(WNY News Now) – New York – New York State is set to broaden the reach of its successful Safe Operations Support program, initially designed to rehouse chronically homeless individuals in New York City. The expansion, covering the Finger Lakes, Capital Region, Southern Tier, Hudson Valley, Erie County, Westchester County, and Long Island, is part of a comprehensive $1 billion plan to revolutionize mental health care in the state.
“Chronic homelessness is not an issue confined to one region of our state, and we must ensure effective programs reach far and wide,” Governor Hochul said. “By establishing Safe Options Supports teams throughout the state and more widely recognizing the link between homelessness and behavioral health challenges, we can help more individuals living with unmet mental health needs find stability.”
Administered by the Office of Mental Health, the Safe Options Support program has added four teams to serve Rochester and the Finger Lakes region; Albany, Schenectady and Saratoga counties in the Capital Region; Broome, Chenango and Otsego counties in the Southern Tier; and Orange and Dutchess counties in the Hudson Valley. These teams join three others that began serving communities in Erie County, Westchester County and Long Island last fall.
Governor Hochul met with staff from these multidisciplinary teams based in New York City and discussed their work and experiences in helping New Yorkers experiencing chronic homelessness to achieve stability, having conducted a similar visit with them in October. In addition, the Governor met with individuals helped into permanent housing through the program and heard accounts of the critical supports they received to address their situation.
The 14 teams now operating in New York City have helped find permanent housing for more than 330 formerly homeless individuals of the roughly 2,000 individuals living with mental illness on the streets or in the subway system. These teams have had approximately15,000 outreach encounters and enrolled more than 1,200 clients with serious mental illness into the program since its inception in 2022.
These teams use Critical Time Intervention, an evidence-based practice that helps connect vulnerable individuals in crisis to housing and services. Outreach and referral-based teams work with individuals experiencing homelessness to strengthen their skills and support network so that care can successfully be transferred to community-based providers.
The teams provide coordinated care transition and support throughout the engagement process, including post-housing placement. Initially provided $25 million in the FY 2023 State Budget, Governor Hochul expanded funding for this program to nearly $34 million.
Office of Mental Health Commissioner Dr. Ann Sullivan said, “The work of the Safe Options Support teams extends from initial street outreach to providing support to the individuals they help into temporary and ultimately permanent housing. Through trust and relationship building, these teams can help vulnerable individuals connect with the critical services and assistance they can rely for their recovery. By fully embracing this successful model, Governor Hochul is bringing critical mental health supports to New Yorkers and strengthening our state’s system of care overall.”
Additionally, OMH is codifying regulations that will guide the discharge of individuals from inpatient and emergency psychiatric settings. Likewise, the Department of Health drafted similar regulation changes for admissions and discharges from emergency room settings, which were posted today.
As part of this overall effort strengthen mental health care, the Department of Financial Services proposed regulations to establish network adequacy standards for behavioral health services for commercial insurers. The regulations establish appointment wait times for mental health and substance use disorder services, and when an in-network provider is not available within those standards, the regulations will require insurers to allow access to an out-of-network provider who can meet those standards, at no additional cost.
The Department of Health has proposed similar behavioral health network adequacy standards that will apply to the Medicaid program. The proposed regulations are subject to a 60-day comment period upon publication in the State Register.
New York State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said, “Chronic homelessness can take a devastating toll on a person’s mental and physical wellbeing. I thank Governor Hochul for her commitment to addressing homelessness in this state and providing resources and support to New Yorkers to help them maintain stability and good health.”
New York State Department of Financial Services Superintendent Adrienne A. Harris said, “This proposed regulation will improve access to desperately needed mental health and substance use treatment for all New Yorkers. The Department is committed to breaking down barriers to critical care and today’s proposal continues our efforts to build a more equitable, transparent, and resilient health care system in New York.”
Governor Hochul’s $1 billion mental health agenda recognizes the links between chronic homelessness, substance use disorder, and severe mental health challenges. In addition to creating thousands of housing units, the plan includes increased operational capacity for inpatient psychiatric treatment and $50 million to help community-based hospitals expand capacity; increased funding for in-school youth mental health programs; and increased insurance coverage for mental health services and substance use disorder treatment.
Governor Hochul’s plan to strengthen mental health care statewide has also helped increase the number of inpatient psychiatric beds, including bringing online nearly 500 beds at community-based hospitals that were previously closed around the COVID-19 pandemic. The state has also established 150 beds at state-operated psychiatric facilities in the last year and will add an additional 200 beds under Governor Hochul’s FY 2025 Executive Budget, including 75 Transition to Home beds, targeting those with recurring criminal justice involvement and a history of chronic homelessness.
Governor Hochul’s plan is also bolstering outpatient mental health support to ensure more New Yorkers can get high-quality outpatient care. In December 2023, the state funded 13 new Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics, with plans to fund another 13 later this year.
The plan is also providing funding for specialized housing with wraparound services for individuals living with serious mental illness. To date, OMH has released roughly $768 million to procurement to bolster residential programs for people with mental illness statewide.
Leave a Reply