NYC Health + Hospitals, New York City’s largest behavioral health provider, has developed a three-year plan to strengthen and expand behavioral health services.
More than 76,000 patients rely on NYC Health + Hospitals’ behavioral health services each year, and with approximately 5,000 behavioral health staff across 11 hospitals and more than 30 community health care centers, the system provides approximately 60 percent of New York City’s behavioral health services.
This effort is being funded in part with $41 million through the Behavioral Health Centers of Excellence, a New York State investment to restructure, develop and strengthen core acute and outpatient behavioral health services for high-risk individuals enrolled in New York State Medicaid managed care. Additional funding includes the Opioid Settlement Fund and city, state, federal and philanthropic funds.
The health system has identified six core strategies to guide its efforts over the three-year period from 2024-2026 to restore and maximize inpatient capacity, expand access to outpatient services, increase services for special populations, strengthen social work, care management and peer services, prevent violence and improve safety, and develop the behavioral health workforce.
“As demand for services grows, our system also faces significant challenges, including aging infrastructure and a national shortage of health care workers,” Omar Fattal, MD, MPH, deputy chief medical officer and behavioral health system director at NYC Health + Hospitals, said in a statement. “But like the city we serve, we will not run away in the face of challenges. We are accelerating our work and deepening our resolve. We are redoubling our commitment to providing excellent behavioral health services across the continuum of care.”
In January 2024, NYC Health + Hospitals achieved its goal of restoring all psychiatric beds that had been closed to meet medical needs during the pandemic and for essential facility strengthening, reaching nearly 1,000 beds that are staffed and ready to accept patients. The organization said it will continue to renovate its behavioral health inpatient units and optimize outpatient workflows to better utilize mental health professionals’ time and overall processes.
Another goal is to increase outpatient volume by at least 10 percent.
Special populations, such as individuals with co-occurring substance use disorders, intellectual and developmental disabilities, homeless people, and children and adolescents, often require targeted interventions to address their cross-cutting psychiatric and social needs.
With funding from the Opioid Settlement Fund, NYC Health + Hospitals is planning a new, comprehensive, system-wide substance use training program to help patients from all walks of life receive evaluation and treatment for substance use disorders.
The organization is also establishing 16 school-based mental health clinics to provide additional services in the city’s schools and link them to existing outpatient services.
Additionally, we are opening an extended care unit at NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst to provide additional treatment and housing for psychiatric patients with complex needs, the third such unit system-wide.
NYC Health + Hospitals will expand its care management workforce with increased training focused on behavioral health, with an emphasis on supporting social determinants of health such as food and housing insecurity, and will introduce a Social Work Training Academy to standardize training for all 1,000 social workers across NYC Health + Hospitals’ social work disciplines to enhance practice and patient outcomes.
The health system said it will continue building a culture of safety and train staff in key areas such as screening and assessment of high-risk patients, de-escalation techniques, trauma-informed approaches and violence prevention.
Given the nationwide shortage of behavioral health staff, NYC Health + Hospitals will invest in programs to recruit, train and retain staff essential to the operations of New York City’s largest behavioral health providers. Plans include providing loan repayments to behavioral health providers and staff in exchange for three years of service to the health system, and implementing telepsychiatry in psychiatric emergency and inpatient settings to alleviate significant staffing capacity issues, reduce wait times and quickly stabilize patients’ conditions.
