XPost: misc.transport.rail.americas, alt.politics.nationalism.black,   
   alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns, rec.knives, alt.society.mental-health   
   From: remailer@domain.invalid   
      
   On Christmas Day, a stranger stabbed two tourists from Paraguay,   
   both teenaged females, in Grand Central Terminal.   
      
   Like so many other random acts of street violence, this case   
   illustrates the asymmetry in accountability between New York’s   
   criminal-justice and mental-health systems.   
      
   About two weeks prior, the man accused of the stabbing, Steven   
   Hutcherson, was released at a court hearing for a previous charge.   
      
      
   The mental-health system also failed the public and Hutcherson   
   (whose ex said was schizophrenic and not on his meds). But there is   
   no equivalent figure in that context to Judge Grieco. Mental health   
   in New York is delivered via a sprawling network that blurs   
   accountability between various private, federal, state and city   
   agencies.   
      
   In lieu of assigning specific blame to someone within that system   
   for the Grand Central stabbing, the incident should serve as a   
   reminder of the need for systemic mental-health reform.   
      
   Such a reminder is timely as Albany lawmakers are poised to begin   
   next year’s legislative session. The agenda already looks crowded.   
   Mayor Adams’ political future is now imperiled by the migrant crisis   
   and the escalating city-budget deficit. As he crafts his annual   
   “ask” from Albany this session, need for state assistance with those   
   challenges looms large. Mental health is at risk of being crowded   
   out.   
      
   What state legislators need to do is pass the Supportive   
   Interventions Act.   
      
   That bill is designed to enhance Adams’ ongoing initiative on   
   involuntary psychiatric commitment. When back in November 2022,   
   Adams announced a new direction on serious mental illness, he made   
   two things clear.   
      
   One, no longer would city government wait to intervene with someone   
   with untreated psychosis until after that person had attacked   
   someone.   
   Two, the city could not deal with serious mental illness on its own.   
   State action was needed.   
   The Supportive Interventions Act, filed by Queens Assemblyman Edward   
   Braunstein, a Democrat, would support city efforts in a few ways. It   
   would revise state commitment law to insulate the city against   
   lawsuits, require clinicians to take someone’s treatment history   
   into consideration when evaluating his or her likelihood to thrive   
   outside the hospital environment and, upon discharge from hospital,   
   consider eligibility for Kendra’s Law, New York’s highly effective   
   mandatory outpatient-treatment program.   
      
   The legislation would also allow a broader range of mental-health   
   professionals to conduct clinical evaluations for commitment.   
      
   On mental illness policy, Gov. Hochul thus far deserves a “B” thanks   
   to her work on building back New York’s psychiatric bed supply. Also   
   helpful, with respect to bed supply, have been efforts by Bronx Rep.   
   Ritchie Torres to pass federal legislation that would greenlight the   
   use of Medicaid for inpatient psychiatric treatment.   
      
   Yet New York not only needs more psych beds, but a hospitalization   
   process with more integrity.   
      
   Cops complain that even when beds are available, hospitals discharge   
   patients recklessly early. Getting more police buy-in has been the   
   biggest city-level obstacle Adams has encountered in trying to   
   expand involuntary commitment.   
      
   Theoretically, the commitment process would be handled from start to   
   finish by mental-health clinicians. In practice, police must   
   initiate the commitment process because of their presence on the   
   streets and subways where the most appropriate candidates will be   
   found.   
      
   More access to more effective psychiatric hospitalization, by means   
   of state reforms, will help change many cops’ minds that it’s worth   
   it to intervene early and take people in for evaluation.   
      
   It has become a cliché to speak of people like Steven Hutcherson as   
   having “fallen through the cracks” of New York’s generously funded   
   but ineffective mental-health system.   
      
   True mental-health policy reform, while broadly supported by the   
   public, also always seems to fall through the cracks of a political   
   process in which so many voices are demanding so many things from   
   distracted politicians.   
      
   Maybe someday politicians won’t need to rely on random stabbing   
   attacks on teenagers to remind them that New York’s mental-health   
   system is a disgrace. Sadly, that day has yet to arrive.   
      
   Stephen Eide is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and   
   author of a forthcoming report on correctional mental-health care.   
      
   https://nypost.com/2023/12/29/opinion/grand-central-tourist-   
   stabbing-shows-urgent-need-for-mental-health-action/   
      
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