In an op-ed for USA Today (12/2, Fialk, Contributor), Amanda Fialk, “a licensed clinical social worker and partner and chief of clinical services at The Dorm, a young adult mental health treatment community,” writes, “Last month, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) announced the pilot of a new program that would end the city’s de facto police response to mental health emergencies.” Under the program, the New York City “health department and hospitals will help train new mental health teams and provide case conferencing,” and “mental health professionals will be the responders for a person in crisis.” She observes, “According to the American Psychiatric Association, most people with mental illness are ‘not violent, not criminal and not dangerous.’” Fialk believes the initiative “will allow New Yorkers, and perhaps the entire country, to reimagine how to address the mental and physical safety of those who are frequently put in danger by insufficiently trained officers.”
Related Links:
— “Cops shouldn’t be first at scene in mental health crises. NYC pilot program needed nationwide “Amanda Fialk, USA Today, December 2, 2020