The newly passed New York state budget is expanding its support for programs of non-police responses for New Yorkers experiencing mental health or substance use crises.
“The biggest things for us is that we’re trying to get these programs up and running,” said Luke Sikinyi, vice president of Public Policy for the Alliance for Rights and Recovery.
As a member of the Daniel’s Law Coalition, Sikinyi applauds the $8 million in funding for the second year in a row from the state budget to support and expand Daniel’s Law pilot programs. The programs are in honor of Daniel Prude, a Rochester man who died in police custody while experiencing a mental health crisis in 2020.
The coalition, which includes nearly two-dozen organizations, says its issue with this year’s budget funding is that it leaves out money for a Behavioral Health Crisis Technical Assistance Center, which the coalition says would provide implementation support, best-practice guidance, essential training and coordination to help localities build non-police crisis response systems.
“The reason for that is really part of this goal is to build out the infrastructure as we are trying to get the funding for the specific programs,” said Sikinyi.
Democratic state Sen. Samra Brouk has advocated for implementation of a statewide approach for Daniel’s Law.
So far, the bill hasn’t passed in the state Legislature.
If successful, the state of New York could potentially be the first in the nation to have a statewide peer-led, EMT response for individuals experiencing a mental health or substance use crises.
“This is something that’s a resource statewide and it can help assist municipalities with building and really putting into place these mental health response systems,” said Brouk.
Brouk says out of last year’s $8 million budget investment, $2 million was specifically allocated for the center.
With this year’s $8 million budget investment, she says there’s an “expectation” that the state’s Office of Mental Health will use some of those funds to continue with the establishment of the center.
But advocates and Brouk say establishing the pilot programs is eating up chunks of funding and more is needed.
“The Daniel’s Law taskforce called for around $2 million a year,” said Brouk. “So, about $1.5-$2 million a year per pilot program, but when you look at the latest funding from OMH, they’re doing $2 million over three years.”
Right now, there are three pilot programs anticipated to be up and running by the end of the year. They’re in Rochester, Jefferson County and Long Island. By the end of next year, it’s anticipated seven programs will be established.
Spectrums News 1 reached out to the governor’s office for a comment on this report. They did not immediately respond.