Another policy roadmap for mental health, courtesy of the City Council


Beat Memo

When Mayor Eric Adams released a three-pronged mental health plan in March, members of the City Council seized on the dearth of details about how the city would implement its policy proposals and how it would pay for them.

Today, the Council will introduce a mental health roadmap of its own, just before Adams is expected to release an executive budget that will elaborate on the financial aspects of his plan.

It is the brainchild of Councilmember Linda Lee, chair of the mental health committee and the former CEO of Korean Community Services of Metropolitan New York, a Queens-based social services organization.

Notably, Council members are coupling their roadmap with both a legislative package and dollar amounts — a likely dig at Adams’ lack of specifics.

The four-pillar roadmap will lay out policy and budget proposals in the areas of prevention and supportive services, workforce, the intersection of mental health and the criminal justice system, and public awareness of resources, according to a draft copy obtained by POLITICO.

The legislative package includes a bill, sponsored by Lee, that would require the city to provide annual reports on the implementation of Adams’ involuntary-removals directive for people with serious mental illness.

The reports would have to detail the number of people affected, their demographics, whether they were admitted to a hospital and, if so, where and for how long — information that the Adams administration has yet to disclose.

Another bill carried by Lee would require the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to create a database and interactive map of outpatient mental health service providers across the city.

Similarly, Adams’ mental health agenda called for a digital hub to help people with serious mental illnesses navigate the full range of resources available to them.

Councilmember Keith Powers is sponsoring legislation to require at least two crisis respite centers per borough, which are voluntary walk-in facilities where people experiencing a mental health crisis can receive services and stay as long as a week. Only a handful of them exist across the city.

The roadmap’s budget recommendations include $12.8 million to build 380 units of supportive housing for justice-involved New Yorkers, $28 million for school-based mental health clinics and $1.7 million for an initiative that provides mental health services for children 5 and under.

The Council will also fight for funding to make mental health professionals available in the city’s 30 largest family shelters. Members recently approved a bill, sponsored by Councilmember Erik Bottcher, that would require access in all family shelters by July 2025, but Adams has yet to sign it.

What gets funded will be hashed out in budget negotiations in the coming weeks, and any legislation would need the mayor’s signature, so the Council still needs Adams’ buy-in to make any of the roadmap a reality.

IN OTHER NEWS:

— More than one in three New Yorkers were enrolled in health insurance coverage through the state’s marketplace as of Jan. 31, according to data released Thursday. NY State of Health enrollment was 6.9 million, up by 41 percent since the pandemic’s start in March 2020, when 4.9 million New Yorkers were enrolled.

Of the 6.9 million people who were enrolled as of January, 5.2 million were on Medicaid plans, 1.1 million were on the Essential Plan, nearly 378,000 were on Child Health Plus and 265,000 were on qualified health plans, according to the data.

— The New York State Department of Health awarded $8.9 million to hospitals, local health departments and nonprofits to promote breast/chest feeding in racially and ethnically diverse communities, part of the state’s 2019-2024 prevention agenda.

Award recipients will use the funds to implement policies and practices in community settings to support people who are breast/chest feeding, such as by working with employers on compliance with state lactation accommodation laws that go into effect June 7.

ON THE AGENDA THIS WEEK:

— Monday at 10 a.m. The Senate Committee on Insurance meets.

— Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. The City Council Committee on Health holds an oversight hearing on lead-based paint hazards jointly with the Committee on Housing and Buildings.

— Tuesday at noon. The Senate Committee on Health meets.

— Thursday at 10:30 a.m. The New York State AIDS Advisory Council meets.

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What you may have missed

— Nursing homes received their first taste of the $187 million allocated in last year’s state budget to help them hire and maintain enough staff to meet new requirements. The Department of Health has distributed about $88 million in state funding to over 400 nursing homes across the state, but federal matching funds have yet to be approved.

Odds and Ends

NOW WE KNOW — In the Belgian town of Geel, local families host people with psychiatric conditions under a longtime fostering program.

TODAY’S TIP — Clean your trash can. It’s probably gross.

STUDY THIS — Young people involved with the juvenile justice system had up to 23 times the rate of gun deaths as the general population, a longitudinal study found.

What We're Reading

— Physician assistants want more autonomy in New York, the Albany Times Union reports.

— Transgender Medicaid coverage drives widening partisan gap between states, The Wall Street Journal reports.

— Scientists have identified thousands of unknown viruses in babies’ diapers, The Washington Post reports.

— Via STAT: “Tired of ‘dead end’ approach, herpes patients mobilize to demand government action.”

— Mother-daughter duo fights for guarantee of a healthy environment in state constitutions, The 19th News reports.

— CMS’ principal deputy administrator says redeterminations will make Medicaid stronger, Modern Healthcare reports.

— Russian prisoners chose to join the war against Ukraine after being promised lifesaving HIV drugs, The New York Times reports.

Around POLITICO

— “Health care access for trans youth is crumbling — and not just in red states,” Megan Messerly reports.

— Medicare Advantage threat spurs record lobbying blitz by insurers, David Lim and Megan R. Wilson report.

— Via POLITICO’s Ben Leonard and Erin Schumaker: More care at home could save Medicare, lawmakers believe.

MISSED A ROUNDUP? Get caught up on the New York Health Care Newsletter.