COMPREHENSIVE 20-PAGE BILL REVOLUTIONIZES MENTAL HEALTHCARE SYSTEM, DELIVERING UNPRECEDENTED ACCESS TO TREATMENT, SCREENINGS, DIVERSION PROGRAMS, AND MORE TO GET EVERYONE OFF THE STREETS AND INTO TREATMENT
Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar announced her comprehensive plan to end New York's mental health crisis with the introduction of her 20-page bill A2719, the “Empire State of Mind Act.” This historic legislation promises to revolutionize the way mental health care is delivered, fundamentally reshaping the public health, criminal justice, correctional, and shelter systems to ensure that every New Yorker in need receives the support they deserve.
The most transformative mental health bill in over sixty years, the Empire State of Mind Act is more than a bill: it is a statement that New York has a moral and ethical obligation to provide accessibility and care. Rajkumar’s bill guarantees that wrap-around community mental health treatment is not just a privilege for the few but a right for all New Yorkers grappling with serious mental illness (SMI). The bill’s ambitious agenda includes the creation of EmPath centers in every county in the state as a voluntary, holistic alternative to crisis care, the establishment of a right to community mental healthcare, and a regulation holding providers accountable to ensure people with SMI (especially those that are involuntarily committed) have guaranteed access and engagement with community-based, psychosocial supports.
Untreated SMI has reached crisis levels in New York City, where approximately one in ten residents experiences serious psychological distress, yet only half receive necessary treatment. An estimated 2,000 housing insecure people and SMI cycle through hospitals, the streets, and the criminal justice system. While people with SMI are much more likely to be the victims of violence than the perpetrators, a small number without treatment have committed high profile assaults and homicides. Many of these individuals have known histories of hospital admissions and arrests, yet they are released without the follow-up care they desperately need.
In crafting this vital legislation, Assemblywoman Rajkumar engaged directly with frontline workers and individuals with lived experience, ensuring that their voices shaped the bill's provisions. While conversations in Albany have centered on expanding involuntary admissions, the Assemblywoman consistently heard from the homeless and those suffering from SMI about their overwhelming desire to obtain help—only to be met with denials, bureaucratic hurdles, and daunting waitlists. They described Byzantine application processes with absurd requirements like a birth certificate or correspondence by mail before they could get any treatment.
Assemblywoman Rajkumar’s Empire State of Mind Act asserts the right to comprehensive, person-centered mental healthcare for all individuals with SMI. Its laser-focused strategy addresses the critical points of interaction with government systems—hospitalization, incarceration, arrest, and shelter admission—all junctures that open the door to intervention and care. Despite their need for long-term, comprehensive care, New Yorkers living with SMI are frequently released without the support they require.
Under this transformative act, individuals in a mental health crisis who are admitted to emergency rooms cannot be inappropriately discharged or denied ongoing treatment. They will be entitled to continued inpatient care, and upon discharge, a wrap-around outpatient treatment plan will be provided. Providers and facilities are held accountable to ensure people living with SMI are reintegrated back into the community with an arsenal of supports (such as clubhouses, meaningful employment, housing, other psychosocial services). Each person admitted will be entitled to a patient advocate - peers with lived experience - to coordinate all care, and a legal procedure to challenge a hospital's decision to discharge them prematurely.
To support those entangled in the criminal justice system, the Empire State of Mind Act mandates mental health screenings for all individuals entering correctional facilities, directing those with SMI toward the treatment they urgently need. The bill expands mental health courts across every county, ensuring that individuals with SMI are directed to care rather than incarceration.
Likewise, the Empire State of Mind Act requires mental health screenings and treatment referrals and follow-through for everyone entering homeless shelters. It aims to create a safer environment by transitioning the mental health shelter system to single units and phasing out congregate shelters, which often leave residents feeling unsafe and drive them back to the streets and subways.
Assemblywoman Rajkumar said, “The mental health crisis is affecting us all, and I am taking the lead to put an end to this devastation. We need a Marshall Plan to provide thousands of our fellow New Yorkers the mental healthcare and housing they need to thrive. I have listened to the stories of those caught in the revolving door of hospitals, navigating Byzantine application processes and enduring endless waitlists. When we pass the Empire State of Mind Act, we will ensure that every New Yorker has a dignified pathway to recovery.”
The bill also mandates the establishment of more inpatient and outpatient facilities dedicated to mental health treatment and ensures access to assertive community treatment—an evidence-based, wraparound service model that has proven effective in stabilizing individuals. Additionally, the act initiates a statewide network of EmPATH units, which provides a voluntary path to urgent care to remedy most acute mental health crises within 24 hours.
Beyond expanding capacity, Assemblywoman Rajkumar’s legislation holds service providers accountable for their performance, requiring transparent reporting on patient outcomes rather than merely focusing on the number of beds. The bill streamlines access to services, simplifying application processes, presuming eligibility, and mandating timely enrollment.
Rajkumar’s bill earned the enthusiastic, national support of preeminent experts in the field of mental health, praising its practical, common sense, evidence-based policies.
Dr. Thomas R. Insel, former Director of National Institute of Mental Health and Board Member of Fountain House said, “Thank you to Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar for authoring the ‘Empire State of Mind Act.’ The key to making involuntary or voluntary treatment a success is ensuring that people get the full range of services they need to recover. This proposal uses an advocate to navigate and coordinate those services, which is exactly what New Yorkers living with serious mental illness need. I urge the New York State legislature to take up the Assemblywoman’s bill, which serves as a model for all states to emulate.”
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