A Closer Look at Mayor de Blasio's New Mental Health Roadmap
It has been my pleasure to join Mayor de Blasio at two major press conferences within the last week.
On November 18th, the Mayor made a commitment to develop 15,000 new units of supportive housing, an unprecedented and critically needed resource for homeless people with mental health issues. In the spirit of the city-state partnership to develop supportive housing stretching back to 1990, we are hoping the Governor will offer additional funding for supportive services and capital to match the Mayor’s commitment.
And yesterday, at a very moving event, the Mayor and First Lady Chirlane McCray jointly launched ThriveNYC: A Mental Health Roadmap for All. Focusing on “promoting mental health, preventing illness, and detecting problems early,” ThriveNYC is a highly detailed and bold plan to change the way we talk about, and treat, mental illness. Significantly, expanding the use of peer specialists to engage people seeking help through support lines, crisis centers, and street outreach was proposed, eliciting whoops and cheers from the many Howie the Harp students and staff present.
Sadly, the response to ThriveNYC has been met with skepticism or outright derision by some in the tabloid press, claiming the plan is aimed only at the “worried well” and not the street homeless. Frankly, I don’t believe in the worried well. If someone has asked for help, it needs to be provided. And as Dr. Gary Belkin pointed out at the press conference, the distressed person on the subway didn’t get there in one day. We have failed to provide an effective array of services for many years and we need to start changing this now.
That said, the 3,000 or so people living on our streets, many with behavioral health issues, need to be helped, and there are many elements in the ThriveNYC plan that could be tailored to address this issue. Community Access has pledged to support this effort.
I’m hopeful that the initiatives in the Mayor’s plan will help to lift conversations about mental illness out of the shadows and into the mainstream. All of our lives are in some way touched by mental health issues, and the prospect of a more enlightened approach, one in which stigma no longer holds people back from reaching their potential, should be welcomed with open arms.
I hope you think so too.
