Mental Healthcare

Mental health is health. But in New York, too many people are forced to navigate a system built around scarcity, crisis, and profit instead of prevention, intervention, and care.

When people cannot access treatment, they are pushed into a revolving door between emergency rooms, shelters, the street, and jail. That cycle retraumatizes people who are already struggling, fails families trying to get help for their loved ones, burdens hospitals and first responders, and makes our communities less safe.

New York needs a mental health system that meets people before they are in crisis — with community-based care, peer support, respite centers, supportive housing, outpatient treatment, and a workforce that is paid and staffed to actually meet the need.

Universal Healthcare Must Include Mental Health

Universal healthcare must include access to mental healthcare, addiction recovery treatment, and harm reduction services. No one should have to wait until they are in an emergency room, sleeping on the street, or in handcuffs to get the care they need.

I support expanding access to affordable, high-quality mental healthcare across New York, including therapy, psychiatric care, medication, peer support, substance use treatment, and harm reduction services. Care should be available early, locally, and without impossible waitlists.

Pass Daniel’s Law and Build Peer-Led Crisis Response

Mental health crises require a mental health response.

I support passing Daniel’s Law and investing in crisis response teams led by mental health professionals, EMTs, and trained peers — not police by default. People in crisis deserve responders who are trained in de-escalation, trauma-informed care, disability justice, and long-term connection to services.

New York should also expand and improve models like B-HEARD, mobile crisis teams, and 988 coordination so every New Yorker has someone to call, someone to respond, and somewhere safe to go. Peer specialists must be part of this response because lived experience builds trust in ways institutions often cannot.

Build a Full Continuum of Care

New York needs more than emergency rooms and short-term crisis beds. We need a full continuum of care that includes:

• Community-based mental health clinics

• Crisis respite and stabilization centers with shorter wait times

• Supportive housing

• Outpatient treatment

• Addiction recovery services

• Harm reduction programs

• Peer clubhouses and peer-led support

• Long-term community care

That is how we break the revolving door between the streets, shelters, hospitals, and incarceration. People do not recover because they are punished or displaced. People recover when they have housing, treatment, stability, dignity, and ongoing support.

Invest in Prevention Before Crisis

We should not wait until someone is in visible crisis before the system responds. New York must invest in prevention, early intervention, and community-based mental health navigation.

I support expanding community mental health navigator programs that help people and families understand their options, connect to care, access social services, and get support before a crisis escalates. These programs should be rooted in neighborhoods, connected to trusted community organizations, and available in multiple languages.

Expand the Mental Health Workforce

We cannot fix a broken system without the people to staff it.

New York must invest in better pay, faster hiring, loan forgiveness, stronger training pipelines, and retention supports for social workers, counselors, psychiatrists, peer specialists, crisis responders, harm reduction workers, and other mental health professionals.

Our care system should not be held together by burnout and understaffing. The people doing this work deserve living wages, manageable caseloads, and the resources to do their jobs well.

Treat Housing as Mental Health Care

Housing is mental health care. No one can stabilize their life while cycling between the street, the shelter system, the hospital, and jail.

I support expanding supportive housing, protecting tenants from eviction, and connecting people experiencing homelessness with voluntary, trauma-informed treatment and long-term care. Criminalizing homelessness and mental illness does not make anyone safer. Stable housing, treatment, and community support do.