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.

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