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EDITORIAL: Questions for McCray: The City Council must ask her answer for ThriveNYC's approach to mental illness in New York

The New York Daily News - 3/26/2019

March 26-- Mar. 26--When First Lady Chirlane McCray, who runs Mayor de Blasio's $250 million-a-year ThriveNYC mental health initiative, comes before a City Council committee Tuesday, she has a lot to answer for.

Why have 63% of the first class of the program's Mental Health Service Corps -- 125 psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers sent to high-need communities -- left their assignments rather than complete their three-year commitments? Over the course of three Corps hiring years, one third of all hires have turned over.

Why does Thrive spend relatively little money and attention on New Yorkers with the most serious mental illnesses, despite the fact that calls to the NYPD complaining of "emotionally disturbed persons" have gone from 127,000 in 2014 to 179,000 in 2018, a spike of 40.9%?

Why has crisis intervention training, designed to help cops deal with people struggling with psychological problems when all other pieces of the safety net have frayed, reached less than 12,000 of the NYPD's 36,000-plus officers?

Why, at a time of unprecedented monetary investment in improving the psychological health of New Yorkers, are many indicators regarding the severely mentally ill in New York City getting worse?

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