Alliance Alert: As the state gears up for this year’s budget negotiations, the Alliance joins statewide advocates calling for Governor Hochul and legislative leaders to focus on effective strategies to address the state’s current mental health challenges and reject proposals to expand the use of forced inpatient and outpatient treatment. The advocates have created the following press release outlining proven solutions as well as strategies to improve coordination and accountability for the system. These strategies include implementing Incident Review Panels, investing in effective community-based services, expanding supportive housing options, and providing rate enhancements for mental health and substance use agencies to meet growing demand for services and increase pay for staff.
The Alliance and other advocates will spend this year’s legislative session fighting against any proposed legislation to increase forced treatment measures and instead push the Governor and legislative leaders to invest in programs and services we know work. You can join our efforts by attending upcoming regional forums in your area and coming to Albany for our annual legislative day on March 4th. Use this link to get connected with us for legislative day and see below for more information about what our coalition is calling for.
Advocates Call on Albany to Reject Involuntary Mental Health Measures
and Press for Service Investments and Improved Coordination and Accountability
Albany, NY – January 14, 2025 — A broad array of statewide advocacy organizations called on Governor Kathy Hochul and State Legislative leaders to make major investments in a package of specialized services with long records of success in engaging and serving at-risk individuals with severe mental illnesses and substance use disorders who are disconnected from mental health, housing and other social services.
They are also seeking stronger state oversight via the use of Incident Review Panels to promptly investigate tragic instances of harm to people with mental illnesses and the general public, and to put in place corrective actions aimed at preventing future tragedies. The Panels were authorized in 2014 state legislation, but have never been implemented.
The group represents a growing number of behavioral health experts, community providers, family members and individuals with major mental illness and substance use disorders, as well as representatives of disability justice, criminal justice and housing justice advocacy groups.
Recent media coverage has highlighted tragic incidents of violence involving individuals with major mental illness and substance use disorders and has led to calls for an expansion of involuntary inpatient and outpatient treatment measures.
“We are all united in strong opposition to proposed expansions of the use of coercion as proposed in the Supportive Intervention Act and the Harness Expertise of Licensed Professionals (H.E.L.P) Act,” said Ruth Lowenkron, Director of the Disability Justice Program at NY Lawyers for the Public Interest. “Despite false claims by some in the media and government, our organizations in no way support leaving vulnerable individuals in unacceptable states of distress and deterioration on the streets and in the subways, and we come here today to seek funding for true solutions.”
“We have long known how to voluntarily engage people who struggle to maintain involvement in core services that successfully help them to get off the streets and into housing and stable, safe and well supported lives in recovery,” said Harvey Rosenthal, longtime CEO of the Alliance for Rights and Recovery (formerly NYAPRS). “This year’s budget must commit to a further expansion in proven and nationally acclaimed voluntary service models that can be quickly brought to a scale to address the most daunting mental health crisis of our time”, he said.
As examples, the advocates pointed to 3 NYS based models with decades of success in providing people in frequent states of severe mental health crisis with:
- a person you can trust: Peer Bridgers who are peers (individuals with lived mental health experience) and can help individuals to successfully transition from hospitals and jails, and manage their recoveries in to the community;
- a place to live: ‘low barrier’ Housing First programsthat will accept individuals regardless of their current involvement in treatment or sobriety programs; and
- a place to go: Fountain House styled clubhouse programs that unconditionally welcome individuals into communities of hope, support and recovery.
They are also urging Governor Hochul to expand access to additional Peer-led INSET teams that are having great success in engaging people who have been reluctant to participate in mental health services. A complete list follows below.
“Increasing the use of involuntary hospitalizations and coercive treatment orders by lowering commitment standards and giving more professionals the power to forcibly confine people with mental illnesses will not ultimately relieve their suffering nor make communities safer,” said Beth Haroules, Director of Disability Justice Litigation at the New York Civil Liberties Union.
The advocates decried the mental health and criminal justice system failures that have led to a series of fatal tragedies involving innocent New Yorkers, including those that ended the lives of two New Yorkers with major mental illness and substance use disorders, Daniel Prude, who died after being physically restrained by Rochester police officers, and Jordan Neely, who was choked to death in a NYC subway car after unsuccessful involvements with several NYC mental health providers.
In response, Sen. Samra Brouk and Assembly Member Harry Bronson introduced Daniel’s Law, that would create First Responder teams comprised of emergency medical technicians and extensively trained peers.
Matt Kudish, Executive Director of the family focused National Alliance on Mental Illness of New York City said that what Jordan Neely needed was “someone consistently in his corner…one person who’s following Jordan” throughout his involvement with hospitals, jails and shelters.
“We need service designs and policies that draw people – especially unhoused people — into needed services, rather than drive them away from the help they need,” said Alison Wilkey, Director of Government Affairs for the Coalition for the Homeless.
The advocates’ views and recommendations were recently echoed in an opinion piece written by NYS Attorney General Letitia James.
Increasing involuntary and ineffective hospital admissions will not work as overburdened hospitals will not be able to manage significant increases in involuntary admissions. An estimated 600 psychiatric hospital beds that were lost during the COVID pandemic are still offline. NYS Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli recently reported that hospitals are having difficulty reopening these beds, due to problems recruiting, hiring and paying for additional staff, and the costs of modernizing new beds and equipment.
“We’re also calling on the state to meet requirements that the use of outpatient commitment orders represent a last, rather than a first, resort effort that might otherwise have been delivered voluntarily in a less restrictive setting per Kendra’s Law,” said Luke Sikinyi, Policy Director for the Alliance for Rights and Recovery.
The advocates were of one voice in prioritizing a desperately needed 7.8% rate hike for overwhelmed community providers. “We cannot adequately implement the Governor’s landmark investments or the ones we are proposing today without a major cost of living increase that would allow us to keep agencies in business and sufficient staff workers on the street,” said Glenn Liebman, CEO of the Mental Health Association in New York State.
Media Contacts
Harvey Rosenthal, Alliance for Rights and Recovery, 518-527-0564, harveyr@rightsandrecovery.org
Ruth Lowenkron, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, 917-804-8209, rlowenkron@nylpi.org
Glenn Liebman, Mental Health Association in NYS, 518-360-7916, gliebman@mhanys.org
Our organizations include:
Alliance for Rights and Recovery
Center for Community Alternatives
Coalition for the Homeless
Families Together in New York State
Fountain House
Friends of Recovery- New York
#HALTsolitary Campaign
Hands Across Long Island
Housing Works
InUnity Alliance
Legal Aid Society
Mental Health Association in New York State
Mental Health Empowerment Project
National Alliance on Mental Illness New York City Metro
New York Association on Independent Living
New York Lawyers for the Public Interest
New York Legal Assistance Group
New York State Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare
Supportive Housing Network of New York
Treatment not Jail Campaign
Urban Justice Center Mental Health Project
Recommendations
Increased Monitoring and Accountability
The Administration must make use of a powerful statutorily approved tool to evaluate the effectiveness, coordination, and accountability of our community service system: Incident Review Panels, which are authorized by current mental hygiene law (Mental Hygiene Law §31.37) to promptly review critical incidents, identify systemic gaps, and implement corrective actions to prevent incidents of harm and address critical system deficiencies.
Voluntary Initiatives That Successfully Engage At-Risk Individuals
- Housing
- Raise the rates of OMH’s Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative (ESSHI) to $34k across the state.
- Fund low-threshold stabilization facilities for people experiencing unsheltered homelessness that combine a drop-in center with on-site medical and behavioral health care, with private hotel rooms to provide transitional housing without preconditions.
- Clubhouses
o Expand Clubhouse programs and other voluntary mental health support models. Clubhouses offer care coordination, employment support, and meaningful socialization.
3. Fund five additional Intensive and Sustained Engagement Teams to provide peer-led, person-centered care with a focus on regions that currently do not have access to these teams.
- Peer Bridgers
- Create Peer Bridger programs in six community hospitals to improve hospital transitions and community adjustment and success.
- Daniel’s Law Health First Responder Teams
- Implement emergency response teams of peers and emergency medical technicians (EMTs) to reduce unnecessary law enforcement interactions, in keeping with the recommendations of the Daniel’s Law Bill (S2398/A2210) and the State’s Daniel’s Law Task Force.
- Voluntary Service Enhancements
- Fund a package of voluntary services to each county for eligible individuals in recognition of the high need and use of the Enhanced Voluntary Service (EVS) program.
- Family Support Program: Invest in and expand family support programs to empower families to help their loved ones experiencing mental health challenges.
8. Peer Safe Spaces for Teens
9. Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) and Forensic Assertive Community Treatment (FACT) Teams: Expand the number of ACT and FACT teams to eliminate the lengthy waitlists statewide for such services.
10. Treatment Not Jail Legislation
o Create statutory mental health treatment courts in every county in the state, expand access to these courts, and stop the revolving door of incarceration and release by creating an off-ramp from the court system with individually tailored treatment.
11. Alternatives to Incarceration Programs
o Invest in Alternative to Incarceration (ATI) programs that address people’s mental health needs and stop the revolving-door cycle into the criminal legal system.
12. Peer Crisis Respite Programs: Fund six new Peer Crisis Respite programs
13. Crisis Stabilization Centers: Fund four new Crisis Stabilization Centers
14. Enhanced Mental Health Programming within Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) Facilities
o Ensure robust and equitable mental health programming across DOCCS through investments and passage of the Earned Time Act.
15. Workforce Development
13. Properly fund community agencies and their essential workforce by providing a 7.8% rate enhancement for mental health and substance use contracts.
16. Respite Beds and Respite Care Centers that are easy to access and open 24/7.