New York City Mayor Eric Adams at a Hearing
NEW YORK (AP) — New York City’s latest plan to keep mentally ill people from languishing in public is billed as a common-sense strategy to get them help.
Mayor Eric Adams has directed police officers and city medics to take more psychologically disturbed people to hospitals. He says it is the humane thing to do.
But his policy will have to navigate a legal challenge and some city lawmakers are skeptical. Emergency rooms will be harder pressed as psychiatrists must determine whether patients need hospitalization.
Adams announced the plan in late November. The Democrat has focused on what he views as restoring a sense of safety and civic functionality that was disrupted during the pandemic.
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