NYC to involuntarily commit more mentally unstable people after subway attacks

Following a string of horrifying subway attacks, Mayor Eric Adams dramatically expanded the city’s ability to involuntarily commit New Yorkers with chronic and untreated mental illness.

Big Apple social workers, mental health care treatment teams and police officers have received new specific guidance cleared with state officials that allows them to force anyone who is battling mental health issues and unable to care for themselves into treatment, and not just those posing a danger.

Hizzoner’s announcement at City Hall is the latest effort launched by city and state officials in recent months to coax and cajole New Yorkers living on city streets and in subways — many of whom are suffering from apparent psychosis — into the city’s shelter and mental health safety net systems.

“If severe mental illness is causing someone to be unsheltered and a danger to themselves, we have a moral obligation to help them get the treatment and care they need,” Adams said in a morning address televised across the five boroughs.

“Today, we are embarking on a long-term strategy to help more of those suffering from severe and untreated mental illness find their way to treatment and recovery.”

Before today’s announcement, city workers and hospital staff were trained to limit the involuntary commitment program — known as Kendra’s Law — to just those who presented an imminent threat to not only themselves, but also to the general public.

However, City Hall’s lawyers say that guidance issued by Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Office of Mental Health in February provides a more expansive set of criteria that qualify for commitment — including apparent inability to care for oneself — which they are now whole-heartedly embracing.

The mayor said that expanded guidelines will be provided to police officers, social workers and mental health treatment teams, all of whom will be retrained under the new directive.

“There is often a misconception amongst both police as well as front-line mental health crisis intervention workers that a person with mental illness must present as “imminently dangerous” in order to be removed from the community,” Adams declared. “This is not the case.”

Additionally, the city said they would deploy a new hotline to provide frontline city staff with quick answers if they are unsure if the apparently mentally ill person they encountered should be taken to the hospital.

Adams also said that he will seek changes to state law that require more extensive mental health screenings at hospitals for New Yorkers brought in suffering from apparent untreated mental illness and to relax standards under which they can be required to receive inpatient treatment.

Homeless and civil rights advocates, typically among Adams’ harshest critics, seemingly embraced Hizzoner’s new plan following his City Hall address.

“We appreciate Mayor Adams holding this address to bring further attention to the mental health crisis facing so many New Yorkers, many of whom include the people we represent,” said Legal Aid in a statement.

One of the most prominent subway attacks, the fatal shoving of Michelle Go, was committed by a man deemed unfit to stand trial because of his untreated psychosis.

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