MEDIA ADVISORY: Daniel’s Law Task Force will hear from NYC Department of Health

ALBANY, NY  – New York Senator Samra G. Brouk (SD-55) announces that members of the public will have an opportunity to comment at the next Daniel’s Law Task Force virtual meeting from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 25. 

The meeting will be streamed live and feature presentations from the New York City Mayor’s Office of Community Mental Health, along with other city departments, including the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the New York City Fire Department.

The presentations slated for the meeting will feature an overview of the city’s crisis response systems and initiatives. 

Members of the public may register to speak beforehand.

About Daniel’s Law NY Senate Bill 2398: The legislation, named in honor of Daniel Prude who died in Rochester, NY, at the hands of police in 2020 while having a mental health crisis, would shift the response to mental health and substance use emergencies from police officers to teams of emergency medical workers, counselors and trained peers by establishing a statewide emergency and crisis response council to jointly approve emergency and crisis services plans submitted by local governments. The legislation outlines supports for the operation and financing of high-quality emergency and crisis services. For the first time, Daniel’s Law passed through the New York State Senate Mental Health Committee in May 2024.

Organizations that have publicly expressed support for Daniel’s Law include: NAMI-National Alliance on Mental Illness (NYC and NYS), Mental Health Alliance of NYS, Alliance for Rights and Recovery, Law Enforcement Action Partnership, Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion, National Association of Social Workers, New York Civil Liberties Union, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, VOCAL New York, Citizen Action, Working Families Party, Fountain House, Rochester Monroe Anti Poverty Initiative (RMAPI), Rochester City Council, Black Puerto Rican Hispanic and Asian Caucus, DC-37 AFSCME AFL-CIO, Chinese American Planning Council.

About the Daniel's Law Task Force: Established in response to the death of 41-year-old Daniel Prude in 2020, the task force is charged with developing recommendations to guide behavioral health crisis response and explore avenues for related diversion services. Following its inaugural meeting last summer, the task force has hosted several stakeholder listening sessions and has continued gathering comments from participants. Last month, the task force heard a presentation from the Gerstein Crisis Centre in Toronto that could be used in developing a crisis response system. Also in May, the task force hosted an in-person listening session in Rochester to solicit the best practices for engaging individuals in crisis, with a specific emphasis on equity.