Officials Vow to Fix Mental Health System
New York, NY —
City and state officials are pledging to repair a mental health system that they say regularly fails to identify mentally ill people who are potentially violent.
WNYC’s Fred Mogul has more.
A panel of experts was convened last year following several high-profile criminal incidents involving the mentally ill.
The group issued a report echoing what many critics have been saying for years: the mental health system — comprised of hospitals, clinics and social service and law enforcement agencies – suffers from, quote, “poor coordination, fragmented oversight, and lack of accountability.”
The recommendations include creating joint city-and-state “monitoring teams” for troubled individuals and a database for tracking them.
The proposals are already being implemented and will cost an estimated $13 million in city and state funds.
For WNYC, I’m Fred Mogul.
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