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Q&A
BeHeard program effectiveness and DOHMH's involvement
1:43:09
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72 sec
Council Member Bottcher inquires about the effectiveness of the BeHeard program in addressing mental health crises. Dr. Michelle Morse, Acting Commissioner of DOHMH, explains that BeHeard is not under DOHMH's direct control and is unable to comment on its effectiveness. She offers to provide information on other mobile treatment teams run by DOHMH.
- BeHeard is run by the Office of Community Mental Health (OCMH) in collaboration with Health and Hospitals
- DOHMH does not have direct oversight or data on BeHeard's effectiveness
- DOHMH reports progress with other mobile treatment teams for severe mental illness and overdose response
Erik D. Bottcher
1:43:09
Understanding that BeHeard is under the auspices of health and hospitals, what's your opinion of the effectiveness of the BeHeard program and how does that fit into your overall efforts to address mental health crises on the streets of New York City?
Michelle Morse
1:43:28
Thank you for the question.
1:43:30
BeHEARD, as was mentioned, is run by OCMH, the Office of Community Mental Health.
1:43:35
My understanding is that they do work closely with health and hospitals to run the program.
1:43:41
I am not familiar with any of their annual programmatic reports or any of that work.
1:43:46
So I unfortunately can't comment on the effectiveness of the program since the health department doesn't lead the program or lead the interventions.
1:43:55
What I would say however is that we continue to see lots of progress in other mobile treatment teams that we use to address severe mental illness, overdose, and other urgent and immediate behavioral health concerns across New York City.
1:44:13
And we're certainly happy to follow-up with programmatic data and outcomes data on any of those other programs if you would find that useful.