The Adams administration says a pilot program for mental health emergency response is making steady progress. Members of the City Council are skeptical. The council is poised to scrutinize the performance and outcomes of the Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division, known as B-HEARD, during an oversight hearing today. The pilot, which was launched in 2021 by former Mayor Bill de Blasio, dispatches emergency medics and social workers to respond to mental health-related 911 calls instead of police. B-HEARD teams now operate in four of the five boroughs. While many council members support the city’s effort, they have also called for data on the outcomes of people who receive a B-HEARD response to assess whether the model has been effective in getting them the help they need. City data released Friday show B-HEARD teams answered nearly 15,000 calls during the 2023-2024 fiscal year, which ended June 30. That means B-HEARD teams responded to about 29 percent of the mental health-related 911 calls in the areas where it operates, up from 21 percent the year before. But the teams only managed to make contact with 7,400 people over the course of the year — in large part because once they showed up, they couldn’t find the person in crisis or first responders were already on the scene rendering aid, a City Hall spokesperson said. Of those, 3,600 received a behavioral health assessment, and 57 percent who got an assessment were transported to a hospital, according to the city’s data. The rest were connected to community-based services. The city’s data, however, does not capture what happened to those individuals after they were brought to a hospital or connected to other services. It’s also unclear what happened to the remaining 3,800 people who did not receive a behavioral health assessment. IN OTHER NEWS: — NYC Health + Hospitals issued a solicitation Friday for an artificial intelligence company to help it automate medical coding for health services. The chosen vendor would be tasked with using AI to translate patient charts into lists of billing codes based on the procedures and services they received. Health + Hospitals spokesperson Adam Shrier said the $4.5 million project will enable the system to more efficiently and accurately code outpatient services and allow its medical coders to devote more time to complex tasks. — Mount Sinai is expanding its psychedelic research with the opening of a larger facility in upper Manhattan, supported by a $5 million gift from the Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation, the health system announced Friday. The new Parsons Research Center for Psychedelic Healing expands Mount Sinai’s capacity for research assessing the therapeutic potential of compounds like MDMA, psilocybin and ketamine, as well as training on psychedelic-assisted therapy. It houses six treatment rooms and a group therapy room. ON THE AGENDA: — Monday at 10 a.m. The City Council hosts an oversight hearing on B-HEARD and responses to mental health crises. — Tuesday at 10 a.m. The New York State Opioid Settlement Fund Advisory Board meets. GOT TIPS? Send story ideas and feedback to Maya Kaufman at mkaufman@politico.com and Katelyn Cordero at kcordero@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.
| 
