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The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Division of Mental Hygiene (Division or DMH), under the City Charter and in accordance with State Mental Hygiene Law, is responsible for administering, planning, contracting, monitoring, and evaluating early intervention services for children under three years old who have a developmental delay or disability, and community mental health, mental retardation, and chemical dependency services within the City of New York. In addition, DMH plans and collaborates with other City agencies to provide a variety of uniquely targeted programs, including those for individuals who are homeless or who have co-occurring disorders.
DMH is committed to ensuring that all mental health services in New York City meet the highest quality standards for the over 450,000 people in New York City who suffer from one or more mental health disorders. It is the Division’s mission to partner with consumers, families, advocates, and providers to ensure access to high quality services and to improve the lives of New Yorkers with mental health and chemical dependency disorders and those with mental retardation and developmental disabilities.
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Services
DMH contracts for mental hygiene services in four areas: chemical dependency, early intervention, mental health, and mental retardation and developmental disabilities. Services are provided to infants and toddlers, children and adolescents, adults, and the elderly.
- Chemical Dependency Services: These include detoxification services, supportive living services, and prevention and education. Buprenorphine is a newly approved pharmaceutical for individuals seeking treatment for opiate addiction. For more information on chemical dependency services, click here.
- Early Intervention Services: Early intervention is a comprehensive inter-agency program that supports infants and children with developmental delays in their efforts to realize their full potential. It reduces the likelihood of delays among at-risk children, assists and empowers families to meet their child's and their own needs, and entitles children, regardless of race, ethnicity or income, to services through the program. For more information on early intervention services, click here.
- Mental Health Services: These services include treatment, rehabilitation, referral services, and housing and vocational services for adults and children. For more information on mental health services, click here.
- Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Services: These services include a range of day and support services to individuals with developmental disabilities and their families in New York City. For more information on mental retardation and developmental disability services, click here.
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Offices and Bureaus
The Division is responsible for the direct oversight of the following offices and bureaus:
Offices
- The Office of Assisted Outpatient Program (AOT): New York State has enacted legislation that provides for outpatient psychiatric commitment, also known as assisted outpatient treatment or Kendra's Law. AOT is available for people with mental illness who fulfill the program's criteria, and who, in view of their treatment history and present circumstances, are unlikely to manage safely in the community without court ordered supervision. The Division is responsible for implementing all policies and procedures for the AOT programs within New York City. For more information on AOT, click here.
- The Office of Consumer Affairs (OCA): The OCA responds directly to consumers’ needs in the three mental hygiene disability areas (chemical dependency, mental health and mental retardation/developmental disabilities). The OCA works to educate and inform the Division’s constituency so that they are able to participate as actively and effectively as possible in the care they receive. For more information on the OCA, click here.
- The Office of Contracts: The Division’s Office of Contracts works with various bureaus and offices throughout the Department to develop and monitor mental hygiene service contracts and other agreements. The Office of Contracts currently manages contracts for more than 200 voluntary providers throughout the City. For more information on the Office of Contracts, click here.
- The Office of Housing Services: The Office of Housing Services is responsible for creating new housing opportunities for homeless and low-income New Yorkers with serious mental hygiene disorders so that they may live independently in the community. In coordination with other government agencies, the Office promotes the development of supportive housing, which combines affordable housing with services such as health and mental health care, and substance abuse treatment. For more information on the Office of Housing Services, click here.
- The Office of Mental Health Disaster Preparedness and Response: The Division is charged with planning, implementation and coordination of the City's mental health emergency response network during disasters. Through its Crisis Intervention services, DMH is also responsible for coordinating, implementing and reviewing emergency and non-emergency requests for assistance to persons with mental disabilities who demonstrate behavior dangerous to themselves or others in New York City. For more information on Mental Health Disaster and Preparedness, click here.
- The Office of Take Care New York: Take Care New York (TCNY) is a health policy that prioritizes actions to help individuals, health care providers, and New York City as a whole to improve health. For more information on The Office of Take Care New York Division of Mental Hygiene initiatives, click here.
Bureaus
- The Bureau of Planning, Evaluation and Quality Improvement (BPEQI): BPEQI aims to make data central to program planning, policy formation, performance measurement and program evaluation, and to foster a culture of quality improvement within the Division and the mental hygiene systems through Quality IMPACT. The Bureau is responsible for Local Planning, needs assessment, mental hygiene services research, quality improvement activities, and program and fiscal audits. Within BPEQI is the Office of Program Review and Evaluation (OPRE), a centralized evaluation unit for reviewing and evaluating the quality of mental hygiene services provided by its contract agencies. For more information on BPEQI, click here.
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Featured Intitiatives
- Buprenorphine: The Buprenorphine Initiative seeks to have 100,000 New Yorkers with opiate addiction move into a new office-based, opiod heroin-dependence medication treatment in New York City by 2010. For more information on buprenorphine, click here.
- Depression Initiative: The goal of the Depression Initiative is to make depression screening and management standard practice in all primary care settings in New York City, and to increase the rate of New Yorkers in treatment for depression by 10% by 2008. For more information on the Depression Initiative, click here.
- Managed Addiction Treatment Services (MATS): MATS is a program that seeks to assure access to, and enhancement of, needed cost-effective treatment, rehabilitation and other social services to voluntarily participating individuals. Each participant can only qualify for MATS if they are a high-cost Medicaid-eligible recipient of chemical dependence services, defined as using $30,000 or more in alcohol and other drug treatment services in the 12 month period prior to MATS enrollment. For more information on MATS, click here.
- Quality Impact: The Division of Mental Hygiene’s implementation of the Quality IMPACT (Improving Mental Hygiene and Communities Together) initiative has successfully introduced data-driven quality improvement efforts into the NYC service system. For more information on Quality IMPACT, click here.
- Take Care New York (TCNY): the Take Care New York (TCNY) initiative is a health policy that prioritizes actions to help individuals, health care providers, and New York City as a whole to improve health. The Office of TCNY Mental Hygiene Initiatives oversees the implementation of the two (2) mental hygiene components of the DOHMH TCNY Initiative. These are items #5 “Get Help for Depression” and item # 6 “Live Free of Dependence on Alcohol and Drugs”. For more information on the TCNY initiative, click here.
- NY/NY III: in November 2005, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Governor George E. Pataki entered into the New York/New York III Supportive Housing agreement to create 9,000 new units of supportive housing in New York City over the next ten years. For more information on NY/NY III, click here.
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Advisory Boards
- The Community Services Board (CSB): This board is authorized under the State Mental Hygiene
Law 41.11 and the New York City Charter 568 as the advisory body to the
Department’s Division of Mental Hygiene.
- The Federation for Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Alcoholism Services (Federation): The Federation serves an advisory role the Department’s
Division of Mental Hygiene. The Federation works to affect policy, address
system and consumer issues that pertain to the three mental hygiene disability
areas, identify unmet needs as part of the annual planning process, and
participate in special projects or other requests by the Department.
- The Local Early Intervention Coordinating Council (LEICC): The LEICC is made up of parents of children who receive or who have recently received early intervention services, and professionals, including providers of early intervention and other services to children and families. The LEICC advises the Department’s Division of Mental Hygiene about local early intervention issues.
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Publications
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Contact Information
If you have concerns, requests for further information, or would like to file a complaint, please contact the Division:
- By telephone at 311, New York City’s phone number for government
and non-emergency services.
- Online at http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/maildoh.html
- For mental health or substance abuse treatment referrals call LIFENET. LIFENET is a toll-free, confidential help line that provides callers with information and referrals (for those seeking services) to mental health and substance abuse resources throughout the New York City area. LIFENET operates 24 hours per day, seven days per week.
- English: 1-800-LIFENET (1-800-543-3638)
- Spanish: 1-877-AYUDESE: (1-800-298-3373)
- Chinese: 1800-ASIAN LIFENET: (1-800-990-8585)
- Other languages 1-800-LIFENET: (1-800-543-3638)
- TTY hard of hearing: (212 982-5384)
- Online: http://mhaofnyc.org/
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