Mental Health Update

New York State Advocates Seek MH Investments, Community Supports
Valerie A. Canady   Mental Health Weekly   February 9, 2025

Although encouraged by millions in funding support of some of New York State’s services and programs for people with mental illness in Gov. Kathy Hochul’s 2025-2026 executive budget proposal, advocates say they oppose her plan to strengthen and expand the use of involuntary patient and outpatient confinement, citing the need instead for a more engaging and accountable mental health system.

Other concerns include the need for a cost-of-living adjustment. During a Feb. 4 press conference, 11 statewide advocacy groups gathered in Albany to ask the state legislature and the governor to include a 7.8% increase in investments in rates and contracts for mental health and substance use disorder services in the final enacted New York State 2025-2026 budget.

“Our sector is really, really hurting,” Glenn Liebman, CEO of the Mental Health Association in New York State, Inc. (MHANYS) told MHW. “Our number one ask is a 7.8% increase in investments in mental health. We have this conflation of different things. We don’t get paid a lot. We’re behind the eight ball.”

Someone could opt to work at McDonald’s, Amazon or even Walmart and get paid a little more than they would in the mental health nonprofit world of New York State, Liebman said. “We’re losing people to that and we’re competing with state government. Their benefits are a lot better than ours, and they get a pension. “We feel that the decks are stacked against us.”

Gov. Hochul’s executive budget proposes a 2.1% targeted inflationary increase for community-based, behavioral health not-for-profits. “We wanted the legislature to add to the 2.1% to get us to 7.8%,” Liebman stated, adding that the increase would enable them to recruit and retain qualified workers.

People who come into the mental health field are mission-driven, he noted. “They believe strong in the cause but at the end of the day you still have to make money; it’s frustrating.”

Members of the mental health advocacy community are also taking issue with the governor’s plan to support new legislation to to strengthen New York’s involuntary commitment laws and Kendra’s Law. “That is not the answer,” Liebman said. The focus should be on the workforce and community-based services, case management, peer support and family engagement and make sure discharge plans are [in place] so when someone is discharged from a hospital or from being incarcerated, they don’t end up on the street. They need to be able to engage with someone right away or else they’ll fall through the cracks.”

“Even if you get someone off the streets, eventually they will have to come back to the community,” Liebman stated. “There are no services there. It’s a constant cycle.”

Voluntary engagement needed

Gov. Hochul’s proposal to expand involuntary inpatient and outpatient commitment in statute is an approach that fails to address the root causes of the current mental health crisis and the system’s responsibility to use all resources to voluntarily engage the people served, the Alliance for Rights and Recovery stated.

In testimony on Feb. 5 before the NYS Legislative Mental Hygiene Budget Hearing Harvey Rosenthal, CEO of The Alliance, urged the committee to reject legislative proposal to give tens of thousands of social workers, psychologists, and nurse practitioners the ability to forcibly and involuntarily commit people to fulfill a role in which they are neither trained nor want. “People who need comprehensive services to succeed in the community should not need a court order to get them,” Rosenthal indicated in his testimony.

“The budget expands coercion,” Rosenthal told MHW. “It would be put in the statute to put homeless people on the street, including those struggling with a mental illness, and are in need of food and shelter, he said. “Hospitals are not the best place for a lot of people,” said Rosenthal. “They will come out no better than when they came in. People would be ‘emptied’ out into the streets without any supports, he said.

“We’re concerned about public pressure,” Rosenthal said. “It’s more about hiding people than help us.” This is happening across other parts of the country, said Rosenthal, noting that people with mental illness are connected with violence and that the strategy for that would be coercion.

The governor wants to expand the state’s involuntary commitment laws to allow hospitals to compel more people with mental illness into treatment following a series of violent crimes in the New York City subway system.

“Since 1999, we have been able to limit the growth of Kendra’s Law, but now it has been connected to violence,” said Rosenthal. Local news reports, such as the New York Post, have seized up on any connection to violence, he said.

The governor is proposing $16.5 million in voluntary service alternatives to increase investments in Peer Bridger and clubhouse programs and in Intensive and Sustained Engagement Team (INSET), a voluntary, peer-led, mobile engagement approach to support individuals that have historically not engaged with the mental health system for various reasons and/or who are at risk of being placed into involuntary treatment approaches.

“We know that through using peer support and other methods, we can engage people,” said Rosenthal, of the INSET program. During testimony, Rosenthal noted that the INSET peer-to-peer engagement teams have engaged 83% of people who are currently disconnected from services and who might otherwise have needlessly been placed on an involuntary outpatient commitment order.

The proposed budget includes $2.8 million to fund three INSET teams. The Alliance is seeking funding for five more INSET teams in regions that currently do not offer this pivotal service, at an annual cost of $800,000 for a total of $4 million, Rosenthal noted. “We want people to have the right to better care,” said Rosenthal.

The Alliance is also asking for the expanded use of Peer Bridger Programs in community hospitals that have long records of success in assisting people to make successful well-supported transitions to their communities for as long as is needed. They are asking the legislature to expand funding for five more Peer Bridger teams at an annual cost of $600,000 per team, for a total of $3 million, Rosenthal noted. “The Peer Bridget program helps you leave the hospital and make it in the community,” Rosenthal said.

The proposed funding for club houses is considered a big deal, especially since many had closed, he said. Clubhouses could help an individual with food and social supports for people who are struggling and who are isolated and have no income, Rosenthal noted.

Supporting Youth

The good news about the budget is that governor is adding funding for Mental Health First Aid, said MHANYS’ Liebman. “That’s incredibly visionary of her,” he said.

On Jan. 23, Gov. Hochul announced that $10 million in state funding is available to offer a statewide Youth and Teen Mental Health First Aid program. The State Office of Mental Health will administer the funding to develop a training and certification program that helps New Yorkers identify, understand and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance use disorders in young people who may be experiencing a crisis, a news release from the governor’s office stated.

“We’re very appreciative,” said Leibman. “We think the issues with youth and teens in schools are massive.”