ISSUES

A heartbreaking mental health crisis is playing out on our streets and subways. Many New Yorkers who are experiencing serious mental illnesses, like untreated schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, are cycling from the street to the emergency room and back to the street. This is a failure to both those most in need of help, and to our communities.

Mark has long championed real solutions to this crisis. As Comptroller, he’ll focus breaking this cycle and getting people into the care they need:

• Increase the number of inpatient psychiatric care beds, so we stop relying on emergency rooms and jails like Rikers Island to serve as de facto mental health facilities.

• Address staffing shortages by improving pay and working conditions for psychologists, social workers, and other mental health professionals, to ensure we can recruit and retain the workforce needed to provide high-quality care.

• Establish a loan forgiveness program for mental health professionals who commit to working in psychiatric care in our public hospitals, helping to relieve student debt burdens and attract more talent into this critical field.

• Investing in proven initiatives that get people into the care they need, like Intensive Mobile Treatment, Assertive Community Treatment, and Community Behavioral Health Clinics.

Mark has championed the creation of new, badly needed in-patient psychiatric care beds so that we stop using emergency rooms and Rikers Island for behavioral healthcare. As Comptroller, he will continue to work to create more in-patient beds, and improve pay and standards for social workers, psychologists and mental healthcare workers so that we have the capacity to provide care for every New Yorker, rather than allow this heartbreaking cycle to continue.

Op-Ed | Breaking the mental health crisis cycle | amNewYork