$1B Chirl project not ‘Thrive’ing: DeB aides
Even Mayor de Blasio’s City Hall analysts know the cold, hard truth about his wife’s pet project.
The mayor’s annual performance review of city agencies reveals that ThriveNYC, Chirlane McCray’s $1 billion signature initiative, fell far short of its own targets to help people with mentalhealth problems.
The Mayor’s Management Report found that Thrive’s “mentalhealth first-aid” program was supposed to train 72,000 people last year, but only got to 50,564. The free, eight-hour seminars teach attendees how to identify and help people with mental illness.
“Hiring challenges in Fiscal 2019 delayed progress toward this year’s Mental Health First Aid training targets,” wrote First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan and Mayor’s Office of Operations Director Jeff Thamkittikasem, the report’s authors.
“The Office of ThriveNYC and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene anticipate improved staff capacity in Fiscal 2020 and will work together with other City agencies toward the training target in Fiscal 2020,” they added.
The Post reported last month that a Thrive event intended to provide mental-health training with first responders on Staten Island was canceled after a dispute with its pro-cop organizers.
And in February, City Councilman Chaim Deutsch had trouble reaching program staffers to get seminars for residents in his Brooklyn district.
Thrive also reached fewer runaway youths than it had hoped. Just 2,569 homeless teens received mental-health support at city-funded residential centers, instead of the targeted 2,800, according to the report. Seven of the 12 total programs listed have no targeted goals, including NYC Well, a mentalhealth help line. “Some programs do not have service targets because we will serve anyone who seeks help — no one will be turned away,” Thrive Deputy Director Sarah Solon told The Post. There are some bright spots for Thrive. The program connected 293 veterans and their caregivers with services — eight more than anticipated — and hit its target of funding 173 mental-health clinics at public schools.
De Blasio and McCray launched Thrive in 2015. It has grown to a $250 million-a-year plan despite criticism about its effectiveness.
“The mayor’s new management report shows that he continues the policy of refusing to focus mentalhealth resources on the most seriously mentally ill,” said DJ Jaffe, director of the nonprofit Mental Illness Policy Org.
“While claiming credit for performance indicators, he refuses to measure rates of homelessness, arrest, incarceration and needless hospitalization among people with serious mental illness, which are the most important barometers of any mental health program.”