Posted on: April 27, 2021 02:30 PM

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25 social workers are ready to respond to 911 non emergency calls

After the pilot program completed in three Harlem and East Harlem police precincts of having social workers instead of police responding to non-emergency calls involving mental health crises, the NYC mayor announced it will expand to other boroughs and precincts. At the moment, there are only 25 social workers despite being aggressively promoted to recruit more but none enrolled. The city is using its own workers from various mental crisis handling centers after re-assigning those 25 workers. Along with social workers, EMT will also respond to non-emergency calls involving mental health crises. The mayor is convinced this program will work. At the same time, taxpayers funding will be allotted to non-profit organizations city-wide to hire peer counselors to handle mental health needs and mobile vans like food cart vendors all over the city as the new promotion for all to walk-in. As for public schools, the mayor's office announced 500 additional social workers on top of the 200 already hired in 2019.