Not just my pa’s problem
Bill tells cops: New help to stem suicides is here
Mayor de Blasio spoke candidly about his father’s suicide in rolling out a program where police officers with mental health struggles can get free confidential counseling and medication.
“It took me a long time to talk about suicide, to talk about what happened in my family,” de Blasio said Thursday at the Upper East Side’s New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell, which will launch the referral hotline on Monday after a spate of NYPD suicides.
“It never made sense to me,” the mayor said.
De Blasio’s father shot himself when the mayor was just 18 after coming home from World War II and struggling with depression, alcoholism and posttraumatic stress disorder.
“My dad was not weak because he had a problem,” the mayor said. “There’s nothing to celebrate about holding a problem in.”
Through the new “Finest Care” hot line, funded with up to $1.2 million from the
NYPD budget, New YorkPresbyterian will provide one-off appointments and regular therapy sessions, prescribe medication and connect all uniformed police with psychologists and psychiatrists if needed.
The coordinators who answer the calls will be specifically trained to speak with NYPD officers to help determine if a caller is already in crisis and needs immediate help.
Officials said the NYPD won’t know if cops call the line at (646) 697-2020, or if they end up receiving treatment.
“If you think you should pick up that phone, you should pick up that phone,” de Blasio said.
If clinicians believe a police officer seeking help is a danger to themselves or others, the NYPD would be notified and the cop could lose their weapon under state law. But that’s rare.
Of more than 1,200 members of the NYPD who interacted with the