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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Ruth Lowenkron, Director of the Disability Justice Program at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, on Mental Health Crisis Response
4:22:40
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3 min
Ruth Lowenkron, representing New York Lawyers for the Public Interest and Correct Crisis Intervention Today in NYC, testifies about the need to transform the city's response to mental health crises. She highlights the problems with police responding to such crises and advocates for improvements to the BeHEARD program.
- Presented visual evidence of 21 individuals killed by police during mental health crisis responses
- Criticized the current BeHEARD program, citing a recent comptroller's report
- Advocated for 24/7 availability of crisis response services and inclusion of peer support specialists with lived mental health experience
- Requested a budget allocation of $4,500,000 to add peers to the BeHEARD program and implement other recommendations
Ruth Lowenkron
4:22:40
Good afternoon.
4:22:41
Ruth Lowenkron.
4:22:42
I'm the director of the Disability Justice Program at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, And I'm also a member of Correct Crisis Intervention Today in New York City, which has as its sole mission transforming the way New York City responds to mental health crises, and that's what I'm going to talk about today.
4:23:02
I'm going to show you in a visual the problem.
4:23:06
I've also handed this out to you.
4:23:08
It is very, very stunning, bleak information.
4:23:14
These are 21 individuals who've been killed at the hands of the police when the police responded to a mental health crisis.
4:23:24
This is not pointing a finger at the police, but there is something radically wrong when twenty one people end up dead.
4:23:32
Police are not the right people to respond to a mental health crisis.
4:23:37
You wouldn't send them to respond to a heart attack.
4:23:39
We're not to send them to respond to a mental health crisis.
4:23:43
And we luckily here in New York have, and and by the way, it's not at all limited to deaths.
4:23:52
We have serious injuries.
4:23:54
We have people who are arrested and involved in the criminal legal system who otherwise wouldn't be.
4:24:00
We have people who are committed hospitals over objection who otherwise wouldn't be.
4:24:05
So we need to transform this.
4:24:06
Yes.
4:24:07
There is an attempt to do something about it by the city to remove police wherever possible, but in fact that program is lacking in many, many ways.
4:24:19
It's the Be Heard program.
4:24:21
You may have seen the report that just came out from the New York City comptroller's office condemning the program greatly.
4:24:30
I will just say it has hope if it can be revised in the ways that I'm setting forth in my written testimony that I'm providing to you.
4:24:40
I'll just say one two more quick things, please.
4:24:43
What's critical is that be heard, be available twenty four seven.
4:24:49
It's only open sixteen hours a day.
4:24:51
How can you respond to crises in that short amount of time?
4:24:55
And it is also does not include peers, individuals with mental health crisis lived experience, whom we are saying are the best people, and the literature will tell you the best people when trained to do that work.
4:25:10
And that's what we're pushing right now for the city council to add peers to that.
4:25:16
And there's a budget line of $4,500,000 to, in fact, add peers to programs.
4:25:23
Generally, we wanna make sure that that 4,500,000.0 is just the beginning of adding peers, individuals with lived mental health experience to the BeHEARD program and also following our other recommendations for revitalizing the BeHerD program, is greatly in need of it, but certainly for eliminating the police in all but the rarest of circumstances.
4:25:46
Thank you.