19:12 GMT 01 Mar 2019. Even as the city has poured money into mental health programs and training, nonprofit directors said they still struggle with providing treatment, citing inadequate Medicaid reimbursement rates and even less generous reimbursements from commercial insurers. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Roughly 10 percent of the Thrive budget, more than $30 million in the current fiscal year, goes to address serious mental illness, according to City Hall. During a recent visit, a screen played YouTube videos of adorable animals, to help soothe staff members who work in sound-dampened cubicles. No, Dr. Gary Belkin, a top health official and the chief of policy and strategy for Thrive, said of using the hotline to connect people to care effectively. Just this week, McCray sat side-by-side with de Blasio as he presented his newly appointed public schools chancellor and on Thursday she is slated to co-host a town hall with the mayor on gun violence in schools. So, ipso presto, co-Mayor Bill coughed up enough cash to break a pack mules back and sent it off to co-Mayor Chirlane who then went forth to cure Gothams mental-illness problems. The money was going to NYC's Thrive program for people with mental health problems that is overseen by McCray. Four years later, no one seems to know what that money was actually used for, according to the New York Post. De Blasio did not say hed pursue a change in the law and acknowledged there were good historical reasons for the rule. Fox News host Laura Ingraham called it a "mental health scheme." The fact is that a health program championed by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's wife cannot account for $850 million taxpayer dollars. The outcome has not come close to reaching the goal. "I'm not sure anybody does.". While this may appear to be a good idea to spend a lot of money on a mental health effort, it appears that no one has seen any actual results. Fast-forward to Wednesday, when the City Council was startled to discover that McCray and Team Thrive are closing in on havingspent an eye-popping $900 millionsince the programs inception and nobody seems to have a clue on what. In the three years it has been running, organizers at ThriveNYC have largely failed to keep records of the initiative's achievements - and data that has been collected shows it lagging . Market data provided by Factset. The Thrive program, which had its budget raised to $250 million per year in 2019, has produced some underwhelming numbers in terms of how many people it impacts. That is, reversing Bloomberg administration plans to shut down 100 miserably malfunctioning schools, thus saving the jobs of barely competent teachers and administrators and shutting up small bands of noisy parents who loved the schools despite their failings. https://t.co/fqUIyfFc8Z, John Cardillo (@johncardillo) March 1, 2019, De Blasio's wife can't account for $850m given to mental health scheme https://t.co/gTEJcrCeob via @MailOnline, Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) March 1, 2019, . For instance, Thrives metrics show that between July 2016 and October 2018, 189,070 Naloxone kits were distributed throughout hospitals, syringe exchange programs and other sites where opioid overdose is common. All rights reserved. But also mayoral spouse Chirlane McCray, who has just been revealed as a world-class boondoggler in her own right. Did NYC Mayor Bill DeBlasio's Wife "Lose" $850 MILLION of Taxpayer Money? Chirlane McCray, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's wife, was entrusted in 2015 with running a new initiative in the city called ThriveNYC, a program that attempted to address issues of homelessness, substance use, depression and suicide, all centered around mental health and with a price tag of $250 million per year in tax payer dollars. Flashback: Bill De Blasio's Wife Lost Nearly $1 Billion Taxpayer Seven mayors attended a 2017 national mental health conference in New York City. Wife of Corrupt NY Mayor Bill de Blasio Makes $850 Million of Taxpayer It was honorable work, it didnt cost very much and it filled up the spouses free time. The mental health initiative, known as ThriveNYC, is crucial to Ms. McCrays potential as a future political candidate, and has become increasingly important to Mr. de Blasio as he toys with a possible 2020 presidential bid. Arizona Hospital Temporarily Suspends Admission of Cardiac Arrest Patients Due Democrats Hiding That John Fetterman is Brain Dead to Prevent Special Election? Susan Herman does the day-to-day management and makes the decisions, Ms. McCray said when asked about her role, adding that her role was to amplify ThriveNYCs message to the public., Pressed on how much of the programs budget went to the seriously mentally ill, Ms. McCray responded by questioning how that category is defined. If we want to reach all these women, we need to start somewhere. We dont have everything, but we do have quite a bit.. That the co-mayors could fly under the radar to burn through $1.6 billion to no obvious good effect is an embarrassment but understandable in the abstract. I'm not sure anybody does.'. But the co-mayor made performance promises when he initiated the Renewal program, few of which even remotely were met, and presently gravity prevailed: The program caved in on itself. NYC Mayor De Blasio's wife spent $900 million in taxpayer - TheBlaze I first saw the story online under the title: "Bill DeBlasio's Wife Reportedly Loses $850 Million of Taxpayer Funds! Updated: 02/27/2019 05:14 PM EST Since its inception in 2015, ThriveNYC the city's sprawling $850 million initiative to address a variety of mental health issues has operated without much. That it should happen in a single week is worse its an embarrassment. . How about the Hurricane Sandy recovery effort six years, uncountable delays and billions of dollars later? That is, once upon a time, first spouses were content to pretend to be in charge of prettifying highways and things. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. People are allowed to call anonymously, and the calls are confidential. Thrive said it has developed a list of 417 metrics to measure how effective the program is moving forward, but asked to assess its impact so far, Politico said the data was piecemeal and showed a largely failing picture. .hustle-ui.hustle_module_id_1[data-id="1"] .hustle-layout .hustle-button-cta {width:100%!important;font-size:18px!important;}.hustle-ui.module_id_1 .hustle-popup-content {max-width: 400px!important;}.hustle-group-content p {font-size:18px!important;margin: 24px 0 0!important;}.hustle-content-wrap{padding-bottom:0!important;}, We may receive compensation from affiliate partners for some links on this site. The mayor and first lady have falsely declared stigma rather than lack of services as being the major barrier faced by the seriously mentally ill thereby justifying the diversion of funds to public relations campaigns rather than services, DJ Jaffe, executive director of Mental Illness Policy Organization, an advocacy group, wrote in an email. But she cant get paid, so she is doing it as a volunteer.. To bypass internet censorship, connect with us directly by enabling our notifications (using the red subscription bell in the bottom right corner) or by subscribing to our free daily newsletter. (Separately, the Health Department spends nearly 10 times as much on the seriously mentally ill.), Ms. Herman stressed more than once during the hearing that Thrive was not a new mental health system. That message contrasted one repeated by Mr. de Blasio, including during a radio interview on Friday. But over the course of two years between 2016 and 2018 the hospital screened a little over 28,000 patients and just 570 were offered help, a fraction of the 12,000 to 15,000 who were estimated to need care. NO JOKE: Bill De Blasio's Wife Lost $850 Million Taxpayer Dollars In Bill de Blasio's wife "misplaced" $850 million taxpayer money Its about trying to give people who are socioeconomically disadvantaged access to the same kind of mental health care that people in upper middle income or affluent communities have enjoyed as a matter of course for a very long time.. Thrive NYC is really best understood as a tale of two cities initiative, said Stephen Eide, a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute and an expert on homelessness and urban policy. Good thing it wasn't an even $1 billion, huh? Thats because there never was any doubt what the program was about. Last month, McCray and de Blasio announced the appointment of Deputy Mayor Phil Thompson together. We need all agencies involved in this issue because all agencies touch it, Belkin said. Hey, the family that preys together stays together, right? Things happen. The city invested heavily on mental health before the de Blasio administration: For example, the Health Department spent $243 million in the 2014 fiscal year on mental health contracts. I bet you're never seen this story reported on the nightly newsbut don't worry, we'll show it to you! Representatives from four advocacy and service organizations said that Thrive does not fund greater access to inpatient treatment or intensive outpatient services for those with serious mental illnesses, further burdening the social safety net. But that kind of programming wont address institutional problems like homelessness and serious mental illness, which are financial and safety burdens to the city, he said. But this is 2019, and the general feeling at least in the deBlasio administration is that if theres not a lot of dough attached to the spousal sinecure, it doesnt really matter enough. Another prominent element of Thrive is an expansion of mental health first aid training. De Blasio cancels high-costing Renewal school program, With opaque budget and elusive metrics, $850M ThriveNYC program attempts a reset, Chirlane McCray's 'Thrive' initiative on track to spend $1B in 5 years. Four years later, no one seems to know what that money was actually used for, according to the New York Post. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's wife, Chirlane McCray, was given $900 million to start a mental health initiative focusing on helping the homeless in the city. Thank you for contacting us. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more Fox News politics content. (Hes kind of busy, she said. And because Thrive encompasses a variety of initiatives some new, some already in existence across more than a dozen agencies, it is difficult to establish a central, line-item budget delineating how the city is spending taxpayer dollars on the program. ", CHIRLANE MCCRAY ENJOYS $2M STAFF OF 14 AMID NYC BUDGET CRISIS, He added, "The mental health crisis is much deeper because of the coronavirus, across the whole city, that's one of the things she's been working on intensely, but also as the co-chair of the internal task force this extraordinary task force on racial inclusion that has been moving big policy changes.". The call center, operated under city contract, took over the old Lower Manhattan offices of a city suicide hotline known as LifeNet, a service with calls that peaked at 105,000 in 2014. New York is supposed to be better than that. "I like the fact that money is going toward mental health, but when they say we're seeing a benefit in all areas, I take exception to that, because I don't see it everywhere," Queens Councilman Robert Holden told The Post. We did not say everything would be perfect, burbled the co-mayor as if anybody outside his immediate orbit expected an outcome even close to competent. For all the talk, the initiative has been less sweeping than envisioned: A third of the budget has not been spent, according to an analysis of city data by The New York Times. On his now-frequent tours of early presidential primary states, Mayor Bill de Blasio has taken to invoking a less-familiar aspect of his tenure: a nearly $1 billion plan to address mental illness in New York City. But he bemoaned the inadequacy of state funding, and called the citys contracting process broken. We've received your submission. Two budget breakdowns acquired by POLITICO one from City Hall and one from the Independent Budget Office show significant differences in spending. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's wife, Chirlane McCray, was given $900 million to start a mental health initiative focusing on helping the homeless in the city. Anyone can read what you share. Some have closed their doors; others have chosen to stop providing mental health services. Things happen. Frustration over Thrives veteran outreach program spilled over into a tense Council hearing just this week. In the case of diversion programs, which aim to keep individuals with mental health and substance use problems in treatment instead of jails, Thrive only tracks the number of people released under supervision and those screened during pre-arraignment not if or how city-funded intervention worked. So its a mater of choosing your poison do you choose the additional income or keeping your credibility with the public?. For example, 29 hospitals had agreed to screen almost 78,000 new mothers for post-natal depression each year as part of the scheme. Four years later, no one seems to know what that money was actually used for, according to the New York Post. What do they always tell you when youre in high school or in college? But this is 2019, and the general feeling at least in the deBlasio administration is that if theres not a lot of dough attached to the spousal sinecure, it doesnt really matter enough. The wife of New York Mayor Bill de Blasio "can't account for" $850 million in missing taxpayer money that was granted to her mental health project, according to reports. Fast-forward to Wednesday, when the City Council was startled to discover that McCray and Team Thrive are closing in on having spent an eye-popping $900 million since the programs inception and nobody seems to have a clue on what. Again, though, no data was available on the number of people referred or the outcomes of the treatment. An iron fist in a velvet glove, gov? The data comes from aPolitico report that shows those running the scheme have largely failed to measure its impact or keep track of spending. or redistributed. Officials are also collecting survey data. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. [What you need to know to start the day: Get New York Today in your inbox.]. That is, nobody appears to have kept receipts; the subways and street corners are still overrun with crazy people, and nobody in charge knows whats to happen next. While it plans to be more deliberate in the future, Thrive staff did not provide internal goals or benchmarks by which to judge its progress to this point. Its safe again and were having a lot of fun over there. New York has given up on policing drugs, and the city suffers, David Paterson is right Mayor Adams needs to get tougher. McCray is the proprietress of ThriveNYC, a mental-health-related something-or-other created four-plus years ago to give a little heft to the conceit that Bill and Chirlane were elected as co-mayors which is nonsense on stilts. Few of those who dial the number agree to a follow-up call, making it hard to gauge its effectiveness. Legal Statement. If were not addressing those two problems, then whatever we are doing is lacking, Eide said. If this is the highest level of care, she asked, how many success stories are there really?, Chirlane McCray, de Blasios Wife, Is Questioned Over His Revolutionary $1 Billion Mental Health Plan, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/22/nyregion/thrivenyc-mental-health-.html. I think its safe to say that Bill DeBlasios presidential prospects are dead in the water before they even started. The city also published a 150-day update report in June 2016 that described key milestones produced within the first five months of the program such as bringing educational programming to homeless shelters and community groups and outlined what it hoped to accomplish in the coming years. And guess what I finally found it. (She receives no pay for her city work.). FLASHBACK: Bill De Blasio's Wife Lost $850 Million Taxpayer Dollars In McCrays office provided The CIty with names of eight full-time employees whose salaries added up to about $1.1 million. We value your opinions, and would love to see you add to the discussion! Bill de Blasio's wife can't account for staggering amount of taxpayer money that the NY Mayor gave her for mental health project Bill de Blasio's wife Chirlane McCray cannot explain where $850million given to the mental health program she champions has gone, according to reports. Council Member Chaim Deutsch, chair of the veterans committee, along with two other Council members, said the veterans program had failed to materialize in their districts. Thrive has publicized some data through the mayors annual management report of all city agencies, beginning in 2016, but it encompassed only a fraction of the programs scope.