 We're not going to report that. It's not about reporting. It's about what we're feeling in this moment. I keep on trying to remind you. I am Ann Williams-Eisam. I'm the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services. And before I begin today, this very exciting announcement about care, community, and action, and a comprehensive mental health plan for New York City, I'd like to recognize some of the folks behind me. Not all of them, but some of them. The Chancellor of New York City, David Banks, Commissioner Sadia Sherman from the Office of Equity, Social Service First Deputy Commissioner Jill Berry, Department of Youth and Community Development, Commissioner Keith Howard, Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Jason Graham, Health and Hospitals President and CEO, Dr. Mitch Katz, Dr. Omar Fatal, also from Health and Hospitals, Executive Director of the Office of Community Mental Health, Eba Wong. And of course, the city's doctor, our Commissioner for Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. Ashwin Visan. I'd also like to give a shout out to Assemblyman Raj Kumar who's here and also to Council members Lynn Schulman and Linda Lee who I rely on so much and learn so much from. So thank you so much for being here. So, oh, I didn't see you. There are other people here. They did not give me your names. Councilman Brachna, Abrayu, who else am I forgetting? I'm so sorry. They'll give me your names as we go along. At this time, I'm thinking a lot about what has happened in this city as we think about this most important day and so many people who have helped to bring us to this moment. But when I think about this moment, I think about being a child advocate and my work at the Administration for Children Services so many years ago and as far as I'm concerned, that's what happens when we don't give children and families what they need. That then they end up at the door of the child welfare system. I was then so happy to be the President and CEO of the Harlem Children's Zone because that was an opportunity to work in a school, to work in a community, to give children and families what they needed. But I was often surprised by the amount of young people that needed mental health support. I used to have second graders that were drawing pictures that showed suicidal ideation. Second graders, I would have 10-year-olds that were so depressed that they couldn't do their schoolwork. Dr. Lindsey would talk to me about that because we see the suicide rates for African-American boys. And then my special group, my high school kids, when I would get those knuckle-headed 16-year-olds to finally decide after months and months that they wanted to talk to somebody because whether you are the victim or the perpetrator of a crime, it affects you. And so when we were together and I finally get them to connect, they would say, Ms. Ann, is there a black therapist that I could talk to? Is there a somebody that looks like me? And so I would run around in Harlem trying to find a black man to be able to talk to these young brothers that wanted to find some care. That's what I think about today when I think about standing here. I think about the statistic that 40% of Latino and black young people report experiencing anxiety, depression, or associated conditions, which are compared to 30% of their white people or white children. Nationally, we have witnessed these numbers climbing even higher. Another alarming statistic that I know that you all know, but I decided I wanted to say it today. There are 8,500 young people across the city that lost their parent to COVID. Think about that. We know much of that was felt in black and brown communities in areas from Elmhurst Queens to Brownsville and Brooklyn and so many places in between. Many of us are working with those families and know those families. I was talking to the first deputy mayor today and both of us were very emotional about today because we feel personally affected by these issues, but I bet you if I asked you all to raise your hands, we would all raise our hands because we've been affected by the issues of wellness and mental health during way before the pandemic and certainly more during the pandemic. These facts and figures, the pillars in this plan are touching on children and families or people who have severe mental illness and those experienced substance use issues due to opioids are all focused on New Yorkers and how can we get support to New Yorkers? Our family, our friends, our colleagues and our neighbors. We all know that mental health is just like our overall health. I said to somebody today as I am approaching 60, it's not like I could say I could stop working out and I don't need to eat. Well, it is a lifelong journey and just like my beloved late pastor, Calvin Butts would say we all need to check up from the neck up every once in a while. And so this is something that we have to do all the time and for a lifelong. It is why this plan centers on persons, centers on the family and centers on everyday New Yorkers with love. And yes, I'm gonna always start and lead with love with dignity, care, respect and supports and making sure that we have a long-term commitment to people's wellbeing. Over the past year, we've saved lives with our programs that serve folks with a history of overdose. We've connected people with severe mental illness to shelter and care they deserve and we have so much more to do. So thank you, Mayor Adams, for today and thank you for your focus on this issue. I'm excited today and I am energized and the reason I'm energized is because I know that despair is contagious. I also know that hope is contagious and for me today is about the hope and the promise of what we as a community, as an administration and as a city together can do for this very important issue. Now I'd like to turn it over to my friend and colleague, Dr. Ashwin Visan. I'm not sure I should be standing on a podium for this. We'll work with it. I am tall. This is a great day and I wanna recognize the deputy mayor for her, the way she leads with love and compassion every single day. It creates the space for folks like me, my team, all of the agencies involved in this plan to come together in that spirit to create something good. My name is Dr. Ashwin Visan. I'm the health commissioner of New York City and I'm very proud to be here as a part of the announcement of the Adams Administration Mental Health Plan. Here's the city's doctor, of course, but you don't have to be a doctor to recognize certain symptoms. I see what you're seeing. The crisis in mental health, after the worst public health crisis in a century. Historically, mental health has not been at the forefront of our approach to public health, but today that changes. The problems aren't new, but they are newly urgent. Data from the CDC show that starting in 2019, life expectancy across New York State has declined faster than anywhere in the country. And we know that declining mental health has a major contributor to that. If we are serious about stopping and reversing that drop, we have to be serious about mental health. We have to direct our resources to where they can make the greatest difference. And that means starting with our young people. We have suffered through this uniquely damaging few years. In New York City alone, more than 8,000 children have lost a parent to COVID-19. And according to the CDC, nearly one in three teenage girls say they've considered suicide, an increase in over 60% in the last decade. As a parent of three small children, including a young daughter who will soon be a teenager, these statistics hit home. At the same time, overdoses have risen to unacceptable levels. In 2021, overdoses claimed the lives of nearly 2,700 of our fellow New Yorkers, the highest ever total in the city of New York. And each year, when the data come in, we expect to set a new record. This is inextricably linked to mental health. And we have to stop this trend in its tracks, and we know how to do so. Too many of our friends and our family members and our neighbors suffer from serious mental health issues that have gone untreated or undertreated for too long. People living with serious mental illness have the worst health, social, and economic outcomes, as well as shorter lifespans than any other racial or demographic group in our city. This is the worst of inequities. But while we would never blame our kids for their mental health problems, we have no problem blaming adults, and this has to change. Let's consider many people's first experience with serious mental illness. Maybe 19 or 20 years old, a person has a crisis and ends up in the ER. Maybe they're in college or living alone for the first time. They're most vulnerable at the exact moment that we expect them to become independent. Right now, on average, the time between the first symptoms of serious mental illness and treatment is 11 years. 11 years. So it's no wonder that we see the consequences all around us in our homes, our streets, our shelters, our hospitals, and our jails. We can't just lurch from crisis to crisis. We need a strategy that centers recovery, stability, and hope. And that's what this plan offers. We have the focus and the strategies that this unique moment demands, as well as the people who can deliver. We're putting mental health at the forefront of our public health agenda, which starts with the people who need help the most. And we're committing more resources than ever to prevention and early intervention. Let me give you some examples. We're launching a new tele-mental health service for high school age teens, the largest of its kind in the country, with technology that they're used to, teens can connect with a specialist fast, right when they need it, not after the problem has spun out of control. In the coming months, we'll also field a first of its kind survey to provide an even more complete and detailed picture of the youth mental health challenges in our city and to guide further understanding and planning. And we will come together to address the effects of social media on our young people, exploring pathways to reduce their negative, exposure the same way the city has done for other toxins like tobacco or air pollution. When it comes to stopping overdoses, we're following the evidence and building on successes. Since launching the nation's first publicly recognized overdose prevention centers in 2021, hundreds of deaths have been averted. And I want to recognize Sam Rivera here from On Point, who's joining us here today. Their work has been life-saving, transforming. Yes, please give it up. For Sam, we will expand these centers and make them 24-7, while investing even more in harm reduction along with care and treatment. Too many New Yorkers living with serious mental illness lack health care, housing and neighborhood supports. The city's plan aims to double the number who are connected to community-based care over the next four years. And as a part of this effort, we will expand mobile treatment capacity over the next year to serve more than 800 additional people with high service needs. And we will also expand access to life-saving, rehabilitative, psychosocial clubhouses. And this plan is just the beginning. And I know we can do it because we have the right approach with the right people in place at the right time. The mayor's commitment to mental health is a major reason I agreed to serve. And his commitment to public health is clear every single day. This administration deeply understands how the mental health crisis has contributed to the unprecedented drop in life expectancy in our city, our state and this country. We have the strategies and the resources and above all, the will to do something about it. And as the mayor said, we have a better understanding than ever of how interconnected the brain and the body are. It's time our policies and our programs reflect that as well. This is something I have known for most of my life. I lost a beloved uncle to alcohol use and suicide when I was 10. Only as an adult did I begin to grapple with the impact of his death and his life on me. I also saw the emotional pain of parents in my mother's pediatric clinic, primarily immigrants of color who were scared of losing their premature babies. The toll this took on them and on my mother and immigrant herself felt, if not seen. So today, I'm also seeing this in my own children and in their entire generation, facing unprecedented barriers to learning and to relationships. I became a doctor to be a healer. And one of the best things we can do to help New Yorkers heal is to openly and unambiguously focus on mental health. This is what this plan does. It has the support of government colleagues, community leaders, scholars, health providers, activists, so many others have contributed in word, indeed, and in partnership. This is an all hands on deck effort because they know, as I do, that New Yorkers are healthier when they live in a city that's healthy. And this plan is just the start, but it's the start of something that will change the trajectory we're on. As a city, taking mental health seriously will make all of us healthier for years and for decades to come. Thank you. And I'll now turn it over to Eva Wong, the director of the mayor's office of community mental health. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Fassin. And good afternoon, mayor. Good afternoon, everybody. I think I have to adjust this because the doctor's very tall. Good afternoon again. And I am Eva Wong, director of the mayor's office of community mental health. Our city is committed to treating mental health with public health solutions that will bring care and support to New Yorkers in need, right in the communities they live in. And the Adams administration's mental health plan puts that commitment into motion. The three areas of action in this plan bring healing to communities by connecting care to our neighbors, our coworkers, our children, our families. That means all of us. We might not know it, but all of us know someone who has needed mental health support at some point in their lives. Sometimes the support doesn't come soon enough and it leads to a mental crisis. Through this plan, if anyone anywhere in the city experiences a mental health crisis, they can be confident that the city's response will bring the most appropriate form of help. Be heard where teams of mental professionals and EMTs respond together to mental 911 calls will now expand citywide. To help people with emergency mental health needs, quickly get appropriate help and health center assessments from trained medical and mental professionals. Mobile crisis teams, an important part of our city's crisis services will expand to include additional peers, those who've actually lived experiences to be part of the teams. The mental plan also focuses on bringing much needed care to our children and their families. This is especially close to heart for me as a single mother of two little ones and as a therapist who has supported numerous children and the full spectrum of adults who love and care for them. With my connections, relative privileges and resourcefulness, I still bump into many obstacles in navigating mental system, whether personally or professionally. I'm holding in mind the many families, the caregivers are incredible, despite their love and commitment and tireless efforts, still simply could not access resources. They're supposed to support their children's mental health needs. Too many were marginalized. The disparity in their experiences is a reminder that the equity that is in our world and the city still, it's still a major barrier to getting care. We need to do better. We will do better. The burden of finding and receiving mental support should not rest exclusively with already overwhelmed families. This plan increases access to telehealth services. So caregivers don't have to choose between going to work and supporting their children's mental wellbeing. To meet the significant needs of our communities, the mental system also requires a robust, diverse and culturally responsive workforce ready to meet us where we are. This plan includes the mayor's office of community mental health efforts in launching interagency collaborations to expand and support a mental workforce, develop career pathways and remove institutional barriers that prevent a workforce from operating efficiently and effectively. Action, community and care I'm gonna add love because DM said it so beautifully, are the DNA of our mission to promote mental health for all New Yorkers. This agenda brings us closer to realizing that mission. So everyone in all communities can get the care they deserve and that we can truly turn the tide for our children and generations to come. Thank you. I'm gonna pass the time back to the mayor to answer some questions. Before we open up to questions, credentials and professional abilities, one thing as I was leaning over talking to the chancellor, when this administration is over and people do a real analysis of it, you're going to notice the life experience that we brought. And we're not doing this work because we're trying to fill our job descriptions. Many of us have reached into our lives and we see that we have an opportunity now to fix the things that we've witnessed through our lives. And the issue of mental health is it's not something that we are embracing just because it's a popular terminology that people use today. I'll never forget the first time I met Dr. Fassan when I was doing my mayor classes during the time I was running. I just took a note and stated, I gotta get this guy on my team somehow, some way. He just understood. He understood the clubhouse model. We understood the depth of it. He understood every part of it. And when he stated that he was going to join me in pursuing this, it was a very significant part of our administration. And if you don't see why he's playing this important role, then you just will never get it. Because sometimes we become so jaded as human beings that even when someone authentically care, we find reason to find that they don't care. Well, you know what? Just get over it. This guy is the real deal. And he produced a real document. And can I thank you? And I thank all of you. Thank all of you. We were up in Harlem. You stopped me on the street. We started talking. You told me to come visit your location. We went around to see your overdose prevention center. Sham to Baron. We were hanging out in the street together, sleeping out together. And so these are real people. And I know what it's like. 22 years, it was clearly my son and my love of my son that allowed me to stabilize after those 22 years of seeing the things that men did to men in this city. And listen, you don't leave 22 years of police in this city and don't feel a part of you has been destroyed. As we saw today, my heart goes out to that young officer who appeared to have taken his life. His dad was a retired sergeant. The officer was involved in an officer involved shooting. And I spoke with him. Energetic, young, beautiful young man at the prime of his life, enjoy saving people. We don't know the impact of what happened, but it's just a real pain for our city to live to lose a young man of that nature. And we should think about that every day when these officers are placing themselves on the front line, protecting our city. And so this is a huge step. And we stated it then. Someone stopped me on the streets and said, you're not doing enough about mental health. You don't care about people with mental health. And I said, ma'am, this is January 3rd. Just got here of 2022, we just got here. And everybody was asking us, what are y'all gonna do is January 2nd of 2022? Why is it a crime down yet? Why in the subway clean? Why are you cleaned up all the homeless? But we show discipline. And we understood that we couldn't listen to the noise and we raised things in levels. And you're going to start to see the city, the subway system, crime, mental health issues. You're going to start to see the evolution of the city with a group of disciplined people that are not allowing people to have us just have a knee-jerk reaction to systemic problems. This is the second phase of what we stated we were going to roll out. That's why we're here. And there's more phases. Remember on the campaign trail, some of you covered me and some of you wrote the story. When I started talking about food and mental health, y'all demonized me and called me names even before looking to see the research. You didn't even bother seeing the research when I did that debate that day and saying food is connected to our mental health before even reading to see if everything was right. You just start writing stories. What is this kook? And now all of these researchers are coming out saying food is connected to mental health because you know why? Because our brain is connected to our body. Duh. Your brain is connected to your body. So if something harms your kidney, why wouldn't it harm your brain? And we're going to push us into areas of dealing with what food is doing. That is why you're seeing the bad food in economically challenging communities. How much does it have an impact on the behavior of our children? And we're going to exploit that. I started talking about social media and what is doing to our children, you know? We don't realize what social media is doing to our children. Talk to your children, ask them what they're doing. Ask your young girls how do they feel about themselves based on what they're seeing on social media. Talk to our young people who are still in key of cars because they've been told on TikTok that it's a competition. I must be the only one seeing what is happening in this country and what's happening across the globe to our young people. No, I'm not the only one. I got a bunch of people behind me. You know, so we will open up to the question but this is a significant moment in our administration because of this team and what we have brought. Thank you, Deputy Mayor, on what you're doing and our Chancellor, what you're doing in school and these electives. Yes. Thank you. Really, really, thank you, thank you, thank you. So I'm gonna take it too, and he doesn't give me and Kate, do your thing. Yes. Yes, on top of this, yes. Mayor, can you talk about your journey to really firmly connect addiction to mental health in your policy plan and talk about how much additional funding you might want in the Mayor's Office of Mental Health to really support that and many of those initiatives currently being funded for about 200 million a year go away to make room for this being more of a focus. Hang on, Dr. Fassan, you want to touch that. Yeah, thanks for the question. I think it's hard to look at our overdose crisis and the reasons why people turn to substance use without addressing underlying mental health needs. And Sam Rivera here and Joyce from St. Anne's will tell you that beneath all of the people they help in their harm reduction services is pain and they're often turning to substances to treat that pain. And at the Health Department, our Bureau of Substance Use, our alcohol drug use, care and treatment is within our division of mental hygiene. So this city and this administration has had that focus from day one. A lot of what we're building in the overdose space is things that we've committed to, things that we know work. We have a year of evidence that overdose prevention centers save lives. And what the Mayor expressed in his speech, what I expressed in my remarks is a commitment. And what's in this plan is a commitment to saving more lives if we're gonna bend that curve because it's moving in the wrong direction right now. A combination of some of the money's new needs, new dollars. When you look at the RFP that's going out for the telemedicine, which I think is brilliant, Dr. Fassan, our children own foams. We're going to use existing devices to connect with our children to telemedicine. The money we want to put in the overdose treatment centers. And some of the stuff is we're gonna need federal and state dollars. The governor has made it clear she wants to focus on mental health in her budget. So there's some dollars that we're putting in, the vending machines and others that we're putting in that's within our figures. And then there's other dollars we're going to need help from our state and federal lawmakers. We'll give you exact breakdown of the new dollars we're putting in and expansion of the herd and other items. We'll give you those exact dollars and then we'll show you what we're gonna need outside help. Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor. District Attorney McMahon has been a sole component to the overdose prevent. Where are you looking to place them and what would that type of community opposition be? You said the DA was in an opposition, not community opposition. The DA was. Staten Island is having a real overdose problem. And so we're gonna sit down with the DA. I think DA McMahon is an excellent district attorney. We're going to sit down. We're going to show them the numbers. We're gonna bring him to see what we're doing in Harlem and other locations. Because it automatically gives people an image that, oh, this is a bad place. I went up and visited of the centers and I saw the resources they're giving to people. When they come in in a safe space, you can now talk with them about other items and other issues and give them the holistic care. So we're gonna speak with the DA of the issue of overdose is a real issue on Staten Island. And he and I have a great relationship and I'm going to continue to show why we believe this is the best way to go. Report something of generational neglect. Yes. This has been brewing for an awfully long time. Yes. May 11th, the president is expected to issue a declaration that the pandemic presidency is over. There's gonna be consequences of that in terms of access to healthcare. Are we not given the fact that we are still in the need of a multi-year response to deal with the underlying issues? Because to hear from all the research I'm seeing and Dr. Katz might address this, there's a connection between the lack of access to healthcare and the terrible body count in our city. It is, and you're right. And I'm glad you stated that. This is generations of ignoring a problem. You know, Dr. Fossan stated something was 11 years before the initial cause to the proper diagnosis. And even when it's diagnosed, we just never really respected it. And in many communities, it was a cultural hidden silence. You know, you were not allowed to come out and say, I'm feeling depressed. I'm going through these feelings. And no one was there to give you that safe space. And I think Deputy Mayor Williams Isom says something that probably went over all of our heads that you're not racist because you say, I want to speak to a black psychiatrist. I want to speak to a psychiatrist from the AAPI community. I want to speak to, you know, because there's something you're bringing in. And you know, there's a tendency to believe that because people want to at least walk in a room and start feeling comfortable that people tend to say, well, okay, you're trying to be racist. No, it's not. And so we know this is a generational problem. And we know that the lifting up, the pandemic is going to shift costs. We've been hit right now with additional costs that's coming from the state level, but it is more costly to ignore this than to fix it. And that is what this administration, we are an upstream administration, not downstream. When I first said that, while running for office, people didn't know what it meant, but now they understand what it means. When it comes to these injection sites, have you partnered with the governor? I know right now there are kind of pilot programs here in the city. Have you partnered with the governor to make it more permanent and to expand locations? That's our goal. And you know, there's still some clarity that's needed in the legalities. We still need clarity, but our goal is, what we want to do, we have an entire year as Dr. Fasson stated of data, we want to now show it to our colleagues in Albany, particularly those from our New York city representatives. Some of them we have here, a 70 women, Raj Karmal has been a real partner in pushing these issues in Albany. So the goal is to have the governor, her team, her staff see what we're doing so that we can get the support that we need. But there's some clarity that we want them to clear up for us so we can move these forward. Yes. And a lot of therapists and psychiatrists, people who are trained in training in particular, have left for either practice or taking a lot more money under a much less stressful condition. So I'm just curious, how can we ensure that there are enough trained skilled therapists and doctors who can treat kids and it will happen at this week before today? Dr. Fasson, you want to talk to me? At the back of this report is a policy agenda that recognizes the fact that this is a system, our mental health system that's been neglected for far too long. We have more psychiatrists per capita and psychologists per capita in this city than any other city, any other jurisdiction in the country. But we have amongst the lowest percentage that takes Medicaid, that takes even commercial insurance as you're describing. And so the work for instance, and this administration really understands how this system works, how interdependent it is. So the work that the state is doing to increase Medicaid payment limits, to increase the upper limit of payment, for instance, for a child psychiatry and for mental health, will help us build more programs in schools, for instance. Will help us support our Article 28 and our 31 providers to provide more care. But make no mistake, we have to have some serious discussions around raising the wages for human service workers, for community-based organizations. I think the step that the governor took to raise the COLA was a good first step, but there's so much more that needs to be done. I ran a human service organization prior to becoming commissioner and I know how these salaries are driving people out of the workforce. So it's a priority. Regarding the injection sites, how many do you hope to open, where and by when? And secondly, regarding folks who have serious mental illness, is anything in here involuntary or by threat of involuntary hospitalization? The first question, the goal is to reduce overdose deaths by 15% by 2025. We must have more overdose prevention centers in order to reach that goal. And I think what's important for readers to understand and the public to understand is that overdose prevention centers are also built around all of the other supportive services that are input into those sites. When you go to on point, you will see a range and many of our other syringe service providers, you'll see a range of social supports, mental health care, medication assisted treatment, primary care, basic needs like food and clothing and laundry. The OPC doesn't work unless those things are supported. And so part of the goal here is to invest in our 14 syringe service providers to get them up to snuff, to even be able to consider opening an OPC. And we're already doing that today. And these syringe service providers are located already in neighborhoods of highest need, for instance, the South Bronx. The reason we built the two first OPCs in upper Manhattan was because these are the neighborhoods that have been hardest hit. On your other question around involuntary removal, the goal of this plan is to ensure that as few people as possible ever end up in the need for that kind of care. There are 250,000 people living with serious mental illness in our city. 40% of those people are not in treatment, 96,000 people. All of those people are at risk if we don't surround them with care of ending up in crisis. And the goal of this plan is for making that number as small as possible. But respectfully, the question wasn't answered. But respectfully, we gotta get to the rest of the colleagues. We'll get back to you. Okay, promise. Yeah, I wanted to ask specifically about the plan to expand the mobile treatment capacity, the 800 new spots over the next year. I reported last year for a craze that the wait list for those is over 1,000. So can you talk about how you reach that 800 number and how you're gonna pay for the new intensive mobile treatment and assertive community treatment slots when those programs are already not able to enroll in capacity because of staffing shortages and health salaries? And this, yeah, it's a great question. It speaks once again to the interdependence of our system. This is money that the state has already committed to those slots. And there's a breakdown between IMT and ACT. ACT, as you know, is paid for or is eligible for Medicaid payment. And there are rules around that in terms of the number of visits you can have, the amount of time those visits can be. IMT is free from those restrictions. And so it serves an even more severely impaired subset of people who have failed multiple rounds of people, I'm sorry, of care. And so that expansion is really driven by state resources coming into the city and out to providers already doing this work who are saying the same thing is that we can't keep up with demand. It's a great question. And I will say that this is an area of real innovation. There isn't a deep evidence base except that we know kids are engaging online more than ever and they want to receive care in this way, that's clear. That's very clear. And especially through texting, they've said very clearly through the research we prefer to text at least as a first step. However, with anything we're building for all New York City high school age students we have to create on-ramps into more sustained care or more intensive care either delivered through video or other forms of telehealth or site-based care through our article 28s, article 31s and school-based clinics which is why you see all of that recognized here and that's really braided funding coming from multiple sources. Yes, I know that fentanyl test strips are distributed in clubs and other private venues so when you talk about expanding that where and who would be distributing those? Dr. Fassam would do that, but are you doing it? Okay. Yeah, our fentanyl test strip program has been a real success in keeping people alive and really meeting people where they are. And so we'll happily get more details on how we'll roll that out, but we're gonna be leaning on the same sorts of sectors that are doing it today, syringe service providers, bars and clubs, party promoters, even restaurants and small businesses, all places where people have shown that they are at risk of using drugs or actively using drugs on premises. We need to engage everyone in this effort because the drug supply is changing rapidly, 80% of overdose fatalities in 2021 involve fentanyl and we need people to know what they're using is safe if they choose to use. Is that a free distribution program or is that something they would have to buy into or how would that work? Currently it's free to the consumer, but it is a pilot. And so what's in this plan is a goal to expand that into a program, but it's always free to the user. It's not eligible for reimbursement through Medicaid or other programs. Mr. Mayor, I wonder what the research into the role of diet and mental health, how that will inform city policy. Will it affect what we serve in schools and hospitals and senior centers? Will you do campaigns? If you eat candy, it will make you mentally unstable. What will you do? No, it's a good question. And just for the record, you, Julia and Jay, you know our daughter, the three of you, you know. And it is amazing. We have been communicating with Naveen Jain, who's with an organization called Viome. And there's a body of research out there that when I first became aware of it, when I was running for office, that talks about the connectivity with the food we eat and how it impacts on several issues, behavior issues and mental health issues. We're going to lean into that. We're not going to move away from it. And as Dr. Fassan stated, we're going to follow the science. And so, governments should not feed crises. Governments should be preventing crises. And because we have been afraid to go with the science, we have actually been feeding some of the crises. And so it's not popular when we're doing with plant-powered Fridays. It's not popular when we do meatless Mondays of what we're doing in the hospital with default menus being plant-based of food. None of these are popular things. But the science is telling us that we can't continue to feed the healthcare crisis. So we're going to look at the science and do a real examination of the food we are supplying New Yorkers. How does it contribute to the mental health issues that they are facing and how does it contribute to brain health? Yes, it would. We're going to look at, again, we purchase food to feed people at their greatest level of need. If they're doing that, we should not be giving them food that is causing the healthcare crises on the other end. You know, I grew up eating that hard-ass cheese that I don't even know what it was made of. You know, powdered milk, powdered eggs. Little did I know that years and years of eating that contribute to the healthcare crisis that we're facing. And so how do we tell New Yorkers when they have no other option but to get the food from government that we're going to feed you food that is going to cause your chronic diseases? That is the greatest level of betrayal. My mother was betrayed by what they gave her to feed her children. And we must be honest about that. And I'm not going to live a lie. Suicide pilot prevention, suicide prevention pilot programs. Where will those be introduced? How many will be introduced? And what exactly will be new or different about the approach that they will take? Thanks for the question. You know, as I laid out in the speech and the mayor laid out, not only are girls displaying suicidal ideations at rates that we haven't seen in a decade, so are youth of color and LGBTQIA youth. And so our caring transitions program is focused on catching those young people at their moment of greatest vulnerability after a suicide attempt. So it's a hospital based interruption program where a peer counselor, a social worker can be with them in this immediately extraordinarily vulnerable period. The first 90 days after a suicide attempt is when children are at the highest risk of a repeat attempt and a completed attempt. And so we're piloting it in hospital based emergency rooms. Happy to get you more details on numbers and when it will start. We know that the system we have is incredibly path dependent. If you call 911 historically, your likelihood of being involved in the criminal legal system is significantly higher than getting a health response. Be Heard is the first step in repairing that. And operationally they've created teams to do that in parody zip codes, but let's not forget the culture change that has to come along with that. For 911 operators, it's a very difficult decision to make of when to, there can be a protocol on paper, but the nuance around those calls, I don't know if you've ever listened to a 911 call or been in a 911 dispatch center, it's an extraordinarily difficult job. And so there's training, there's education, there's follow-up, but this administration is committed to the expansion of Be Heard, city wide. Okay, and that's such a, so important what you said about the cultural change because our 911 operators, they feel millions of calls and we can't put them in a punitive setting when they're making the best decision based on information they have in front of them. If it goes a negative way, we become punitive towards them. And that's just unfair. Those 911 operators are dealing with the vicarious trauma. No one is calling 911 to say, hey, I wanna invite you to a birthday party. They calling them there when the party was shot up. And so when you hear that all day, every day, it's a lot of trauma. And so that cultural change of that understanding, the training and giving the support to our 911 operators is gonna make this transition easier. All right, Kate? Yep. Thank you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just kidding. Can you just give me, just wanted to say a silent prayer so God can give me the patience to answer these questions. I am going to reserve my personal opinion. The corporation council made a decision and I respect the corporation council judge, Sylvia Heinz-Raddix, and that's the decision they made. I'm going to respect the decision of the corporation council. His dad is a retired sergeant. I reached out to get his number and I'm going to call him immediately after this conference. I just know the moments after a tragedy like that, you just need some space. And you don't wanna be bombarded with people right away. So I wanted to give him an opportunity this morning when I was notified early this morning. And after the shooting, I reached out to the officers who were involved because I just know that after an encounter like that with people, what officers can go through. So I reached out to them, I communicated with them and I tried to just sort of ease their concern. Because these are young children, 21, 22 years old. And when I communicated with them, I just told them, you were protecting New Yorkers and I was hoping to ease the stress. And it just really broke my heart that we lived in a place where we were living and lost this young man. Reporter, on school prayer, do you think that teachers in city schools should be leading kids in prayer? I mean, you talked about prayer in schools. How do you think that should be configured if we're gonna do that more? No, I didn't talk about prayers in school. There are clear rules about prayers in school. I have nothing to do. I don't have the power to change that. I just gave you my belief, my belief. This is a country where on our dollar bill, bills we say in God we trust. The last thing I said when I was sworn in as the mayor, I stated, so help me God. Every event that I start, I start with prayer. Every event that we do when our congressional stay senators, they say, so help me God. Every president but three. At the end of their swearing in, they say, so help me God. They all touched a religious book. So I'm not a closet believer in God. I'm a public believer in God. I am who I am because of my belief in faith. And when I speak to my brothers and sisters in synagogues and Mars and Baptist temples and Buddhist temples and Sikh temples, they all say the same thing. And you've covered me a long time. I've never made it a secret that my spirituality guides the humanitarian response that I do. And so I think we need to find a way to introduce some form of spirituality in our children because they're not fighting against the scene. They're fighting against the unseen. And these poor children are grown up in an environment that is just so painful for them. And I just see them, I talk to them, I walk with them, I'm experiencing them. If I didn't have that when I was growing up and if I had to go through what they're going through right now, it's just very challenging. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Let me, let me finish, okay. Please, like we need to find a way to introduce them more. Please, please, I mean, how do you think we could do that? There's a number way, you know, you could have clubs. We could have children visit other houses of Russia as we're doing with our break and break building barn. If you are a child that is never introduced to alternate ways of, you know, how do you deal with your pain? Of we could introduce different groups outside to school setting to have our young people introduce to some form of spirituality. It's very healthy when I get up and do my prayers and do my breathing and do my meditation. And never dawn on y'all why I'm so patient with all of you. It's because I have a spiritual root and grounded and I would not be the mayor of the city of New York if it wasn't that God saw something in me. I am the most imperfect, most perfectly imperfect human being. I am here not because I'm the smartest, not because I'm the brightest. I'm here because and all my heart, I believe that it's an Esther 4 and 14th moment. God made me for such a time like this. Let them, let them, let them toy with this. You know, cause, cause let me, let me tell you something. Normally I get, I get disturbed when what I do is just distorted. Nothing gave me more joy than seeing on the front page of the daily news our words being attacked for protecting my belief in God. I, to me, that is, this is all I live for, to say to God, thank you, thank you. And so if I'm demonized for that, then I take that every day. You know, I am so happy that there are a small number of people who are saying that, you know, every belief in God, you should not be talking about it as the mayor. No, as the mayor, I should be talking about my belief in God. Go ahead. This rise, this rise, this rise my team crazy. Yes, just a quick thing. So there's a new council bill that would require works to abide by the right shelter laws. We're going to, you know, we like to work, work with all of our electives and we're going to look over with, with this bill is about and then we're going to make the determination based on that. With respect to the mental health crisis in the city, you addressed a lot of issues, you posed a lot of remedies, solutions to address that. One thing that struck me as missing from that was this notion of involuntarily committing dangerously mentally ill people. Is that because that's no longer part of the strategy? No, no, because we rolled it out. This was, this was phase two. We rolled it out already of what we're doing. We very, we were very clear on it. People who are dangerous to the extent that they cannot take care of themselves and they are showing an imminent threat to themselves or others. We already have a plan and what we wanted to do was to leave people with a clear understanding that was not our only plan. And there's a small number of people that fit that. Dr. Fassad laid out that the overwhelming number of people don't fit that criteria. And we wanted to introduce today, this is how we're going after that large volume of people that don't reach that small number of people. We want to go after them and prevent them from ever getting to that level. You wanted to add something to Dr. Fassad? No, I think you got it right. Oh my, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead. Thank you. Yes. Uh-huh. What I was trying to say is that we need to stop pretending that this is not a country that believes in faith. When you swear in to become a citizen of this country, you say, so help me God. As I stated, I'll dial a bill and God we trust. We put our hands on religious books when we swear in. So what I'm saying to New Yorkers and Americans, let's stop being afraid that we are people of faith. And people don't have to agree with me. But if you don't agree with me, that's fine. You want to be an atheist? That's fine. But those who believe in faith, because I'm calling for all of us to do something I believe we need to do, it's time to pray. And I'm hoping that we start embracing each other, diversity and faith. That's why we're doing a break and break building bonds. That is why I go to synagogues. That's why I go to mosques. That's why I go to churches. And so I don't know how one walks away because everybody in that room understood what I said. I don't know how one walks away that I'm trying to force people who don't believe in God to believe in God. I'm telling you what I believe. Mr. Mayor, if you said mindfulness, would anyone have argued with you? No, no, no, they wouldn't. See why I drive my staff crazy? Right, right. If I would have said mindfulness, everyone would have been all right. For God forbid, I say God. And so, could I just say a silent prayer for all of you? Thank you.