Commissioner Martin on mobile treatment, clubhouses, and federal funding

In particular, there are long-standing funding cliffs that have been structurally solved in the budget.

We're grateful to see our work receive the long-term stability it deserves and break out of the pattern of year-to-year funding.

That includes our mobile treatment programming, which encompasses intensive mobile treatment and assisted outpatient treatment teams.

IMT teams serve New Yorkers whose needs are not being met in traditional health care settings.

They serve some of our hardest-to-reach neighbors and meet them wherever they are, at home, in the showroom,

shelter, street corner.

Many of these teams include both clinicians and peers who are equipped to support New Yorkers through mental health and substance use disorder treatment.

Services are individualized and courses of treatment are expected to last several years.

That program reached more than 1,000 people a year.

In parallel, our assisted outpatient treatment teams support adults with a history of multiple hospitalizations or harm caused by non-adherence to mental health treatment plans.

AOT reinforces recovery by monitoring the progress of a court-ordered treatment plan and supporting New Yorkers through care coordination across multiple service providers.

That work supports more than 2,000 people a year.

We are also encouraged to see funding stabilized for clubhouses, which provide New Yorkers living with serious mental illness with help accessing benefits, employment opportunities, and communities.

There are 13 clubhouses across all five boroughs.

Each of these physical sites houses a community stronghold for New Yorkers with mental illness.

40% of members have been enrolled for more than five years.

Here, participants are not clients, they're not patients, they're members.

And each clubhouse is designed by and for the members it serves.

New Yorkers deserve reliable, stable access to these services, and we're reassured this council and this administration are dedicating resources to sustain them.

Finally, at the federal level, we are watching this administration's actions very closely.

Closely.

National mental health infrastructure has consistently been devalued as far as we've seen under this administration.

Harm reduction work in particular has come under unwarranted scrutiny.

At the New York City Health Department, our federal funding is concentrated in our disease control and our emergency preparedness divisions.

Our mental hygiene division is not heavily reliant on federal funding, but every part of our agency is impacted by the rapidly changing public health landscape we live in.

We continue to monitor changes in federal funding, infrastructure, and policy.

And so in many ways, this year ahead is sure to be a challenging one, but I have every confidence that we will meet the moment.

That confidence is not derived from any one leader, but it's derived from the many public servants committed to showing up for our city every day.

Early in my tenure as health commissioner, I spoke with one of our public servants working in substance use recovery.

Her name was Bev.

When I asked Bev what keeps her going every day, she told me something I'll never forget.

She told me this wasn't a job, it was a calling.

I'm grateful to lead an agency of people who took a job and made it a calling.

I have every confidence my agency will continue to answer the call for our city.

Thanks for your attention.

We're happy to answer your questions.

Great, thank you.