Additionally, the state will open 150 new adult beds in state psychiatric hospitals—including 100 in the city alone—in addition to the 50 open beds Hochul announced in November 2022.
The Governor will also invest capital to fund 3,500 new housing units for New Yorkers with mental illness. Those units will include 500 single room units for community residents to live in and provide services to people with severe mental illness, 900 transition units for people moving into dependent living. community, 600 licensed apartment units for people who need some service to live in their community, and 1,500 support housing facilities for people with severe mental illness. The supporting housing units will include scattered rental housing units and new construction or renovation work to be completed in the next 5 years.
Hochul’s plan includes measures designed to increase accountability for admissions and discharges. Hospitals will be required to “accept patients in need of care responsibly” with new assessment standards and increased state oversight. Emergency departments and inpatient service providers will be required to refer high-risk, high-need New Yorkers to immediately available services, such as housing or employment assistance. . Outpatient programs will be required to provide immediate and ongoing appointments for high-risk patients during discharge.
According to Hochul’s office, 50 new Critical Time Intervention staff groups will be established to help patients transition to post-discharge services.
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These proposed policy changes and investments address continuum of care issues highlighted by a by Crain The investigation found that many hospitals do not take in patients with severe mental illness, instead sending them out of the emergency room with prescriptions in a cycle known as the facility’s cycle.
by Crainfurthermore, found that more than 1,000 New Yorkers were on waiting lists for community programs because of serious mental illness, indicating a need for better connectivity between inpatient services and outpatients as well as capacity building.
Hochul’s plan took effect after Mayor Eric Adams announced his own plan to tackle mental health in November. His plan includes a directive that re-emphasizes that police, Emergency medical professionals and outreach workers are authorized under applicable state law to involuntarily transport patients to the hospital who are unlikely to be able to meet their own basic needs. surname.
Supporters have called Adams’ plan unconstitutional and unacceptable; The mayor responded by saying his plan was tailored and would not break the law.
Meanwhile, Hochul’s plan involves expanded outpatient services that seek to expand access to care. The plan would add 12 comprehensive psychiatric emergency programs statewide; 42 Assertive Community Treatment groups (22 in the city) will provide intense mobility services; 26 Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics for unscheduled behavioral health care, including treatment for substance use disorders; eight Safe Optional Support groups (five in the city) to do outreach work; 20 expanded mental health clinics under Article 31; and manage Health Home Plus care.
The governor also plans to ban insurance companies from denying adult and pediatric patients access to medically necessary crisis and acute mental health services.
The Governor’s State Speech begins at 1 p.m. today.
This story first appeared in Crain’s New York Business.
