Alliance Note: The Daniel’s Law Task Force will host their next meeting in Albany today, Wednesday, May 29th, from 11am to 1pm in the Empire State Plaza, meeting room 5. Today’s meeting will have a presentation from the Gerstein Crisis Centre on their community-based mental health crisis support continuum. Based in Toronto, the Gerstein Crisis Centre provides crisis intervention, wellness and recovery activities, and training and education. They utilize a host of crisis services, including a 24-hour community based mobile crisis team, crisis beds, and short term follow up support.
If time allows, in person attendees will be able to offer public comment. Providing testimony to the Task Force is one of many ways we can continue pushing the state to establish an effective response to mental health and substance use crises when police are not required.
We encourage those who cannot make it in person to watch online using this link. Stay on the lookout for other ways you can support our efforts to create a statewide alternative response for health emergencies. See below for more information about the Daniel’s Law Task Force.
Established in response to the death of 41-year-old Daniel Prude in 2020, the Daniel’s Law Task Force is charged with developing recommendations to guide behavioral health crisis response and explore avenues for related diversion services. Following its inaugural meeting last summer, the task force has hosted several stakeholder listening sessions and has continued gathering comments from participants.
Task Force sessions are aimed at eliciting additional input from communities, governmental entities, and the public on the best practices for engaging individuals in crisis, with a specific emphasis on equity. The task force is also examining a variety of models –both national and international –that could be used in developing a crisis response system.
See more about the Task Force, and view past meetings by clicking here.