NYC program focuses on mental illness in subway

New York City is spending $20 million in a program aimed at addressing mental health issues in the subway system after a spate of violent crimes, including murder, shook public confidence in the transit system. 

The city's SCOUT program, created in October 2023, is being championed as one way that it is connecting people with untreated severe mental illness on the subways to mental health treatment and care.

Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom said in a statement: "The first step is often the hardest: connecting a person with medical care that they may not recognize they need. This is the critical mission of our SCOUT teams."

Consisting of a clinician and two Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) police officers, the SCOUT teams have removed 90 individuals from the subway system and into care in the program's first three months of operation, the city said.

Mayor Eric Adams said more clinicians would soon be hired to increase the total number of SCOUT teams to 10 by the end of 2025, with money pledged by Governor Kathy Hochul.

The joint state and city effort to treat those with mental health problems came after the New York Police Department (NYPD) said that there were four homicides in the system this year, compared with just one in the same period last year.

Between Jan 1 and March 31, there were 538 subway crimes equating to six crimes a day, NYPD data showed. It was a drop of 1.1 percent compared to 2023. But arrests in the subway system are up almost 53 percent compared to last year, including an 83 percent increase in gun arrests.

As the lifeblood for city workers, families and tourists who travel across boroughs, the subway is a well-known haven for the homeless who sprawl out on the plastic seats with their heads covered with a jacket surrounded by their belongings.

Since 2022, more than 1,000 homeless people have been removed from the subway and taken to get treatment, put in a homeless shelter or placed in temporary housing, City Hall said.

Officials face a huge task to keep riders safe, as the subway system transports 3 million riders 24 hours a day, seven days per week, on 6.500 train cars that go through 472 stations. 

In March, Hochul and Adams deployed 1,000 more police officers, 1,000 National Guard members, transit officers and state police to patrol the subway stations.

Adams has said the subway system is the safest it has been since he took office in January 2022. He was a New York City transit police officer and then a member of the NYPD for more than 20 years, retiring at the rank of captain.

Despite NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban announcing on April 3 that subway crime had fallen 23.5 percent in March compared to the same time last year, due to the surge of officers, riders are still on edge.

One recent crime over all others left commuters rattled last month.

Carlton McPherson, 24, a mentally ill man from the Bronx, was arrested and charged with murder for allegedly shoving Jason Volz, 54, into a train at East 125th Street and Lexington Avenue station on March 25.

Daquan McPherson, Carlton's brother, said that his family had repeatedly tried to ensure he remained in psychiatric care, but he was released just two weeks before the incident with Volz.

"The city is failing all mentally ill people," Daquan told the New York Post. "He just got out of the hospital two weeks ago. We begged them to keep him but they said he wasn't a threat to himself or others so they couldn't keep him, and they let him go."

Under New York's Mental Hygiene Law, a person experiencing a mental health episode can be admitted to a psychiatric center voluntarily or involuntarily.

Those admitted on a voluntary basis can submit a written request for discharge at any time and are only blocked if deemed to need more care. People admitted on an involuntary basis can be kept for up to 60 days or longer with a court order.

Anyone who commits a crime and is found not responsible due to a mental "disease or defect" can be committed to a hospital by a court order.

In the weeks before his arrest, the city had put McPherson into a specialized shelter system for people with mental disorders. There are 38 of the shelters with enough beds for 5,500 people, access to social workers and psychiatrists. They cost around $260 million a year to run.

But at one shelter, in Brooklyn, Roe Dewayne, a man who was staying alongside McPherson, saw him acting erratically and attack a security guard, making it obvious that he "needed more help'', he told The New York Times. At another shelter, onlookers saw McPherson quickly shift between anger and happiness.

To help more people in shelters easily access healthcare, NYC Health + Hospitals and the NYC Department of Social Services have launched a telehealth program called Virtual ExpressCare. More than 5,000 people in shelters have used the service since January 2023.

"Virtual ExpressCare also offers care for mental health conditions, including stress, anxiety, and depression," Stephanie Buhle, first deputy press secretary for Health, told China Daily. "However, it's important to note that telehealth is not the only option for people living in a shelter. They can also access regular ongoing mental healthcare at our hospitals."

MTA Chairman Janno Lieber struck a defiant note over the state of the subway during a board meeting in March: "We are not surrendering our city to anyone. Not to criminals, and not even to the people who have severe mental health issues, although we feel a ton of compassion for them."