Alliance Alert: The NYC Council just released a highly critical analysis of Mayor Eric Adams policies to direct police to impose mental hygiene arrests on people with mental illnesses who are deemed needing psychiatric care due to challenges in securing food, shelter and clothing. The Council’s findings mirrored what the Alliance and our colleagues have been asserting over the past few years:
- “Connecting our most vulnerable New Yorkers to a full continuum of care including supportive housing and the clubhouse model, will ensure individuals are placed on the path to recovery and rehabilitation. The Administration has continuously relied on involuntary removals as a catch-all solution without providing funding for the necessary treatment measures for people in need of long-term services.”
The Council challenged the City’s data on the use of coercive involuntary inpatient treatment and recommended that the City should instead invest in an array of voluntary alternatives including Intensive Mobile Treatment (IMT) and Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) and other effective transitional support programs that exist to help people maintain stability as their conditions improve, including community services like crisis respite centers and clubhouses, adding that the mayoral administration undermined several existing clubhouses with its new contracts.
Along these same lines, see the attached recommendations put forward by the staff, board and members of our Alliance for Rights and Recovery, including.
- Funding a continuum of voluntary alternatives like the INSET community engagement teams and hospital discharge plans that include Peer Bridger, Housing First and clubhouse programs.
- Passage and phase in of Daniel’s Law first responder teams of mental health workers and EMTs
- $16.5 million for packages of voluntary alternatives to Kendra’s Law court orders
- Mandatory use of Incident Review Panels to promptly investigate incidents of violence involving people with major mental illness and to correct system deficiencies that could have avoid such tragedies.
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Mental Health: City Council Says They Found Serious Flaws In Mayor Adams’ Involuntary Removal Policy In New Report
By Ethan Stark-Miller AMNY March 24, 2025
A City Council analysis of data that Mayor Eric Adams’ office released on its policy to involuntarily hospitalize those in apparent severe mental health crisis found that the practice is not working as intended and disproportionately impacts Black New Yorkers.
The council’s findings, unveiled ahead of its Health Committee’s preliminary budget hearing on Monday, reviewed data the Adams administration released earlier this year. The report found that the NYPD initiated 7,060 involuntary removals last year, and clinicians initiated another 660 transports.
Adams has touted the policy as a success since he introduced it in late 2022. It is one of his administration’s central means of addressing severe mental illness and homelessness on the city’s streets and subways.
While involuntary removals have drawn backlash from many lawmakers and advocates, the mayor is pushing for the state to give the city expanded authority over the practice this legislative session.
However, the council analysis found that involuntary removals were five times more likely to occur in private than in public spaces; 40% of those removed were not admitted for inpatient care, and Black New Yorkers accounted for more than half of the transports.
“The Administration has continuously relied on involuntary removals as a catch-all solution without providing funding for the necessary treatment measures for people in need of long-term services,” said Council Member Linda Lee (D-Queens), who chairs the council’s Committee on Mental Health, in a statement.
Missing information
“The Administration has continuously relied on involuntary removals as a catch-all solution without providing funding for the necessary treatment measures for people in need of long-term services,” said Council Member Linda Lee (D-Queens), who chairs the council’s Committee on Mental Health, in a statement.
The council also concluded that the city’s data was incomplete. In particular, they said it does not include the full number of involuntary removals initiated by the NYPD through 911 radio calls last year, transfers by city Health Department clinicians, or data on most hospital admissions outcomes.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said the city’s data further “fails to report” on the outcomes of involuntary commitments.
Instead of continuing to push involuntary removals, the council urged the mayor to dedicate more funding to other mental health care programs they say have a proven track record of addressing the crisis in this year’s budget. They include programs like Intensive Mobile Treatment teams, which provide medication, housing and other support services to the severely mentally ill; those that help people maintain stability while their conditions improve, and the clubhouse model, which similarly offers free programs and services.
Williams said the city should focus on the “continuum of care” rather than the removals.
“It is not about involuntary hospitalizations; it’s about the continuum of care that’s necessary after the hospitals,” Williams said.
‘Idealism Collides With Realism’
In response, Mayor Adams fiercely defended his administration’s use of involuntary hospitalizations during his weekly off-topic press conference on Monday.
“Many who are critiquing what we’re doing don’t have the answers of, how do you deal with a person who clearly is dealing with severe mental health illness and refuses care,” Adams said.
“Idealism collides with realism. This is real stuff that we have to address. And we have been bold enough to say, ‘You know what, we’re going to take the criticism.’”
Specifically, he pushed back on the council’s findings that Black New Yorkers make up a majority of involuntary commitments, arguing that people of color make up a majority of those who have severe mental health issues and are homeless.
“We are not going to say, ‘Hey, this person needs to be voluntarily removed, but hold on, they’re Black, so we’re not going to do,’” Adams said. “We’re going to go where the issue is. We’re not going to play race politics.”
Additionally, he contended that the council’s finding that the administration’s data was incomplete is partially due to the hospital’s HIPAA requirements, which prevent them from sharing patient information.
“We cannot compel hospitals to turn over information,” Adams said. “We’re trying to give them the best information possible. We are making sure we be as transparent as possible.”
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NYC Council Releases Report Raising Questions about Effectiveness of Mayor’s Involuntary Removal Policy and How Focus on It Diverts Support from Impactful Mental Health Programs
March 24, 2025
Data from Mayor Adams’ administration highlights inconsistencies and limitations of policy’s implementation
Council to examine the issues and critical mental health investments at Monday Budget Hearing
City Hall, NY – Today, the New York City Council released a new report that evaluates the recently released data on Mayor Adams’ involuntary removal/transport policy for people in mental health crisis, raising questions about its effectiveness and inconsistencies with its stated goals.
The report indicates that the Administration’s self-reported data is incomplete, shows involuntary removals are far more likely to originate from private homes rather than public spaces, and disproportionally subjects Black New Yorkers to the practice. Mayor Adams has centered this involuntary removal policy in his strategy to address the City’s mental health challenges, especially in public places, but the data fails to show effectiveness in connecting people to care and contradicts the Administration’s desired outcome of moving people experiencing mental health crisis in public to treatment.
The Council’s report highlights that Mayor Adams’ excessive focus on this approach undermines the City’s attentive support of other mental health programs with evidence of improving outcomes. The City’s underinvestment in these programs that maintain practical waitlists, along with the involuntary removal policy, are expected to be the subject of the Council’s Monday Preliminary Budget Hearing by the Committee on Mental Health, Disabilities, and Addiction.
Read the Council’s full report here. And the livestream for the hearing is available here.
Key takeaways include:
- Many New Yorkers subjected to involuntarily removal/transport do not receive inpatient treatment or remain disconnected from long-term care.
- Involuntary transports were more than 5 times as likely to originate in a private residence than a public place, contradicting the Mayor’s rhetoric that the policy is aimed at helping those struggling with mental illness in public spaces and on public transportation.
- The racial disparities of the policy are stark – Black New Yorkers make up 23% of the city’s overall population but 54% of involuntary transports.
- There is important data missing on the locations and hospital admissions related to the practice.
Despite the mayoral administration’s reliance on involuntary removals and transports, as it pursues expanded authority for the use of involuntary commitments, there remains a lack of clear data about the practice’s effectiveness as a solution to improve mental health outcomes. The increasing focus on these policies of imposed action has overshadowed mental health solutions with significant evidence of being effective yet lacking in sufficient resources to serve New Yorkers in need of short and long-term mental health treatment.
These include programs like:
- Intensive Mobile Treatment (IMT) and Assertive Community Treatment (ACT): Proven models that provide sustained care for individuals with serious mental illness, but currently have waitlists that are leaving New Yorkers in need without care.
- Continuum of Care: It is critical that effective transitional support programs exist to help people maintain stability as their conditions improve. Step-down programs from IMT/ACT can help people keep people housed, on medication and out of hospitals, while freeing up spots for IMT/ACT to reduce their waitlists.
- Community-Based Care Models: Through legislation, the Council expanded access to crisis respite centers and clubhouses, but the mayoral administration undermined several existing clubhouses with its new contracts. Several of those clubhouses that New Yorkers relied upon were saved by the Council committing its discretionary funding towards their preservation for the current fiscal year. Yet, they will require continued funding, and the mayoral administration should provide funds in the forthcoming budget that maintains their ability to help New Yorkers.
“The New York City Council’s Mental Health Roadmap calls for additional funding for the expansion of Intensive Mobile Treatment Teams (IMT) and Assertive Community Treatment Teams (ACT) to create positive health outcomes for New York’s experiencing a mental health crisis,” said Council Member Linda Lee, Chair of the Committee on Mental Health, Disabilities, and Addiction.
“Connecting our most vulnerable New Yorkers to a full continuum of care including supportive housing and the clubhouse model, will ensure individuals are placed on the path to recovery and rehabilitation. The Administration has continuously relied on involuntary removals as a catch-all solution without providing funding for the necessary treatment measures for people in need of long-term services. Local Law 116 ensures that the Administration provides data on the involuntary removal policy, and I am committed to working with my Council colleagues to make sure our city implements the most effective solutions for New Yorkers experiencing a mental health emergency.”
At the end of January, Mayor Adams’ Administration released data on involuntary removals/transports conducted by city agencies in 2024, as required by Local Law 116 of 2023. The data in this report, released one month later than the legal deadline, is the primary source for the Council’s report.