Testimony on City Council's Plans to Address Mental Health

New York City’s public mental health services are simply dysfunctional -- from policies to procedures to programs to facilities -- and the system’s negative impact on the City’s Black, Brown, AMEMSA, AAPI and Indigenous community members is deeply entrenched. The Mayor’s Office of Community Mental Health (MOCMH) and the new interagency Mental Health Council established by Executive Order 68 and Local Law 155 (2021), offers New Yorkers the opportunity to develop a truly comprehensive mental health system in NYC – one that is based on prevention, one that includes an appropriate and comprehensive strategy for responding to people experiencing mental health crises, one that actually does not embed and perpetuate the NYPD’s involvement as responders, and one that uses a racial equity framework to inform its design and performance.