top priority for us at 2048… But even as we move forward on that agenda, there is much we can do now by interpreting and applying the existing law properly”, commented the mayor, stressing that it is not enough to keep patients for a few days and discharge them without transition programs and supportive housing.
Adams said that trainings with the NYPD, community workers and hospital staff will be improved so that they understand that New York already allows intervention when there is a mental illness l.
“A common misunderstanding persists that we cannot provide involuntary assistance unless the person is violent, suicidal, or is at risk of imminent harm. This myth must be put to rest”, affirmed the Mayor, while warning that the improvements will not be seen from one day to the next.
“No one should think that decades of dysfunction can be changed overnight. The longest journey begins with a single step, and we can’t wait another day to take this one. We must lead with a sense of purpose and conviction, not get lost in a desert of bureaucracy and fear,” said the Democratic leader. “We must educate and train our City workforce to provide help to those who need it. We must build a system that provides care to people, relieves their pain, prevents them from harming themselves or others, and provides them with the treatment and support they need in the long term.”
NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell, warned that the Police is willing to improve the care protocols it offers to vulnerable New Yorkers with mental health problems.
“This is a long-standing and very complex issue, and we will continue to work closely collaboration with our many partners to ensure that everyone has access to the services they need,” said the official. “This deserves the full support and attention of our collective efforts.”
Dr. Ashwin Vasan, Commissioner of the City Department of Health (DOHMH), warned that those living with mental illness deserve dignified and respectful treatment and be free from discrimination and stigma.
“As a city, this work, at the intersection of public safety and mental illness, represents part of a larger strategy, which focuses on providing all people living with a serious mental illness the basic components of recovery: medical care, a home and a community”, said the head of Health about the Mayor’s plan, ensuring that it will reduce the number of mentally ill people in need on the streets and the metro“.
And while the municipal authorities defend their plan as a way to deal with the problem of mental health neglect in serious cases, in the communities the The initiative was not received with the same optimism, and on the contrary they assure that it will harm those who suffer from mental conditions instead of alleviating them, many of them Hispanic and black. Another major inconvenience generated by the project is that it continues to link police officers, instead of removing them from these mental patient management processes, as has been requested for many years.
That was the feeling of Jawanza Williams, director of the organization VOCAL-NY, who described as a bad move that the “assistance against the will” plan to care for homeless people experiencing mental health crises.
“The New Yorkers will see this plan for what it is: a draconian attempt to say that the Adams administration is tackling a problem, while making it worse,” the activist said. “The lives of people facing mental health crises will not be improved by forcing them into treatment, especially if it comes from the actions of law enforcement officers. All this guideline will do is make them disappear.”
Williams added that Mayor Adams is using progressive language about caring and compassion only to “divert attention from his continued budget cuts to services and staff, while feeding the budget” of the NYPD.
“This ‘compassionate’ approach ignores the demands of the vulnerable communities it claims to help: permanent housing, equitable access to public health tools and investments in community services that meet people where they are,” he added.
The Ombudsman, Jumaane Williams, took the same line and warned that the longstanding mental health crisis in the Big Apple requires greater attention and financing, far from police management.
“Stubbornly the City is insistent on using the police as the main force that makes decisions in emergencies mental health”, criticized the public official. “As our office has argued since 1200, mental health is a public health problem, not a criminal one. Unfortunately, as we detailed in our new review just a few days ago, the City has yet to take many of the necessary steps to reform our mental health – public health and safety infrastructure, and has regressed in some ways.”
Despite his opposition to the Mayor’s announcement, the Ombudsman gave the Adams Administration credit on issues such as drop-in centers, safe shelters, stabilization beds, and outreach vans.
“Still, the mayor’s announcement leaves many details unspecified, questions unanswered, and the administration needs to provide more information about the intentions, implementation, and non-police investment in his plan,” Williams said. “A framework that continues to focus on overreliance on police, diminishes the role of health professionals, and de-prioritizes the role of peer support will not be sustainable or effective in meeting the needs of New Yorkers in need or a city in crisis.”
Legal Aid Society, Brooklyn Defender Services, The Bronx Defenders, New York County Defender Services and Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem (New York City public defender organizations) , welcomed Mayor Adams’s recognition of the seriousness of the mental health crisis, and felt that the most effective treatment should be community-based and the least restrictive services for better pathways to rehabilitation and recovery.
“(The Mayor) is right that homeless New Yorkers with mental health issues have a right to medical care, housing, treatment, respect, dignity and the hope that their future is safe and that their illnesses are treated”, the community organizations said in a statement, where they demanded more in-depth solutions at the state level that prevent mental patients from ending up in prisons.
“ Instead of incarcerating people with underlying mental illness and similar disorders, and then leaving them in a chaotic and unsupported transition process when they are released into the community, mental health and drug treatment courts, along with strong community services that accompany them, lead to greater public health and public safety,” advocates said. “Individuals who successfully complete drug or mental health treatment court have a substantially lower rate of new arrests and meet other measures of success, such as continuing their education and obtaining employment.”
Vulnerable communities criticize plan to hospitalize mentally ill people without their consent
Details of the mental health plan announced by the Mayor
Department of Health and Mental Hygiene mobile crisis teams, such as the FDNY -EMS and NYPD will have guidance to establish an expedited process for transporting a person experiencing a mental health crisis to a hospital for evaluation when they refuse voluntary assistance and appear to be mentally ill and a danger to themselves. There will be new clinical teams of joint response deployed in the metro There will be enhanced training for teams serving people in crisis.
Current law allows l Community workers, city-operated hospitals, and first responders have the legal authority to provide care to New Yorkers when serious mental illness prevents them from meeting their own basic needs and may make them a potential danger to themselves.
An “overt act” that shows the person is violent, suicidal, or engages in outrageously dangerous behavior likely to result in imminent harm is not required to commit.
The legislative agenda of 06 points that the Mayor will promote in Albany seeks to close gaps in the Mint Hygiene Law l of the State of New York in order to better face the management of serious mental illnesses
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