New York City has quite a number of tools in its toolbox to address severe mental illness, but supply rarely meets demand. That has been an ongoing issue with two of the city’s most popular community-based programs, a statewide model called Assertive Community Treatment and a city-launched initiative called intensive mobile treatment. Both programs dispatch mental health care providers — including psychiatrists, nurses, social workers and peer counselors — to meet with their clients at home or in the community several times per month. In some cases, especially when clients are homeless, that requires providers to first find them. The format, inevitably, means a given treatment team can care for only so many people at a time. A fully staffed Assertive Community Treatment, or ACT, team serves either 48 or 68 people at a time, while intensive mobile treatment teams typically have a caseload of just over two dozen clients. A news report last year found that over 1,000 of New Yorkers with serious mental illnesses are awaiting a spot on either an ACT or intensive mobile treatment team, a wait that may stretch as long as a year. One reason for the wait is that some clients who have found success with ACT or intensive mobile treatment still remain on their team’s roster, because there are no similar but less rigorous programs to which they can graduate. A new program being launched this fall by the Institute for Community Living, a nonprofit that runs ACT and intensive mobile treatment teams, is designed to tackle exactly that issue. The three-year pilot, called STEPS, will serve as a step-down program for New Yorkers who could still benefit from mental health support and case management but no longer need such an intensive model of care. The pilot will be able to serve approximately 250 people and is expected to reduce the citywide waitlists by about 10 percent, according to Jody Rudin, the organization’s CEO. It is funded with a $2.3 million grant from the Helmsley Charitable Trust. “We designed STEPS to help an increased number of people receive the care they need to build stability, move off the streets, and lead their best lives,” Rudin said in a statement. ON THE AGENDA: — Tuesday, 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The New York State Opioid Settlement Fund Advisory Board meets. — Wednesday, 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Care for the Homeless and BronxWorks host a policy seminar on New York City street outreach. — Thursday at 10 a.m. The Public Health and Health Planning Council’s Committee on Establishment and Project Review meets. GOT TIPS? Send story ideas and feedback to Maya Kaufman at mkaufman@politico.com. Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You’ll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day’s biggest stories.
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