NY $1B mental health plan to triple walk-in clinics. What else is planned to fight crisis?

As the chokehold death of Jordan Neely renewed focus on New York's mental health crisis, Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday detailed the state's $1 billion plan to get more mental health services to those in need.

One key pillar involved tripling the number of walk-in behavioral health clinics to 39 from 13. The facilities will expand access to immediate integrated mental health and substance use disorder services for New Yorkers of all ages and insurance status.

Hochul outlined the final state budget's funding streams for mental health priorities during a media briefing in Buffalo, calling Neely's death a "wake-up call" to the urgency of providing better services.

Neely — an unhoused street performer with a history of mental health issues — died a week ago on a New York City subway car after being placed in a chokehold by Daniel Penny, a 24-year-old Marine veteran, authorities said. The killing has sparked protests as circumstances of the incident remain under investigation.

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The recently approved state budget will increase inpatient psychiatric treatment capacity, expand outpatient services, boost insurance coverage, and develop thousands of more units of supportive and transitional housing for people with mental illness, Hochul said.

Among the mental health funding highlights:

• $890 million in capital and $120 million in operating funding to establish and operate 3,500 new residential units serving those with mental health challenges.

• $30 million to expand mental health services for school-aged children, including $20 million for school-based mental health services and $10 million to implement wraparound services training.

• $10 million to strengthen suicide prevention programs for high-risk youth.

• $60 million in capital and $121.6 million operating funding to establish 12 new comprehensive psychiatric emergency programs providing hospital-level crisis care and add state-funded community behavioral health clinics.

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The plan comes as New York hospitals and mental health providers face a complex web of crises, spanning from overcrowded emergency rooms and nursing home backlogs jamming up hospital beds to lingering inflationary pressures and high labor costs.

New York currently ranks 10th-worst nationally for mental health emergency room wait times, and parents often wait weeks or months to find inpatient treatment beds for children.

Some mental health providers and addiction specialists are also bracing for the impact of increases in cannabis-related treatment needs as high-potency marijuana use rises post legalization in 2021. For example, cannabis-related ER visits already leaped about 44% from 2019 to 2021, reaching nearly 84,000 visits statewide in 2021, USA TODAY Network reported.

This article originally appeared on New York State Team: Mental health in NY: Walk-in clinics to triple amid crisis