November 19, 2024
| Here’s a link to the new legislation discussed in the article below that was announced today: https://www.nysenate.gov/newsroom/articles/2024/brad-hoylman-sigal/help-harness-expertise-licensed-professionals-act ———————— Politico, Maya Kaufman, 11/19/24 NEW YORK — New state legislation unveiled after a Manhattan stabbing spree would expand the web of health professionals authorized to involuntarily hospitalize mentally ill New Yorkers. The bill — announced Tuesday by state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Assemblymember-elect Micah Lasher — would enable psychiatric nurse practitioners, psychologists and clinical social workers to evaluate patients for involuntary hospitalization and for court-ordered mental health treatment under what’s known as Kendra’s Law. Right now those decisions have to be made by a doctor.It also includes new care coordination requirements that largely echo recent state guidance for hospital emergency departments. Hoylman-Sigal and Lasher pointed to the series of random stabbings Monday by a mentally ill homeless man as proof of need for their proposed reforms.“Yesterday’s stabbings were just the latest devastating example of the need to reform New York State’s mental hygiene law to address the continued fallout from the closure of thousands of mental health beds across the state over the last several decades, which has caused individuals struggling with mental illness to languish on the streets and in the subways,” Hoylman-Sigal said in a statement. More context: Unlike similar legislation advanced by the Adams administration last year, this new bill does not make any changes to the state’s legal standard for involuntary commitment, which states that someone who appears to be mentally ill must be “conducting themselves in a manner which is likely to result in serious harm to self or others.” City Hall spokesperson William Fowler said the administration is supportive of the legislation. Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday renewed his call on state legislators to pass his administration’s favored bill, the Supportive Interventions Act, which has so far failed to secure a Senate sponsor. Two years ago, Adams directed police officers and certain health professionals to involuntarily hospitalize individuals who appear unable to meet their basic needs due to a mental illness, even when there does not appear to be an imminent risk of harm to themselves or others. Adams has touted the directive as successful in getting seriously mentally ill New Yorkers off the streets and subways, but, two years in, City Hall has released minimal data on its implementation. A City Hall official on Tuesday said the administration has been |