Council hearing probes NYC 988 operations, funding gaps and calls to expand nonpolice crisis response

Chair Linda Lee, chair of the New York City Council Committee on Mental Health, Disabilities and Addiction, opened a hearing on the city’s 988 suicide and crisis lifeline and three proposed bills, telling the panel that the session would examine whether the lifeline “meets the needs of all who turn to it.”

The hearing brought city health officials, advocates, service providers, union representatives and dozens of public witnesses to the Committee on Mental Health, Disabilities and Addiction to review how New York City’s 988 operation works, how it is funded, and how 988 connects callers to mobile crisis teams and other services. Lawmakers and witnesses pressed the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) and the 988 vendor on staffing, data collection, language access, and whether emergency 911 calls can be routed to nonpolice responses such as BeHeard.

"The 988 works as a coordinated network of regional crisis centers," Chair Linda Lee said, noting that New York State operates 15 988 lifeline centers, three of them in New York City, and that the city and state both provide funding. Lee told the committee that in recent fiscal years the city “has reduced the funding of the helpline by $10,900,000” and that in the most recent budget the city added $5,000,000 for 988-related services in response to federal cuts affecting LGBTQ+ youth services.

DOHMH officials described the city’s role overseeing the 988 contract and the broader crisis-response system. "The health department is a key pillar of New York City's mental health system," said Dr. Gene Wright, executive deputy commissioner for the Division of Mental Hygiene, explaining that DOHMH procures and manages the 988 call-center contract and requires the vendor to provide crisis counseling, peer support, information and referral, single-point access to urgent behavioral health services, a website and follow-up services.

Jamie Neckels, assistant commissioner for the Bureau of Mental Health, provided detailed operational figures and contract-level performance data…