How NYC fights mental illness

Manhattan: The de Blasio administration has directed more funding to address serious mental illness than any administration before it (“De Blasio’s $850M mental health system overhaul doesn’t help those suffering the most, expert says,” July 7). One example is NYC Safe, a first-of-its-kind program and $22 million investment annually, which has so far helped hundreds of people who are seriously mental ill and recently committed a violent act. We have also committed to bringing on 15,000 apartments of supportive housing over the next 15 years, established specialized mental health care units within city jails where inmates with serious mental illness can receive more intensive and frequent care, and expanded treatment options available to those discharged from jail.

Additionally, we’ve expanded the use of Kendra’s Law, which can allow for involuntary commitment in the most serious cases of mental illness. The city now devotes more resources to Kendra’s Law than ever before.

We will continue to do more to support New Yorkers suffering from serious mental illness, but those efforts will never be enough. As with diabetes or other chronic conditions, people don’t deteriorate into serious, unmanageable mental illness overnight. That’s why, in addition to providing more funding to address serious mental illness, we’re investing in intervening early, before mental illness becomes more serious. By connecting people to care where they live, work, learn and worship, we can help more people get the treatment they need when they first need it. Through ThriveNYC — the most ambitious and aggressive mental health action plan in the country — the city is doing more and better for the seriously mentally ill while preventing more people from becoming seriously mentally ill.

We stand ready to partner with anyone willing to share accurate and constructive information about the way the city delivers critical mental health services to those in need.

Government alone cannot change the culture on mental health; we need our community leaders and media, too. We hope the Daily News will join us. Chirlane McCray, First Lady of New York City

Stigma won’t fix anything

Fort Myers, Fla.: D.J. Jaffe has said, “The mental health industry got together (on) a tax checkoff to give money to a stigma campaign. But the homeless guy eating food out of the garbage is not getting help through that.” Jaffe is right to call it a “stigma campaign.” Placing that term in minds rather than educating entirely positively is one of the results of the campaign. Deliberate or not, that is the result. Each time someone raises “stigma”, they miss an opportunity to educate positively. We can’t afford to keep missing those opportunities.

Harold A. Maio

Systematic failure

Bronx: Although I agree with Police Commissioner Jimmy O’Neill’s statement that the gunman alone is responsible for the death of Officer Miosotis Familia, he would have to be naive to think that the system as a whole does not share some indirect blame. I work in supportive housing with a population such as the gunman and have called the police many times when me or my staff are being threatened. And, unless we are being shot or stabbed, they take their sweet time and report only to speak to the client and leave. I have to give credit to the gunman’s girlfriend for contacting the police when she noticed how paranoid he was, and there is no telling whether if they had arrived immediately, he may not have had a chance to kill anyone. In addition, Gov. Cuomo, who now wants to investigate St. Barnabas Hospital, should also review and investigate his own policies that allow psychiatric hospitals to close. Moreover, these bleedingheart liberals who invoke self-determination for people with mental illness to not do what they don’t want to — including not taking their medications — are all reasons why this gunman and many more like him exist today. Sad thing is, the ones making these policies are not affected. If they were, I’m sure that they would take the mentally ill people more seriously. I hope you have the guts to print this letter. People need to know. Alisha Williams

Back to the asylums

Warwick, R.I.: We all know that Police Officer Miosotis Familia was assassinated by a crazed lunatic, a mentally ill man. The biggest question is not how the lunatic got the gun. The question is this: What was the crazed lunatic doing walking the streets with the gun? This man should have been locked up. I say bring back the old-fashioned mental institutions — where they locked people up, and sometimes threw away the key. Where crazed lunatics are locked up before they can kill! To put it bluntly, Alexander Bonds should have been in a straitjacket until his mental condition was fully sorted out — a process that could have taken years. Stone walls and locked wards can do a lot to curb street violence. And to those looking at the cost? You have to pay for safe streets, no other way to look at it. Also, it would be a good idea to criminalize the chronic homeless. Lock them up in poorhouses before they hurt themselves or others. I do not live in New York City, but I have visited there. It is a wild and crazy place made worse by the homeless and mentally ill.

Kevin Vealey

Uptown funk

Scarsdale, N.Y.: If Mayor de Blasio wishes to decriminalize public urination, certainly he needs to step up sanitation around the Metro-North station at 125th St. Unlike Grand Central Terminal, in Harlem panhandlers are allowed to congregate at all hours. And the stench and garbage is almost impossible to navigate. Surely the care of the homeless and mentally challenged is a societal problem which must be addressed. With all of the economic resources available in this great city of New York, there must be a way to correct this blight. Benign neglect is not a solution. It is a Band-Aid on a cancer. Phyllis C. Murray

Diverse homeless strategies

New Hyde Park, L.I.: Diane Pagen makes the problem on poverty sound simple and wants everyone to get paid without working (“Our Grenfell: Slow death of the poor,” Op-Ed, July 8). Her article leaves out two important issues regarding homelessness. First, many homeless people have mental problems, so shelters are glorified psychiatric units. Secondly, lumping them together is not the solution. Those who are not mentally impaired should be blended into existing apartments that are for rent. They can then be acclimated into their communities. If they need financial help, stipends can be paid to the landlord like Section 8 benefits. Homeless shelters don’t work and they are stigmatized in their neighborhoods. Give these people a chance to be part of regular communities. That’s how homelessness can be lessened.

Donna Orosz

Crazy gun laws

Forest Hills: A New York City police officer is killed executionstyle. We cannot know why: The killer is dead, saving the taxpayer a lengthy trial and keeping the murderer fed and clothed for many years in jail. The NRA claims that armed citizens are the best defense against criminals. Huh? The victim was a police officer on duty, thus, as a routine, armed. Never mind armed: also, well-trained in the use of firearms. Repeat: We don’t know what the murderer’s motive was, but ANDREW HINDERAKER mental illness may be a good assumption. What excuse does the NRA have now? It is only a guess: The money flowing into the pockets of their leadership from the arms manufacturers keeps them not in bread and butter, but champagne and caviar — while the survivors’ pension is not enough to raise this dead officer’s children. An aside: Wyatt Earp kept his town free of guns. I imagine the NRA would decry it as a violation of the citizens’ Second Amendment rights. How long will we, peaceful and sane citizens, tolerate the rule of criminal arms merchants and their paid minions in Congress?

John Szalkay

Honor the responders

Warwick, R.I.: With the death of New York State Trooper Joel Davis, this brings to a total of 69 law enforcement officers and 51 fire and rescue members killed this year in the line of duty. It may not be too late to honor those who recently died from on-duty incidents. There is a new effort in the 115th Congress called the “National First Responders” resolution. Contact your representative or senator and request them to support this well-deserved resolution. This honor is for all active, retired and deceased members of our law enforcement agencies, as well as fire and rescue services. We need to show our respect to these men and women who protect us and our property daily from most hazardous incidents. This honor is long overdue.

Bob Sweeney