According to a May report by the New York City Health Department, in 2023, midtown Manhattan had one of the highest unmet mental health treatment needs in NYC, with nearly one out of every two people who need mental health treatments in Chelsea and the West Village unable to receive the care they need. 

City Council member Erik Bottcher of District 3 proposed implementing the Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division, or B-Heard, in a recent Community Board 5 meeting. The program would send mental health specialists to respond to mental health crises by reducing the number of police who respond to mental health 911 calls. 

B-Heard was started by Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2021 to reduce police response to 911 calls to lower the chances of self-harm or suicide, according to THE CITY. According to the Mayor’s Office Community Mental Health’s website, the B-heard program covers 31 precincts in 4 boroughs, including the Bronx, Upper Manhattan, Central Brooklyn, and Northwestern Queens. Community Board 5 members, in Midtown, have been calling for action in implementing the B-Heard program for the past years. However, implementing B-Heard in the midtown area has yet to be successful due to a lack of city funding and trained specialists to take on the job. 

According to the Council of State Governments, “The B-HEARD program is financed through city funding allocated to FDNY/EMS and NYC Health + Hospitals with oversight by the Mayor’s Office of Community Mental Health.” Basem Hassan, of the B-Heard press office, stated in an email that plans have yet to be made to expand the program into other regions of NYC because they are not included in the November 2023 financial plan and Preliminary FY25 budget. 

Jumaane D. William, the NYC Public Advocate, raised concerns about police response during a mental health crisis at the City Council Committee hearing for B-Heard. “There is a shortage of 911 operators who can appropriately triage the calls, leading to a default police response,” he said. “It can be difficult to discern over the phone what is happening at the scene and whether there is a risk of harm to the caller or to the responders.” 

The B-Heard team and the Mayor’s Office did not respond to requests for more information.

B-Heard has received criticisms about not having enough training for its staff. During a mental health crisis call, “not all mental health calls are eligible for a B-HEARD response,” according to the Mayor’s Office of Community Mental Health website. 

NYPD Deputy Chief at Communications Division Ebony Washington addresses the concerns about the amount of training 9-1-1 dispatchers receive on routing the calls during the City Council Hearing. “In NYC, 9-1-1 operators receive 90 days training…as far as mental health, it is a full day training by a certified instructor,” providing different scenarios that might happen during an emergency call, said Washington. The operators would always connect the person to EMS but don’t medically triage, she added. 

 

City Council Member Erik Bottcher questioned the B-Heard team during the hearing about where B-Heard will be implemented next when the freeze gets lifted. According to B-Heard, the choice of precincts is based on the volume of 9-1-1 calls it receives and other operational considerations. The B-Heard team has not yet decided which precincts they’ll reach.

 

The city has no current plan for further expansion of the B-Heard program. As concerns about B-Heard’s effectiveness remain unsolved, community board members continue to fight for the unmet midtown mental health treatment crisis.