New York City will triple the number of clubhouses for people with severe mental health issues and create a new virtual mental health care service for teens under a new policy Mayor Adams announced Thursday.
The plan will also focus on strengthening harm reduction programs to better address the crisis in overdose deaths that’s plagued the city in recent years.
Adams framed the initiative against the backdrop of the COVID pandemic, which further exacerbated problems for people dealing with mental health challenges.
“We realize that this mental health crisis started long before the pandemic,” he noted. “The change begins with us now.”
An overarching goal of the plan, which was first reported in Politico last week, will be to reduce overdose deaths by 15% over the next four years.
The expansion of clubhouses — which connect people with severe mental illness with jobs, education and structure — is also a key part of the new policy.
Clubhouses have been offered by the non-profit Fountain House over the years, and the city’s Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan served as CEO there before joining Adams’ administration.