Mayor Eric Adams.
Photograph Credit score: Benny Polatseck/Mayoral Images Workplace
From the beginning of our administration, we have now been clear that the times of ignoring folks in disaster — on our streets and in our subways — have been over. It’s no secret that too many New Yorkers that suffer from extreme psychological sickness cycle between hospitals and homelessness, and that we’d like a greater means to assist them get long-term care and secure housing.
That’s the place taking a public well being method to public security is available in, and what our new ‘Bridge to House’ initiative will present for our brothers and sisters in want, particularly for individuals who have been discharged from psychiatric amenities however shouldn’t have a house to return to and aren’t but prepared to reside independently. The first facility opened final week in Midtown Manhattan, with particular person rooms, three balanced meals a day, and wraparound psychological well being companies for as much as 46 residents. It is going to be staffed 24 hours a day, seven days per week, by professionals from NYC Well being + Hospitals, who will present behavioral well being companies, medicine administration, and substance use dysfunction therapy, in addition to common social, therapeutic, and leisure alternatives.
By offering folks managing extreme psychological sickness with protected, clear rooms and devoted on-site scientific assist, our ‘Bridge to House’ amenities will bridge the divide between vital hospital care and long-term housing options. This system will scale back emergency room visits and inpatient hospitalizations, in addition to lower road homelessness and reliance on shelters. It will assist sufferers keep away from pointless encounters with regulation enforcement and make our metropolis safer whereas enhancing high quality of life for all New Yorkers. That’s what taking a public well being method to public security really appears like.
‘Bridge to House’ is a part of our $650 million plan, that we introduced on this 12 months’s State of the Metropolis deal with. The plan builds on over three years of devoted work to assist New Yorkers combating homelessness and psychological sickness, and is altering the way in which we take care of these in disaster.
From increasing our SCOUT and PATH outreach fashions that pair social staff with cops to do outreach on the subways, to growing the variety of neighborhood clubhouses that present protected areas for folks with extreme psychological sickness, to increasing Secure Haven beds that make it simpler for homeless New Yorkers to get off the road, we have now used each potential device and methodology to assist New Yorkers in want get care and companies, it doesn’t matter what points they’re combating. Extra importantly, we’re investing within the social companies that take a public well being method to holding all New Yorkers protected. Our administration has modified the dialog round psychological well being, homelessness, and quality-of-life points. We have now efficiently advocated for improved authorized choices, significantly the ‘Supportive Interventions Act,’ which helped us get Albany to provide us the flexibility to broaden entry to care and improve involuntary therapy choices this 12 months.
Our work over the past three and a half years has been the correct factor to do, the compassionate factor to do, and it has had broad assist from a majority of New Yorkers. We’re delivering actual options that work, not catch-phrases that can by no means change into actuality.
I’ve seen each side of this situation, from residing on the verge of homelessness as a toddler to patrolling our subways as a transit officer. As mayor, I’m decided to assist break the cycle of dysfunction and construct a greater future; a future the place all New Yorkers have an opportunity for grace, steering, and long-term restoration. Everyone knows that regardless of how misplaced it’s possible you’ll be, there’s at all times a means house, however typically you want slightly assist to get there.
