McCray’s ‘ThriveNYC’ had little effect on mental health in the city

The director of First Lady Chirlane McCray’s “ThriveNYC” initiative admits that the program hasn’t made enough of an impact to affect mental health citywide — 3 1/2 years after its launch.

Susan Herman made the startling admission in a March 14 letter to Comptroller Scott Stringer, who had requested information about the outcomes in the $250 million-a-year program as part of a larger review of how it’s spending its money.

“We … would not expect at this stage of Thrive, with the varied start dates of the individual initiatives, to claim that Thrive is yet affecting a citywide metric on mental health,” Herman told Stringer.

The response left the comptroller seething.

“It is extraordinary that for this amount of money that they are just starting to think about measuring outcomes three years later,” Stringer said Monday.

He said data shows that 29 of the Thrive’s 41 programs “have no or very limited associated outcome measures.”

“Even if it is too early to measure population-level outcomes, …it is not too early to have considered success of programs,” Stringer wrote back to Herman.

Thrive launched in November 2015 with a budget of $850 million over four years.

But the mayor’s office said only $344.1 million was spent in the first three years, with another $220 million in spending expected this fiscal year ending June 30.

During a City Council hearing last month, Herman disclosed that Thrive’s budget has since been increased to $250 million a year.

McCray is expected to testify at a special City Council oversight hearing Tuesday on Thrive’s effectiveness.

Council Speaker Corey Johnson has questioned whether Thrive is helping the “severely mentally ill” – especially homeless people living on the streets and in the subways.

Marcy Miranda, a spokeswoman for the program, said in a statement, “we’re glad the Comptroller has taken an interest in learning more about how Thrive NYC is increasing access to mental health care.”

“New York City is building a model for this work and leading the way, and our goal is to make sure we’re tracking the right metrics at the right time,” she added. “We will continue assessing programs and tracking information to ensure programs are performing as they should be, and will make changes as needed.”

Source: Read Full Article