City Council advances bill to provide free mental health services to immigrants

Metro

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by john levin

Lawmakers in the Big Apple may need to have their heads examined.

Newly arrived migrants in the five boroughs could soon be able to visit with taxpayer-funded therapists to get in touch with their feelings if new city council proposals pass. .

The bill would put mental health coordinators in all of the city's 218 immigrant shelters, at a modest cost of at least $15 million a year to taxpayers, according to an analysis by the Post.

The proposal was introduced last week by City Council members Lynn Schulman (D-Queens), Shahana Hanif (D-Brooklyn) and Jennifer Gutierrez (D-Brooklyn). The three failed to pass the bill last year.

The measure would “require the Mayor's Office of Community Health to have at least one mental health coordinator in locations where refugees and immigrants receive services from the City.”

The sites will include emergency housing units, shelters operated by the Department of Homeless Services, and resource centers that provide a variety of social services to refugees and immigrants. ”

Schulman, the bill's lead sponsor and chair of the Assembly Health Committee, said details are still preliminary.

“Mental health is part of health care,” she told the Post several times during a brief phone interview.

Many urban immigrants spend their time in some of the Big Apple's finest hotels at taxpayers' expense, but it's unclear whether therapists will also make house calls.

Despite the city's red carpet treatment, including taxpayer-funded meals, phone calls and prepaid credit cards, immigrants have suffered numerous mental health issues since arriving in New York, activists say .

“We saw many exiles break down in tears as they expressed what they were going through,” Power Mal, executive director of Artists, Athletes and Activists, said in testimony before the council last year. he said, adding that many migrants find accommodation in the city difficult. “Mexican Detention Center” etc.

The cost of caring for the more than 175,000 immigrants who have arrived in New York City in recent years could soar to $12 billion, and has already forced deep cuts in other areas of the city's budget. The council's bipartisan critics said the new mental health plan is not a starting point.

“We don't have enough counselors, crossing guards, safety personnel in our schools, and the list goes on, but is it time we provide free mental health services to the world? Misplaced priorities.” Let’s talk about rankings,” said City Councilman Bob Holden (D-Queens). “I don’t believe this is a viable law.”

Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island) also dismissed the idea as “just more free stuff at the expense of taxpayers.”