Mayor Says NYC Will Treat Mentally Ill, Even If They Refuse

[TTL News 306]

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NEW YORK (AP) — New York City’s mayor on Tuesday said he was directing police and city medics to be more aggressive about getting severely mentally ill people off the streets and subways and into treatment, even if it means involuntarily hospitalizing some people who refuse care.

“These New Yorkers and hundreds of others like them are in urgent need of treatment, yet often refuse it when offered,” Mayor Eric Adams said at a news conference, noting the pervasive problem of mental illness has long been out in the open.

“No more walking by or looking away,” the mayor said, calling it “a moral obligation to act.”

The mayor’s directive marks the latest attempt to ease a crisis decades in the making. It would give outreach workers, city hospitals and first responders, including police, discretion to involuntarily hospitalize anyone they deem a danger to themselves or unable to care for themselves.

 

Read more here. 

[KarenK 382]

Let the lawsuits begin.

 

[MsKreed 1,167]

18 minutes ago, KarenK said:

Let the lawsuits begin.

[Chris 2,149]

It’s already legal. They’ll do it under what’s known as “implied consent”.

If someone is clearly not completely with it mentally, ( alert to person, place and time ) EMS can assume that they would consent to medical treatment and/or transport if they were.

I actually recall dealing with a homeless guy in a situation where someone saw him laying in a bank along the side of the road in a cold rainy day like today. Yeah it was weird, but he was able to tell me roughly where he was, who he was, and what day it was. So we let him wander off on his merry way. 

[MsKreed 1,167]

1 hour ago, Chris said:

If someone is clearly not completely with it mentally, ( alert to person, place and time ) EMS can assume that they would consent to medical treatment and/or transport if they were.

That "implied consent" seems like it's for medical care for someone who isn't fully conscious or alert? 

The article about Adams's initiative seems to be his interpretation of Mental Hygiene Laws for involuntary Mental Health Treatment....even for those who might be alert enough to time/place to know it's Tuesday in Harlem.

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State law generally limits the ability of authorities to force someone into treatment unless they are a danger to themselves, but Adams said it was a “myth” that the law required a person to be behaving in an “outrageously dangerous” or suicidal way before a police officer or medical worker could take action.

The NYS Office of Mental Health Involuntary admission can take place in one of three ways:

The first two are professional “certifications” that are up to 60 days (then subject to judicial hearings to continue) and clearly not determined by LEO or EMTs

And while the third (15 day) option could apply to LEO or EMTs, it seems like language that a lot of ACLU/NYCLU lawyers have already litigated and have volumes of legal precedent to cite regarding what thresholds constitute "serious harm" and deciding how"immediate" the need is.......and whether shouting at invisible aliens or defecating in public meet that criteria.

Edited November 30, 2022 by MsKreed

[Chris 2,149]

16 minutes ago, MsKreed said:

That "implied consent" seems like it's for medical care for someone who isn't fully conscious or alert? 

Things may have changed since I was out there last, but it also included someone who say, fell and hurt themselves. They're alert, saying they don't want to go to the hospital, but something seems "off"... I'd ask them the "person, place, time" questions. If they couldn't get those, then sorry, you're going to the hospital even if I need to have law enforcement involved. 

So from where I'm sitting, someone calls and says there's some guy laying on the sidewalk and he's not acting right, he's going to the hospital. Schizophrenic? Bi-polar and off his meds? all and hit his head where you can't see and now has nice bleed going on in there somewhere? It was safer to err on the side of the person's best interest rather than leave someone to die there from a bleed. 

As far as the "two pc", that's more something that happened once they were in hospital care. If they've made it that far, they've been medically cleared and chances are there's cause.