NYC NOW - June 12, 2024 : Evening Roundup

Episode Date: June 12, 2024

More than 250 people are suing New York City saying they were sexually abused while in custody at the city's juvenile jails. Plus, WNYC's Stephen Nessen reports, the congestion pricing plan paused by Governor Kathy Hochul was designed to pay for upgrades to decrepit equipment. Meanwhile, WNYC's Jon Campbell has a look at the governor's dramatic reversal of her support for congestion pricing. And finally, WNYC’s Sean Carlson talks with Dr. Ashwin Vasan, Commissioner of New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, about a free tele-mental health service called "Teenspace."

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City. From WNYC, I'm Jenae Pierre. More than 250 people are suing New York City, saying they were sexually abused while in custody at the city's juvenile jails. Some of the cases go back 50 years. They are being filed under a city law that reopens the statute of limitations on sexual abuse cases in a two-year window. That window closes March 1st of next year.

Najeear Stewart is one of the plaintiffs. He says one correction officer and several other detainees sexually abused him and beat him up when he was in custody in Brooklyn 15 years ago. I didn't know what to do. I felt like life was over. I was like I never been through this in my life. The way I was treated, I thought I would never get out. I was like, I might die here. A City Hall spokesperson notes that many of the allegations predate this administration, but say they are still taking them seriously.

Officials launched a program called Teen Space nearly seven months ago. It's a free mental health service to help teenage New Yorkers. We check in to hear how it's going. That conversation after the break. It's been seven months since New York City launched a free telemental health service called Teen Space. And officials say around 7,000 teenagers have already signed up for the service. For more on how the service works, WMYC's Sean Carlson talked with Dr. Ashwin-Vossey. Commissioner of New York City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Commissioner, can you talk about what kind of feedback the city is hearing from parents? Yes, from parents specifically, we're hearing a lot of positivity about opening up opportunities for mental health services for their children. But most importantly, we're hearing from young people themselves through testimonials, through feedback or feedback on the site, that this is really breaking down barriers. After we announced these data, which run through April 1st, we have the largest rate of signups after that release, and we've already hit 10,000. And, you know, what we're seeing, we approach these results with a lot of pride because it feels like we've torn down the front door to our mental health system with a lot of humility because we know we still have a lot to learn. And this is an entirely new service and with a lot of excitement. Have you heard any skepticism or parents expressing concerns about children signing up for this? You know, not directly. We don't get a lot of those concerns, but, you know, we're always ready to hear from stakeholders, including parents who are so crucial.

In fact, you know, what we see is there are a subset of young people who sign up who say they, you know, have some reluctance or don't want to get parental consent. And so what we're starting to see, and it's pretty clear that parents and children need to get on the same page about mental health care. And, you know, older generations often stigmatize mental health in ways that young people, and I'm so encouraged by this, young people are finding much more natural ways to just talk about mental health and center it in their lives. And so that's an opportunity for us to, in this next phase, really reach out to parents, educate them, especially for immigrants. You know, I come from an immigrant family. I can tell you I grew up in a house where we didn't talk about mental health. We didn't talk about mental health care and accessing it. And so my parents could have used that education too. And so we'll be using this opportunity to reach out to parents as well. So as we said, nearly 7,000 teenagers have signed up for teen space. You said that's even more at this point. What share of kids are actually sticking with it? So we're seeing really good rates of utilization. About 65% of users are saying that they reported improvement in their mental health. 60% of users identifies BIPOC and the top five zip codes are zip codes that have been historically disinvested in and are predominantly communities of color. We're seeing that 96% of young people are using the chat feature, the text feature, which means they're actually preferencing that.

About 42% of users are using both live video sessions and messaging. And if you're eligible, you're eligible for the entire year. And what we're seeing is pretty good intake, pretty good retention into the program. You know, we're six months in. We make sure that if a young person doesn't engage for a while that the therapist is reaching out and proactively trying to reconnect with the young person. So we're seeing pretty good rates of continued use. We still have more to learn on that front because obviously this isn't an indefinite service.

But what we try to do is after a year really ensure that the young person has a transition plan. Either it's a transition plan to more utilization on a virtual platform like Talkspace, Teen Space, or it's to referral into longer-term services in person or through a clinical system. Commissioner, can you talk more about situations in which children might need to be referred out to other services in the community? Have you seen that and how does it work? Yeah, for sure. I mean, you know, we, of course, all of the therapists on teen space hired by Talkspace are licensed New York City therapists. So they are trained and expert in managing crisis, in understanding what the resources are that are available to a young person in the community, able to make referrals directly to the hospital.

And every single therapist ensures that that's a warm handoff to either a higher level of care, acute care, or to, to be able to. a level of care that's for more complex care. Maybe the person needs an actual child psychiatrist that can do medication management. And what's good is that even if that's a referral for a short-term service or to get on a medication, the young person knows and the therapist keeps in touch to ensure that the young person knows, they can always come back. That's Dr. Ashwin-Vosan, talking with WMYC's Sean Carlson. Delays are growing more frequent on the subway, with the bulk of them being caused by aging infrastructure. As WNYC's Stephen Nesson reports, the congestion pricing plan paused by Governor Kathy Hogle was designed to pay for upgrades to decrepit equipment.

On a crowded platform in Midtown on a recent afternoon, 30-year-old George Ramirez doesn't mince words when I ask how service has been on the end line. It sucks. Tell me why. I'm an iron worker. I have to wake up very. early in the morning and I depend on this thing to be on time. If I miss one train, I'm late. And it happens somewhat frequently recently? I'd say three out of five times every three weeks. Ramirez isn't imagining things. There's been a 30% increase in weekday delays in the first four months of this year compared to the same time last year. The MTA blames infrastructure and equipment as a leading cause. Trains delayed by signal problems, especially on the F and N line, have

increased more than 50% this year. Apropos of that, listen, I grew up in New York in the 1970s when the transit system was in the toilet. That's MTA chair, Jan O'Leiber, speaking this week for the first time since Hockel announced a pause on congestion pricing. Now that the MTA likely won't have the money for shiny new things or even basic stuff to keep the system running, he's focusing on what can be done just to ensure service doesn't return to the bad old days.

If we can't do all the state of good repair work, that we're at least doing the stuff that is most safety sensitive. Governor Hokel did leave open the possibility that congestion pricing could restart in the future, but Lieber isn't waiting for the political wins to change. He's already started slashing his big plans. Stephen Nesson, WNYC News. Governor Hulkele was a major supporter of tolling drivers in the busiest parts of Manhattan until suddenly she wasn't. WMYC's John Campbell has a look at the governor's dramatic reversal in her own words. The governor of the great state of New York, Governor Kathy Hokel.

That was last December. Back then, Governor Hockel was firing up public transit advocates who support congestion pricing. Anybody want cleaner air for our kids and for future generations? Yes. Well, then you love congestion pricing, right? Over and over again, Hockel touted the $15 base tour. toll, which was set to take effect June 30th and applied to drivers who enter Manhattan below 60th street. She spoke of how the money would help fund things like the 2nd Avenue subway expansion

and a rapid bus line in the outer boroughs. What about the idea of the inner borough Express being funded with this money to be able to work in Queens and get to your job in Brooklyn or vice versa? We can get that done. But that all changed last week when the governor reversed her position. She said the toll was too much for New Yorkers to bear right now when the cost of goods and housing is skyrocketing. Second Avenue subway, the Interbar Express, I have so many ideas. But now is not the time to put it on the backs of hardworking New Yorkers. Now those same transit advocates who lavished the governor with praise, they're leading protests against her positions. They say she's betrayed them. John Campbell, WNYC News.

Thanks for listening to NYC Now. from WNYC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day. I'm Jenae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.