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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Sheina Banatte, Advocate from Correct Crisis Intervention Today, NYC (CCIT NYC)
6:20:57
ยท
141 sec
Sheina Banatte from CCIT NYC advocates for a $4.5 million budget allocation to improve mental health crisis response in New York City. She emphasizes the need for peer specialists with lived mental health experience to be included in the BeHEARD program to provide more effective, community-centered crisis intervention.
- Highlights the trauma caused by inappropriate responses to mental health crises, including 20 deaths in the past decade
- Argues that including peer specialists will lead to cost savings through fewer unnecessary hospitalizations, arrests, and deaths
- Calls for competitive compensation for peer specialists to create a sustainable workforce
Sheina Banatte
6:20:57
Thank you chairs Lee and Schulman and other members of the committees for convening this preliminary budget hearing for fiscal year twenty twenty six.
6:21:05
My name is Sheena Bennett.
6:21:07
I am here today to testify in support of the f y twenty six budget request of correct crisis intervention today, n y c, c c I t n y c.
6:21:17
We need a f y twenty six budget that includes a baseline alification of 4.5 bill million to ensure competitive compensation for peer specialists to staff the city's mental health crisis response teams.
6:21:31
This funding will also support the expansion of peer responders within the BeHEARD program, strengthening the city's capacity to provide effective community centered crisis intervention.
6:21:42
This funding request is essential because countless people have been traumatized by inappropriate responses to mental health crisis calls.
6:21:50
In the past ten years alone, twenty individuals have been killed by police officers while experiencing a mental health crisis in New York City, including my beloved cousin, Erd Pierre, he called 911, they fired 10 shots at him and killed him.
6:22:04
After decades of advocacy by CCIT, NYC, and others, we appreciate New York City's attempts to shift crisis response to the Be Heard pilot, but the program is missing peers.
6:22:15
Peers, people with lived mental health experience, need to be mandatory element of Be Heard teams.
6:22:21
Response teams that include people with lived experience will help to achieve the Be Heard pilot goals by shifting the model to a person centered approach rooted in genuine connection and communal well-being.
6:22:33
Peers have the skills and expertise to advocate for a connection to community based care and avoid unwanted and unnecessary transports to hospitals.
6:22:42
The 4,500,000 is essential because peer work is serious work, and we need to invest in a sustainable workforce.
6:22:49
By investing in peers on Be Her teams, the city will ultimately have a cost savings as there will be fewer unnecessary ambulance transports, fewer hospital stays, fewer arrests and other involvements with the criminal legal system, fewer injuries and fewer death.
6:23:04
We look forward to working with the chairs and the members of the committee to improve BeHear and ensure that New Yorkers experiencing a mental health crisis response receive the response they deserve.
6:23:17
Thank you.
6:23:18
Peers not police.