"All told, more than a half-dozen city authorities - including the Police and Fire department, the public hospital system, plus departments overseeing health, housing and homelessness - are involved in almost every single case. Sometimes, it's responding to a report of an emergency mental health episode, other times or in the efforts to encourage these sick New Yorkers to seek and stay in treatment, housing or shelter."
"Collectively, the City Hall pumps more than $30 billion annually into the city's public safety and social welfare safety nets. "The result is an elaborate and poorly coordinated ecosystem that costs taxpayers billions each year," wrote the editors of Vital City, a public policy magazine. "For every attempt to engage, for every handoff from one nonprofit or government agency to another, there is a potential cliff - where people in need fail to get the help they need, further aggravating the likelihood of crisis.""
An estimated 4,000 people live in New York City's subways or on the streets, with roughly half suffering from addiction or mental illness. More than a half-dozen city authorities — including Police, Fire, the public hospital system, and departments overseeing health, housing and homelessness — are involved in most cases. City Hall spends more than $30 billion annually on public safety and social welfare. The current system creates an elaborate, poorly coordinated ecosystem with costly gaps and potential cliffs at each handoff. The response to acute psychosis is often slow and fractured, sometimes leaving at-risk New Yorkers on subway platforms. Centralized leadership could reduce fragmentation and improve engagement with treatment, housing and shelter.
Read at Streetsblog
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