NYC program focuses on mental illness in subway

By BELINDA ROBINSON in New York | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2024-04-04 10:33 New York City is spending $20 million in a program aimed at addressing mental health issues in the subway system after a spate of violent crimes, including murder, shook public confidence in the transit system. The city's SCOUT program, created in October 2023, is being championed as one way that it is connecting people with untreated severe mental illness on the subways to mental health treatment and care. The joint state and city effort to treat those with mental health problems came after the New York Police Department said that there were four homicides in the system this year, compared with just one in the same period last year. "Virtual ExpressCare also offers care for mental health conditions, including stress, anxiety, and depression," Stephanie Buhle, first deputy press secretary for Health, told China Daily.