There appears to be a disconnect.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams knocked Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday for trying to claim credit for the federal government’s new ‘988’ three-digit quick dial to a national suicide prevention hotline.
Williams has long pushed for City Hall to create a similar number for Gothamites to dial when they see a fellow New Yorker in distress for an emergency response from paramedics and mental health experts, instead of routing the calls through police dispatch at 911 as is the current practice.
But de Blasio — whose term ends Dec. 31 — remains opposed to Williams’s idea.
This new national ‘988’ number will connect callers to the National Suicide Prevention Hotline, but it will not automatically connect local callers with city officials to dispatch help to New Yorkers endangering themselves or others.
“If the Mayor wants to celebrate federal action on this issue, he should embrace fundamental reforms on a city level, where he has prevented the very progress we have been pushing,” said the Public Advocate in a blistering statement.
“I have appreciated this administration’s focus on mental health and wellness, as this issue is personal to me and so many New Yorkers, but the execution of that focus has often been ineffective or inadequate,” he added.
But that didn’t stop Hizzoner from touting the idea and attempting to link it to a similar toll-free number established by the city’s first lady, Chirlane McCray, with the embattled ThriveNYC program, which was quietly moved into City Hall this year and renamed the Mayor’s Office of Community Mental Health.
De Blasio had McCray appear virtually at his daily press briefing Monday to tout the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to move ahead with the ‘988’ direct dial, promoting it as if it were a city initiative.
“This city has set a standard, that’s now being emulated for a focus on mental health, a focus on addressing the issues, de-stigmatizing issues, making sure we can reach people who need help,” he said.
Both ignored the controversies that have dogged the $1.2 billion ThriveNYC effort, including its early decision to focus on New Yorkers with less severe forms of mental illness instead of those so sick they end up on the streets and unable to function.
ThriveNYC was also fiercely criticized for failing to collect basic stats about one of its hallmark services — connecting New Yorkers with therapists and counselors via the toll-free hotline — to determine if it actually proved useful.
City Hall also launched a massive public service campaign to tout the ThriveNYC initiative that prominently featured McCray as she pondered her own run for elected office, leading critics to charge de Blasio was using public resources to bolster his wife’s profile.
If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts or are experiencing a mental health crisis and live in New York City, you can call 1-888-NYC-WELL for free and confidential crisis counseling. If you live outside the five boroughs, you can dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 1-800-273-8255 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.
