Mental Health Update
Recent Articles About Mental Health Budget Hearing and Links to February 10th Webinar at 7 O’clock on the Basics of Advocacy Presented by John Richter, MHANYS Public Policy Director
Earlier this week, we had an opportunity to be on Capital Tonight as well as Spectrum/NY1 News.
While the articles are listed below, I urge you to go to the links to see the more extensive stories and interviews.
Harvey Rosenthal and I were able to discuss alternative peer engagement services to traditional services. Programs such as Peer Diversion, Clubhouses and the INSET model were highlighted as well as recognizing the importance of the Incident Review Panel. In addition, I had the opportunity to again talk about the 7.8% investment in mental health and the entire human service sector.
Till the end of March, we are now in the race to advocate for our funding requests.
That is why it is important to come to Albany on March 12th to raise your voices in support of MHANYS and AFSP’s joint Mental Health Matters Legislative Day.
As the state budget process reaches a critical point, we hope you will join for Mental Health Matters Day on March 12, 2025. You can register here. We are looking forward to an exciting day with hundreds in attendance as we rally support for critical investments and programs that support mental health and suicide prevention in communities across New York State.
In advance of this, and in partnership with American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), MHANYS will be hosting Mental Health Matters Day Preparation/Advocacy 101 Webinar on Monday, February 10, 2025, from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. MHANYS Director of Public Policy, John Richter, will provide: (1) an overview of the legislative, budget, and advocacy process, (2) break down of the priorities of focus for Mental Health Matters Day, and (3) how to prepare and have successful meetings with your legislators. You can register here. We will be recording the webinar and making it available on the MHANYS website and send a link along with the materials for the Mental Health Matters Day closer to the date.
Spectrum/NY1: State lawmakers hesitant to give Hochul green light on mental health priorities
By: Bernadette Hogan
New York City
PUBLISHED 6:22 PM ET Feb. 05, 2025
As Gov. Kathy Hochul tries to expand New York’s ability to involuntarily commit the mentally ill, some lawmakers are saying not-so-fast.
The state’s mental health chief was on the hot seat Wednesday — tasked with defending Hochul’s plan to amend standards allowing health professionals more bandwidth to commit mentally ill people against their will.
What You Need To Know
Changing involuntary commitment standards and expanding what’s known as Kendra’s Law are priorities for Gov. Hochul and Mayor Adams
Since 2022, mental health teams patrolling the subways have worked to connect the mentally ill with housing options
Now, lawmakers are confronted with a spate of violent crimes that experts say began with a failure to treat mental illness
The state is also spending $1 million to study assisted outpatient treatment — research that won’t be ready until 2026
“How do you think we avoid this from being a sweeping change, so we are saying: homelessness now equals you can be involuntarily committed?” asked State Sen. Samra Brouk, a Rochester Democrat who chairs the chamber’s Committee on Mental Health, during a legislative hearing analyzing the state budget in Albany.
“This is for a very small, select group of individuals who are at very substantial risk to physical harm because they are unable to take care of their daily needs,” Ann Marie Sullivan, commissioner of the NYS Office of Mental Health, said.
Changing involuntary commitment standards and expanding what’s known as Kendra’s Law are priorities for Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams.
Since 2022, mental health teams patrolling the subways have worked to connect the mentally ill with housing options. Freshman State Assemblyman Micah Lasher then helped Hochul’s budding plan when he worked for the governor’s office.
“I certainly think it’s one of the more difficult topics to engage on, because you do have these incredibly important questions of civil liberties and public safety at stake,” he told NY1 Wednesday.
Now, lawmakers are confronted with a spate of violent crimes that experts say began with a failure to treat mental illness.
“It’s more in the public experience. There’s been more incidents that people are concerned about, rightfully so, and we all recognize that something needs to be done. So, now it’s just a matter of getting together around the table and figuring out exactly what that is,” Queens Democrat Michael Gianaris, the State Senate Deputy Majority Leader, said.
Incidents include subway shovings that have led to serious injury or death, and even the high-profile trial and acquittal of Daniel Penny, who was charged with strangling a mentally ill man on the subway.
“I don’t think that anyone is talking about the obliteration of civil liberties. Any change that is on the table is going to be a thoughtful adjustment to the statute,” Lasher said.
But considerable concerns remain.
“Our workforce is suffering greatly. You know, we see it every day with our 30% turnover rate with our people, or just leaving for Amazon and, you know, McDonald’s and wherever, because they can make more money there,” Glenn Liebman, CEO of the Mental Health Association in New York, said.
“We always say that you have to be mission driven to work in our field, but mission driven doesn’t put food on the table. So we’ve got to really get some more funding in there and more investments in mental health,” Liebman added.
Liebman was the first director of Kendra’s Law in the early 2000s. It allows judges to mandate psychiatric evaluations in some circumstances.
“We saw a lot of counties saying, let’s look at all our alternatives,” he explained. “A: it’s stigmatizing for an individual to stand before a judge. B: it’s expensive to go through the court order process to get the psychiatrist, to get everything in place, so why don’t we look at alternatives to Kendra’s Law.”
The state is also spending $1 million to study assisted outpatient treatment — research that won’t be ready until 2026.
“What we do know from our outcomes that we look at is that AOT decreases incarcerations, it decreases hospitalizations, it decreases episodes of violence,” Sullivan said.
Capital Tonight: N.Y. mental health advocates offer alternative solutions to involuntary commitment
According to Gov. Kathy Hochul, the recent surge in violent crimes in New York City have involved people with serious untreated mental illness — a failure, she says, to get treatment to people who are homeless and disconnected from the mental health care system.
Hochul went on to state that New Yorkers have a duty to protect the public from random acts of violence, and the only fair and compassionate thing to do is “get our fellow New Yorkers the help they need.”
To that end, the governor has proposed expanding the use of involuntary commitment, as well as pledging $1 billion for mental health services.
But two long-time mental health advocates, Harvey Rosenthal, CEO Alliance for Rights and Recovery, and Glenn Liebman, chief executive officer the Mental Health Association, argue that the way the mental health crisis is being characterized by Hochul and others is fanning the public’s fears, and creating less public safety, not more.
Instead of expanding involuntary commitment, the advocates are hoping to see a 7.8% rate hike for all mental health agencies in the state; the governor offered a 2.1% rate hike in her executive budget proposal.
They are also advocating for the implementation of incident review panel, voluntary engagement, crisis/hospital/jail diversion programs and peer-led INSET outreach teams.
Some of these programs, they argue, have been around for a long time, but haven’t been properly funded or utilized.
Rosenthal and Liebman joined Susan Arbetter on Capital Tonight to discuss the issues.
