Mental Health & Recovery: Prioritizing Healing Over Punishment

Governor’s Note: Mental illness is not a crime, but New York’s system treats it like one. From Rikers to rural counties, our state jails the sick, ignores the addicted, and abandons families begging for help. That ends under my administration. We will replace chaos with care, addiction with access, and bureaucracy with results.

What It Takes to Get It Done: Mental health reform is not about slogans—it’s about state-level power, long-term investment, and aggressive re-prioritization. As Governor, I will:

• Launch Recovery First NY: a statewide plan to build 24/7 community-based recovery centers in every county by 2030.
• Repurpose vacant facilities under Operation Ghost Town into crisis stabilization hubs, sober housing, trauma therapy clinics, and mobile outreach command centers.
• Introduce the NYS Behavioral Health Care Act to mandate mental health access parity with physical health, enforce insurance accountability, and allow walk-in evaluation rights at state hospitals.
• Double Medicaid reimbursement rates for licensed addiction and mental health providers, with bonus grants for underserved ZIP codes.
• Deploy peer support task forces led by those in long-term recovery to bridge gaps between state systems, families, and at-risk individuals.
• Fund in-school counseling and trauma programs from kindergarten through 12th grade—especially in districts impacted by violence or poverty.

Why This Matters to You

• Suicide is now the second leading cause of death among New Yorkers aged 10–34.
• More than 1 in 5 NY adults suffer from a diagnosable mental illness—yet over 40% receive no treatment at all.
• Emergency departments in NY are overwhelmed by psychiatric holds, with wait times exceeding 24–48 hours in many counties.
• New York’s jail population includes over 44% with serious mental health issues, according to NYSOMH and legal aid statistics.
• Fentanyl is now the #1 cause of overdose death in the state, often mixed into drugs like Xanax and cocaine without warning.
• Family courts lack mental health professionals on staff, leading to custody decisions based on bias, not science.
• Rural counties have fewer than 1 mental health provider per 10,000 residents, leaving vast populations unserved or ignored.
• More than 300 psychiatric beds have been removed from NY hospitals since 2020, while demand skyrockets.
• Insurance denials for inpatient care are among the top 5 health-related consumer complaints in the state.
• Every dollar invested in prevention saves at least $7 in incarceration, ER costs, and lost productivity.

You don’t need to be sick yourself to be affected by a broken system. If you know someone suffering, you know the crisis. And if you don’t yet—you will. It’s coming to every school, workplace, and neighborhood. We fix it now, or we pay forever.