City Comptroller Scott Stringer has blasted the first lady and her husband, Mayor Bill de Blasio, for showing little of how the $1 billion mental health plan is actually helping New Yorkers and whether its worth all that taxpayer money. Last year, the 46th Precinct, where the empty diversion center sits, averaged more than 320 such 911 calls per month. The aim of the scheme was to improve 100 of New York's worst schools, but after three years of trying, just 25 of them improved enough to make it off the list. Redirect ThriveNYC funds to address serious mental illness Jason Hansman, from Mayor Eric Adam's office, next described existing services to help New Yorkers quickly connect with mental health help, including a new service, in addition to 311 and 911, called NYC Well. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. Whats more, due to a general opaqueness when it comes to the programs budget, ThriveNYC has apparently left that nearly $900 million unaccounted for. Health Department employees now conduct the eight-hour classes daily at churches, schools and community centers. This would all hinge on the judgment: Is this a mental health issue? ### Press Contact Hazel Crampton-Hays (917) 594-2318 hcrampt@comptroller.nyc.gov, Josiel Estrella (212) 669-4177 Repeatedly presented by City Hall as a four-year $850 million plan, city officials now say $560 million will have been spent in that time. More than four years into ThriveNYC, officials also are releasing some key metrics but there are still few or no numbers for programs receiving nearly 70% of the initiative's $222 million budget for fiscal year 2020. Full Media Blackout: Bill de Blasio's Wife Can't Account For $850 The shocking figures were revealed as de Blasio himself mothballed a program which spent $800million with the aim of improving the city's 100 worst schools, which largely failed. Chirlane McCray was assigned a $850million budget for her ThriveNYC program But records show scheme has failed to keep track of what it spent the money on The small amount of data that was. Health Department employees now conduct the eight-hour classes daily at churches, community centers and schools, like this one at Metropolitan College of New York. Facing historic budget crisis, NYC Council members call for cuts to signature de Blasio program, ThriveNYC. The ballots will include the new ranked-choice system, where voters will be able to choose their top five candidates. The City Hall budget shows $594 million in spending since ThriveNYC's inception. During a recent visit, a screen played YouTube videos of adorable animals, to help soothe staff members who work in sound-dampened cubicles. Search - Government Publications Portal ThriveNYC is a combination of new programs and expansions of existing programs. ThriveNYC. ThriveNYC initiatives were purposefully distributed across multiple city Departments such as Education, NYPD, Child Services, Social Services, as well as Health, to start getting more of government to incorporate this work, including addressing social and structural determinants, and impacts, of mental illness. The Mayor's Office of Operations partners with the Deputy Mayor for Strategic Policy Initiatives and the First Lady's team on the implementation of ThriveNYC, the City's roadmap to create a mental health system that works for all New Yorkers. Besides the ramped-up spending, a big part of Thrive has been Ms. McCrays advocacy. Elon Musk is said to be winning the billionaire space race despite a major stumble. This story has been shared 603,033 times. ThriveNYC, a Mental Health Initiative, Comes Under Scrutiny The program spearheaded by Chirlane McCray, wife of Mayor Bill de Blasio, has an annual budget of $250 million Chirlane McCray, shown. The report found that households need to bring in at least $100,000 a year to afford food, housing and transportation. Hedigan of Community Access, a CCI member, has mixed feelings about the plan, believing that police will still likely be called in. Chirlane McCray - Wikipedia Borelli wrote to City Hall asking for Thrives performance over the last four years since the program was created in 2015 and for performance data. Correct Crisis Intervention Today, a coalition of more than 80 groups pressing for reforms to police handling of mental health calls, praised de Blasios promise to greatly expand funding for the EMT program while questioning some of the specifics. Everyone in life goes through something, said Stacey Hamilton, 52, a peer specialist and social worker, reassuring Mr. Abreu during a recent visit that he, too, could become a peer counselor and recalling her own history of mental illness and incarceration. . A city Department of Health spokesperson responded to THE CITYs questions about the low number of subjects brought to the sole open diversion center in East Harlem now called a Support and Connection Center with a statement blaming the pandemic: Services were affected in profound ways, including Support and Connection Centers. Are we there yet? First lady Chirlane McCrays ThriveNYC unveiled a splashy new website Monday purporting to show the $1.25 billion plan has dramatically improved the landscape of mental health services in New York City over the last five years.. Thats the latest iteration of another signature de Blasio strategy to better serve the needs of those in emotional distress: the use of co-responder teams to answer mental health-related 911 calls. Even as the city has poured money into mental health programs and training, nonprofit directors said they still struggle with providing treatment, citing inadequate Medicaid reimbursement rates and even less generous reimbursements from commercial insurers. jamba juice turmeric smoothie recipe; sainsbury's locksbottom parking charges; thrivenyc missing money; June 11, 2022; small mortuary obituaries mobile, alabama . ThriveNYC officials had initially promised to begin disclosing the number of police dropoffs at these centers starting last July but have yet to do so. The content of this site has been restored on a non-profit basis to preserve knowledge and serve as a historical archive. Several programs showed a decrease in the number of people served or the percentage of people who say they were helped between the last three months of 2019 and the first three months of 2020 including mental health services for veterans. In 2015, two years into his first term, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio made mental health a signature priority when he announced the creation of ThriveNYC, a series of 54 initiatives with a budget of $850 million over four years. The mainstream media in America cannot be trusted, period. While Garcia was not involved in ThriveNYC, she served as de Blasios Department of Sanitation chief for six years. Now, four years later, there are serious concerns and calls for official inquiries into the program because no one can determine if its actually been successful. The Daily Mail reports: Where has $850m gone? Play it now! POLITICO filed a records request for the programs line-item budget in October 2018, but the city has twice requested an extension. The money is there and so is the need." Correction (June 6) An earlier version of this article included the wrong ratio of guidance counselors and social workers per student in the 2017-18 . ThriveNYC website reveals $1.25B program's empty boasts - New York Post If you would like to be part of our project as a collaborator, we invite you to submit your application. The phones at NYC-WELL ring constantly, 180,000 times in 2018, according to city data. One graph plots how the poorest neighborhoods have double the amount of psychiatric hospitalizations compared to wealthier sections of the city despite Thrives $220 million annual budget that focuses on helping the neediest New Yorkers. This report provides a comprehensive policy framework to eliminate racial disparities in mom also infant mortality. bill de blasio wife $850 million Despite that, the program has been granted an even bigger budget going forward and is now on track to spend $1billion over five years. Facebook is heavily censoring information from independent sources. Filtering by: Report Type Press Releases Remove constraint Report Type: Press Releases Instead, just focus on creating solutions that will truly work. What happened to $850 million given to Bill de Blasio's wife Chirlane The 25th Precinct, which covers the East Harlem facility, averaged nearly 360, NYPD statistics show. Both City Hall and IBO suspect the Office of Management and Budget included fewer programs in the City Hall version, accounting for the difference. With Thrive, spending rose to $346 million in fiscal year 2018, according to an analysis by the City Council. The dashboard includes maps of service locations for all ThriveNYC programs, all of which are new in the last five years thats how we have changed the landscape of mental health, she added. On Friday, the NYC comptroller announced a deep dive into exactly what Thrive has accomplished and exactly where the exorbitant amount of taxpayer money has been spent. You also agree to this sites Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. She took a mental health first aid course in October 2014. Speaking to the Post,Queens Councilman Robert Holden told theNew York Post: "I like the fact that money is going toward mental health, but when they say we're seeing a benefit in all areas, I take exception to that, because I don't see it everywhere. We need something that is entirely free of police involvement.. They pledged to post this information online in the coming weeks. The report shows that the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in 2017 spent $52 million in taxpayer dollars to refurbish a 14,000-square-foot former IRS office in the Bronx for a state-of-the-art diversion center." New York Mayor's Wife 'Loses' $850 Million in Taxpayer Money REUTERS. The site does show that serious racial inequities persist nearly five years after McCray launched ThriveNYC in November 2015. POLITICO spoke to more than 16 people, including elected officials, advocates, representatives of community organizations, researchers and consultants who said that although it is crucial for the city to invest in mental health resources, they did not know whether Thrive was successful and said the city has an obligation to publicize its numbers and how it compares to the goals it set out to accomplish. It was not as obvious what I, as first lady, would take on; I wanted to take on something big, Ms. McCray said in the interview. But over the course of two years between 2016 and 2018, the hospital screened a little over 28,000 patients and just 570 were offered help, a fraction of the 12,000 to 15,000 who were estimated to need care. Of $1B Missing from NYC Mental Health Program Some Went to Unused Diversion Centers. Both City Hall and IBO suspect the Office of Management and Budget included. What do they always tell you when youre in high school or in college? It was challenging getting the personnel to join because of the danger, Barzilay said. Meanwhile, the city dedicated $51 million to a similar operation in East Harlem that opened this past November. 'It Is Frustrating' The purpose behind diversion centers was to stop cycling people with mental illness through the criminal justice system instead of getting them treatment and other services. The project was part of a key criminal justice reform Mayor Bill de Blasio adopted in 2014. Although she has been criticized for spending lesser hours in the office, Chirlane McCray's program is on track to spend about $1 billion in five years. Training for the EMTs only began May 3 two months after the program was supposed to have started and days after de Blasio said he would expand the program citywide. Normally, we could articulate how Thrive has failed us by anecdotal evidence or the umber of mentally ill on our streets, said Councilman Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island). Operations provides project and performance management support, tracks ThriveNYC initiatives, and coordinates agencies in the development and implementation of policies. In November, Susan Herman, director of ThriveNYC and a senior advisor to de Blasio, announced the administration had decided to put the 911 plan on pause. We have just learned that the annual budget for Thrive has increased to $250 million; for perspective, $250 million is the same amount New York City allocated for [the New York City Housing Authoritys] capital needs in fiscal year 2019, Borelli said. Even as the diversion centers sit empty or underused, de Blasio made the surprise announcement April 29 that another $112 million would be spent on a new program to pair EMT teams with social workers to handle 911 calls citywide about people having a breakdown, without sending police. Chirlane McCray, wife of New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, champions the ThriveNYC mental health program, but organizers cannot explain where its $850million budget has gone. Those programs were listed on Thrive's original 2016-19 budget but missing from the initiative's updated budget, Stringer found. Or Deborah Danner, a schizophrenic woman shot dead in her Bronx apartment in 2016 by a cop who did not follow procedure to de-escalate. $250M for what? - PressReader Dont forget to Like Freedom Outpost on Facebook and Twitter, and follow our friends at RepublicanLegion.com. But the vast majority of city spending on the program goes to more than 40 other endeavors, such as a crime victim advocate program; social and emotional learning in public schools; and a corps of young behavioral health clinicians paid by the city to work at nonprofits for three years. Not much has changed. Its entry located deep inside a dingy, dimly lit parking garage is padlocked behind a metal gate. One, fromfrom City Hall, showed $594million in spending, but a second, from the Independent Budget Office, showed $816milion. 28.04.2023; goodyear 9799 heartland court columbus oh 43217 That escalated the situation, he said. NYC's misguided spending on mentally ill leads to recurring tragedies We all know EMS get assaulted on a daily basis and thats with police on the scene. In the three years the program has been running . thrivenyc missing money devils hole missing divers. Agency: ThriveNYC, Mayor's Office of (Thrive) Subject (s): Mental Health and Youth Report Type: Other Five from Thrive Access During COVID-19 Date Published: 2020-07-31 Recently , I posted here on some news about the wall being built along our southern border. They are hoping to be able to distinguish a violent and non-violent EDP (emotionally disturbed person) over the phone, he said. More data will be added in coming months, she said. The call center, operated under city contract, took over the old Lower Manhattan offices of a city suicide hotline known as LifeNet, a service with calls that peaked at 105,000 in 2014. 2023 All Rights Reserved, NYC is a trademark and service mark of the City of New York. The plan, which includes dozens of discrete programs across 15 city agencies, has undergone two leadership changes in the last year; the most recent saw a top official from the Police Department, Susan Herman, taking charge last month. Chirlane McCray, de Blasio's Wife, Is Questioned Over His So in 2016, the Police Department created what they called co-responder teams, which pair cops with mental health clinicians. In response to THE CITYs questions about the number of EMT volunteers, a Health Department spokesperson wrote: The number of EMTs currently being trained for this pilot is the right number needed for this pilot it will give us sufficient coverage for 16 hours per day, as planned.. . The service also includes text and web chat. There is already a mental-health hotline, "800-NYCWELL," the cornerstone of former Mayor Bill de Blasio and First Lady Chirlane McCray's controversial ThriveNYC initiative, and a Poison Control hotline. But the budget discrepancies illustrate the difficulty in tracking Thrive. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. The NYPD has long struggled to correct this disturbing history, providing specialized training to officers. Opinion| $850 million in American federal tax dollars is "missing." Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's wife, Chirlane McCray, can't seem to account for the mass sum of money, which was intended to go toward the city's Thrive program, designed to aid those with mental health issues. The site said it had tried and failed to acquire a line-item budget from Thrive, and the two budget breakdowns it had seen showed wildly different numbers. Issue #32: Co-op City Community Relations Newsletter It includes dozens of programs run by at least a dozen agencies and is aimed at helping New Yorker During the COVID-19 crisis, veterans are making supportive check-in calls to other veterans through Mission: VetCheck. Meanwhile, the same number either closed or were merged with other schools while under the initiative. ThriveNYC - CIDI - New York City New Yorkers have questions about where the $1 billion in their taxes went, now they know how a fraction of it was wasted. But the budget discrepancies illustrate the difficulty in tracking Thrive.. I'm not sure anybody does.'. Chirlane McCray enjoys $2M staff of 14 amid NYC budget crisis Another Council member offered a comparison of what the programs budget might look like if it was used to address other NYC needs: On Monday, Island Councilman Joe Borelli (R-South Shore) joined the ranks of public officials demanding an accounting of how Thrives funding is spent. Bill de Blasio's wife can't account for $850m given to mental health The percentage of vets who sought services and got them also declined from 83 percent to 74 percent during that same period. (Some are repeat callers, with a few who call as many as 200 times a day.). It seems that Mayor Bill de Blasios wife (Chirlane McCray) headed a taxpayer-funded project called ThriveNYC and now she can not, or will not, account for $850 million in taxpayer money. The entrance the vacant Bronx diversion center sits at the back of a parking lot. There's no money for regular trash pickups or to maintain city parks, but Mayor Bill de Blasio's wife enjoys a 14-member staff including a $70,000 videographer who captured her baking . ThriveNYC, a Mental Health Initiative, Comes Under Scrutiny bill de blasio wife $850 million. If you would disbelieve something like that could happen with a program like ThriveNYC, think again. I like to be transparent. Now, we see that about $100 million was used for diversion centers to treat mentally ill instead of sending them to jail but those centers haven't been used, or have been barely used, according to a new report from local news organization The City. Public health officials credit the plan for drawing attention to mental health, often too easily ignored by political leaders. A report from Politico back in February gently sounded the alarm the piece almost apologetically mentioned that Thrive NYC was headed for a reset but calls for transparency have increased in the last week after Thrive was unable in late Februaryto tell City Council members how the money was being spent. The dashboard currently has data for the first two quarters of Fiscal Year 2020 because we published and began gathering data on outcome measures at the beginning of FY20, ThriveNYC External Affairs Director Nicole Torres told The Post. Placeholders like coming in summer 2020 filled up the spaces where data should have been in 23 of the 31 programs even though its halfway through the summer. Co-Response will deploy on these individuals and get them connected to the help they need doing so also helps them avoid the criminal justice system and unnecessary visits to the hospital ER.. "It's a smoke-and-mirrors slush fund for the first . Mental health first aid classes include discussions and role playing; Ms. McCray implores people to take the course, but has not yet been able to get her husband to do it. Never have. Then there is this big announcement and theres very little detail about exactly how things are going to be rolled out.. This report provides a comprehensive policy fabric to eliminate racial disparities in maternal and infancy mortality. But the interaction is not therapy, cautioned Dr. Anitha Iyer, who helps oversee the call center. You can opt out at any time. If this is what Chirlane and her co-mayor husband are calling a success, then they need to seek some counseling of their own, quipped Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens). Treyger says ThriveNYC isn't cutting it, pushes for more emotional Much of the development of Thrive was personal, born of Mr. de Blasios and Ms. McCrays own difficulties navigating the mental health system on behalf of their daughter, Chiara, who struggled with depression and drugs during high school and college. For all the talk, the initiative has been less sweeping than envisioned: A third of the budget has not been spent, according to an analysis of city data by The New York Times. Copyright 2023 RedState.com/Salem Media. Ms. McCray, for example, seldom talks about Thrive without imploring audience to repeat the number of its mental health hotline, 1-888-NYC-WELL. Something happened that triggered the need for me to go, she said without elaborating. www.unz.com October 15, 2021 To no avail, government watchdogs, politicians, and the media have long asked for accountability in spending from the $1 billion budget of New York City First Lady Chirlane McCray's ThriveNYC, the program that was supposed to combat mental illness for New Yorkers. In the three years it has been running, organizers at ThriveNYC have largely failed to keep records of the initiatives achievements and data that has been collected shows it lagging well behind targets. 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To bypass internet censorship, connect with us directly by enabling our notifications (using the red subscription bell in the bottom right corner) or by subscribing to our free daily newsletter. The wife of New York Mayor Bill de Blasio "can't account for" $850 million in missing taxpayer money that was granted to her mental health project, according to reports.