The proposed Department of Community Safety would send mental health teams to respond to 911 calls, rather than the police, according to Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s plans. Source: New York Times
Posts published in “Mental Health and Disorders”
N.Y.P.D. Officers Won’t Be Charged in Fatal Shooting of Queens Man
By Gotham Rex on December 4, 2025
Win Rozario, who had called 911 in distress, was holding scissors when two police officers shot him. The New York attorney general said it was unlikely the officers would be convicted. Source: New York Times
Manuel Trujillo, Who Helped New Yorkers Heal After 9/11, Dies at 80
By Gotham Rex on October 18, 2025
As Bellevue Hospital’s director of psychiatry, he guided rescue workers and grieving families through trauma when terrorists attacked in 2001. Source: New York Times
NYPD Used Excessive Force in Fatal Shooting of Queens Man, Board Says
By Gotham Rex on September 12, 2025
Win Rozario, 19, was having a mental health crisis when he called 911 seeking help. A police oversight board found that the officers who responded abused their authority. Source: New York Times
Police Fatally Shoot Queens Man Who Brandished Scissors, Officials Say
By Gotham Rex on March 29, 2024
The victim’s brother contradicted aspects of the police account of the shooting and said his mother had been restraining her son when officers fired their guns. Source: New York Times
Jordan Neely Was on New York’s ‘Top 50’ List of Homeless People at Risk
By Gotham Rex on May 15, 2023
Mr. Neely, who was killed by another subway rider, was on a watch list for a city task force that kept track of the New Yorkers of most concern. Source: New York Times
D.A. to Offer Mental Health Care to People Arrested in Manhattan
By Gotham Rex on December 14, 2022
District Attorney Alvin Bragg plans to spend $9 million to provide social workers and housing services to those who want them. Source: New York Times
Behind New York City’s Shift on Mental Health, a Solitary Quest
By Gotham Rex on December 11, 2022
The psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey has been advocating tougher involuntary psychiatric treatment policies for 40 years. Now it’s paying off. Source: New York Times
NYC’s Mental Health Plan Raises Questions for Police Officers
By Gotham Rex on December 5, 2022
Mayor Eric Adams wants police officers on the front lines, but critics say they are not trained to get people off the streets, and could endanger everyone involved. Source: New York Times
New York’s Dilemma: Who Should Be Hospitalized Against Their Will?
By Gotham Rex on December 2, 2022
Mayor Adams’s directive to remove people with mental illness from the streets raises a host of questions. Source: New York Times
New Yorkers Debate Mayor’s Approach to Mentally Ill
By Gotham Rex on November 30, 2022
Many city residents agree something needs to be done to remove people with severe mental illness from public places. But some experts say the mayor’s aggressive new approach may not help. Source: New York Times
On City Streets, Fear and Hope as Mayor Pushes to Remove Mentally Ill
By Gotham Rex on November 30, 2022
Mayor Eric Adams intends to remove people with severe, untreated mental illness from the streets. That will mean involuntary hospitalization of people deemed unable to care for themselves. Source: New York Times
NYC Will Hospitalize Mentally Ill People Involuntarily
By Gotham Rex on November 29, 2022
Mayor Eric Adams directed the police and emergency medical workers to hospitalize people they deemed too mentally ill to care for themselves, even if they posed no threat to others. Source: New York Times
Can This Man Stop Lying?
By Gotham Rex on November 29, 2022
Christopher Massimine, whose compulsive lying derailed a promising career in theater, maintains that it’s a mental illness that has dogged him since childhood. Source: New York Times
Dr. Mitchell Rosenthal, Phoenix House Founder, Dies at 87
By Gotham Rex on November 19, 2022
A psychiatrist, he was an early apostle for treating drug and alcohol addiction with group therapy in a residential setting. Source: New York Times