In 2023, Human Rights Watch reported its research on “rights-respecting” practices for addressing mental health calls in light of then-Mayor Eric Adams’ directive to employ involuntary removals. The findings broke down how Toronto’s Gerstein Center Crisis Centre provided an alternative blueprint for how local governments could properly remove police from responses while complying with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
On March 30, the international watchdog released a follow-up in collaboration with New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI) and the Center for Racial and Disability Justice at UCLA Law School as Adams’ successor Mayor Zohran Mamdani moves forward with retooling the mental health call diversion pilot, B-HEARD.
Titled “Self-Determination is the Pathway to Liberation,” the new report examines more than 150 existing non-police programs across the country and points to eight for implementing certain best practices. William Juhn, a senior staff attorney for NYLPI’s Disability Justice Program who helped author the research, says no organization is perfect. But the eight specifically-identified programs check off key recommendations.
“We basically talk about 12 different categories that we think should be part of any ‘rights-based’ crisis response system,” said Juhn. “Which includes [a] consent-centered approach, placing people experiencing mental health crises at the center of the decision-making. So no involuntary services.”
For example, the Black-led Mental Health First in Oakland, California, opposes forced treatment and requires consent before providing any services. For participants who ask to go to the hospital, the program often accompanies them to help them with law enforcement and medical professional interactions.
The report also underscores increased risk Black people face during mental health responses. Jordyn Jensen, communications manager at the Center for Racial and Disability Justice, pointed to disparities covered in the findings ranging from diagnosis and outcome to police violence and incarceration.
“What we highlight in the report is that about half of all people killed by law enforcement had a disability, and Black people with mental health conditions are particularly vulnerable,” said Jensen. “In New York City alone, police have killed over 20 people experiencing a mental health crisis since 2015 with most of them being people of color. And then on the other end, you see this in involuntary treatment and incarceration too with people of color disproportionately being incarcerated.
“This is exactly why these non-police community rooted alternatives [that are] rights-respecting matter so much. The programs that we highlight, many were built by and for communities of color in direct response to this harm.”
Traditionally, similar case studies focus on the Gerstein Crisis Centre and Oregon’s CAHOOTS (which the report specifically avoids “because it has been widely covered elsewhere”). The state cites both as models through the Daniel’s Law taskforce, which examines how local New York governments can properly roll out non-police crisis response teams.
Several legal frameworks exist to keep mental health responses in check according to the report. The United States is signed onto, but has not ratified the CRPD. The international human rights treaty mandates governments approach people living with disabilities with “the same range, quality, and standard of free or affordable health care” as those without one. The World Health Organization also offers guidelines opposing involuntary treatment.
Beyond international human rights, the city’s mental healthcare practices also faces compliance concerns from NYLPI based on the United States Constitution, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and the city’s own anti-discrimination guidelines. The law firm currently represents plaintiffs in Baerga vs. City of New York, which accused the city of violating such rights by deploying police to mental health calls while assigning healthcare professionals to other medical emergencies.
“People get killed while they’re having a mental health crisis and I always think about when someone’s having a heart attack — we send out EMTs and not police officers,” said Juhn. “Because police officers are simply not training to do the job. Why is it that when we have a mental health crisis we send out police officers instead of mental health workers who are actually trained to do the job?”