De Blasio Proposes Spending $54 Million More on Mental Health Services
Will we ever hear the end of the de Blasio administration’s shtick? First, the mayor wants to give a metric ton of cash to public schools that are struggling. Now he’s signed off an a proposal spearheaded by his wife, Chirlane McCray, to put an additional $54 million toward mental health services in NYC.
Who do these two think they are? Servants for the public good?
The AP reports that McCray’s outrageous plan would mean that over 80 schools throughout the city would get “mental health clinics, every police precinct would have a victims’ advocate and social workers would arrange psychological care for thousands of families in homeless shelters.”
The additional $54 million will be negotiated at City Council meetings before the budget is finalized at the end of June, and if it passes, this number could to $78 million over the following years. McCray, as well as daughter Chiara de Blasio, has spoken often about her advocacy for mental health services in the city. Announced on Tuesday, McCray’s budget aims to put her plans in motion, this time with city money:
The city Health Department already spends about $300 million a year, much of it state money, on mental health. But the administration and mental health advocates say the proposal marks a new and notable commitment to incorporating care in an array of settings, including senior citizens’ centers and runaway youth shelters. Planned services will include crime victims’ advocacy and art-therapy sessions for young people in the city’s Rikers Island jail complex.
Imagine what this city would look like if de Blasio could get to work on time. Utopia!
