Apparently, “eighteen Yankee stadiums still wouldn’t be enough room to house every New Yorker wrestling with diagnosable depression.Officials say major depressive disorder is the single greatest source of disability in the city. Yet finding help can be hard.” Mayor DeBlasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, called it a “public health crisis,” and at the end of last year, Mayor DeBlasio and Ms. McCray announced a major mental health initiative called Thrive NYC. It is meant to overhaul the city’s mental health care system, to be a “mental health road map for all,” and was cited as a success in the Mayor’s recent State of the City Address. It has also been criticized, along with a related initiative called NYC SAFE, for struggling to get off the ground, and being used to criminalize homeless people. What is at stake with these plans? How are they shaping the future of the NYC? How can you help? Suggested Community Contacts: Urban Justice Center’s Mental Health Project, Housing Works, VOCAL NY and the Ali Forney Center.
- Sam, Alex, Libby, Kashaf, Tony
Related News and Events:
- Readings and Mini-lit Review on Neighborhoods and Mental Health (ESPECIALLY):
- Evans, G. W. (2003). The built environment and mental health. Journal of Urban Health, 80(4), 536-555.
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O’Campo, P., Salmon, C., & Burke, J. (2009). Neighbourhoods and mental well-being: what are the pathways?. Health & Place, 15(1), 56-68.
- Sampson, R. 2003. “The Neighborhood Context of Well-Being.” Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 46 (3): S53–64.
- Schaefer-McDaniel, N.J. 2009. “Neighbourhood Stressors, Perceived Neighbourhood Quality, and Child Mental Health in New York City.” Health & Place 15: 148–55.
- Readings and Mini-lit Review on Health and Social Media.
- Entries from the Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology on Pathologization and Circuits of Dispossession and Privilege.
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Liebert, R. J. (2013). “A progressive downward spiral”: The circulation of risk in “bipolar disorder”. Journal of theoretical and philosophical psychology, 33(3), 185.
- It’s Delusional to Say Homelessness is a Mental Health Issue (Sept. 30, 2015).
- Chirlane McCray and the Limits of First-Ladyship
- How New York Made Pre-K a Success.
- The False Debate on Homelessness (Feb. 2, 2016)
- I Tried to Save a Homeless Woman From Freezing and the City Couldn’t Help Us (Feb. 11, 2016).
- DeBlasio Personally Helped Relocate Homeless Into Shelters During Code Blue This Weekend (Feb. 15, 2016).
- Let’s Change the Conversation Around Mental Health (Feb. 17, 2016)
- De Blasio orders NYPD to take control of troubled homeless shelter system (March 14, 2016)… “Banks [Human Resources Administration commissioner and also head of the Homeless Services Department] noted that the state once had the most responsibility to deal with this difficult population, but shut down institutions in the late 1970s and 1980s to integrate the mentally ill into society.”
- New York Police Will Retrain Security Staff at Homeless Shelters (March 15, 2016)…” Some homeless people have already been wary of Home-Stat, an initiative that increased the number of outreach workers and police officers assigned to address street homelessness. “All this will do is deter people from entering shelter,” said Al Williams, 46, who has been homeless since 2012 and is a member of the advocacy group Picture the Homeless. “When there are no consequences in the overwhelming majority of cases where police kill a civilian of color, police are clearly under no obligation to treat us with courtesy, professionalism or respect.” Mr. Williams, who is currently staying at Catherine Street Shelter in Manhattan, said the retraining plan was another reckless policy that targeted homeless people and took police resources away from fighting crime, “only to put them into punishing the poor.”
- Mayor, NYPD Commissioner to announce new initiative to address slashings (March 21, 2016)… “A lot of this is fueled by emotion, disturbances, disputes, family situations,” Bratton said during his testimony, adding that The Bronx has seen the biggest increase in slashings and stabbings.”
- The League of Awkward Unicorns: A podcast that mixes mental health with laughter.
- Meditation vs. Medication: A comic essay on facing depression
- A low-tech pop-ed video about anxiety
