NYC NOW - October 4, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: October 4, 2024

A Manhattan judge is hearing testimony in a high-profile case that has brought new attention to subway safety. WNYC’s Catalina Gonella reports from the pre-trial hearing. Meanwhile, a Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest is set for Washington Square Park later this month. Plus, recent research shows pregnancy-related health problems, like postpartum depression, can last for a year after childbirth. The City Council recently passed bills to address disparities in maternal mental health. WNYC’s Sean Carlson spoke with Councilmember Linda Lee, Chair of the Committee on Mental Health, Disabilities, and Addiction, to learn more.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Friday, October 4th. Here's the midday news from Alec Hamilton. A Manhattan judge is hearing testimony in a high-profile case that brought new attention to the issue of subway safety. WNYC's Catalina Gonella was at a hearing ahead of the trial. Daniel Penny is facing manslaughter charges.

after he choked Jordan Neely to death on an Uptown F train last year. He has pleaded not guilty. In body camera video from responding officers, Penny says he put Neely, quote, in a choke. He later told police he did it out of concern for fellow passengers. But prosecutors say he acted recklessly, causing Neely's death. Now Penny's lawyers argue his statements on that day shouldn't be admissible at trial because Penny was being detained without probable cause at the time. prosecutors disagree. They also want to exclude any records or testimony about Neely's prior drug use or the likelihood that he was experiencing a psychotic episode. Penny's trial is set to start later this month.

Some New Yorkers are getting excited for a Timothy Shalamee lookalike contest coming up later this month. The hype started last month when a flyer for the event went viral. According to the event listing, the contest will happen on the afternoon of Sunday, October 27th, by the hype started last month when a flyer for the event went viral. According to the event listing, the contest will happen on the afternoon of Sunday, by the event. arch in Washington Square Park. The winner will receive a $50 cash prize to spend or, you know, frame and hang on your wall forever. As of this morning, more than 750 people have said they will attend. You can learn more about it at our news website, Gothamist. Partly sunny today with a high near 74, tonight mostly cloudy with a low around 62, chance of showers mainly after 2 a.m. into early Saturday, but clearing by mid-morning. This is WNYC. Stay close. There's more after the break. Recent research shows that pregnancy-related health risks, including things like postpartum depression, can persist for a full year after childbirth itself.

The New York City Council recently passed a package of bills addressing disparities in maternal mental health. To learn more, my colleague Sean Carlson spoke with Councilmember Linda Lee, who is the chair of the committee on mental health, disabilities, and addiction. Councilmember, for those who aren't familiar with the topic, can you just tell us more about what the year after childbirth could look like to some new mothers? Sure. There's a lot of women and especially women of color who experience the blues after pregnancy, postpartum. There's a lot of things that new moms have to struggle with and deal with, including challenges maybe with breastfeeding. And I think what we see and what research shows is that a lot of people, especially in the black and brown and other immigrant communities, have a much higher rate of postpartum depression as well as perhaps complications after birth. Yeah, we wanted to ask you about those disparities because maternal mortality rates in the U.S. are much higher than other wealthy countries.

According to the city's own health department in New York City specifically, the leading cause of pregnancy-related deaths was attributed to mental health conditions. So can you talk more about maternal mortality rates and racial disparities in maternal health outcomes in New York City specifically? I think if you look at it from a cultural perspective, oftentimes the way that we talk about our mental health is different. You know, because still, I would say across multiple communities, the stigma is still very, very real. And I think when you add on the pressure of the fact that having a newborn, having a child is supposed to be this joyous occasion, a lot of times people feel like they can't talk about the fact that they're struggling. A lot of times the way that, for example, someone expresses pain can look very different across the board. Like I'm feeling very exhausted.

I'm feeling tired. I don't want to get out of bed in the Asian community, for example. When I was at KCS, my former nonprofit, there's something called the PQ9 that social workers use to determine if you have any signs and symptoms of mental health issues. When we looked at the questionnaire, we're like, there's no way that we can ask our community members these questions. and for us to expect honest answers. But if you ask the question in different ways, it was actually very interesting to see how our responses that we got changed. So let's talk about your bills.

They were part of the legislative package that passed last week. Can you tell us more about them and what you hope comes out of them? Intro 890, which is one of the bills that I'm passing, it creates a postpartum support group focused on mental health for new mothers, but more particularly in areas that have reported the highest rates of postpartum mental health issues, certain zip codes, neighborhoods where those reports are coming. You know, we've been hearing a lot from community that peer support is such a huge piece in someone's mental health recovery that we don't talk about enough and that doesn't really get recognized enough.

So this was sort of the idea behind that. And then there's a whole bunch of resolutions that we are putting out, which is to pass legislation that requires insurance companies to develop and implement a maternal mental health quality management program to promote affordable, comprehensive health services, and also to mandate all psychiatry residency programs to offer a one-year post-residency fellowship program focused on parental mental health, so that if someone is in a hospital setting, they can kind of pick up on signs to be able to say, you know what, this parent is actually expressing pain in XYZ way, and so I think we need to pay more attention to this.

Councilmember, you mentioned that black New Yorkers are six times more likely than their white counterparts to die from a pregnancy-related cause. And, yeah, race can play a part in how mothers are treated in hospitals. So what can new mothers actually do during prenatal or postpartum care if some of the causes of maternal mental health disparities are just out of their control? Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest thing to do is to continue to be that advocate in voice. And I have to say, oftentimes the stories that we've heard from some of these black mothers who faced issues or complications in the hospital setting is that they feel like they have to scream so that someone is hearing them when they say something is not right. You know, I think making sure that you have a plan that you try to talk to your doctors and health professionals before going in. And I think just making sure that you have people around you, whoever it may be, to advocate alongside you and to really make sure that you say, hey, if I'm saying something is not right, I need to be paid attention to.

What more do you think the city can do to support pregnant women and new mothers? Councilmember Riley's bill as well as Councilmember Gutierrez's bill. It talks about just distributing a lot of information, outreach and education program to raise awareness. And I think just really arming parents or future parents with knowledge to be able to know what questions to ask their doctors and not be afraid to advocate. It's interesting because in Korea, they have regards. centers for new moms where literally, I think, for two, three weeks straight, you have people watching your child. You're fed very, you know, nutritious meals. Like in Korean culture, there's like the seaweed soup, for example, to build back your iron. And so there's a lot of these like culturally

specific things that people do in other countries. And even sometimes here, they carry that here over to the U.S. as well. That really show, I think, a difference in how we take care of moms here. we really need to make sure that the mother's health is priority, and that includes her mental health. That was Councilmember Linda Lee. Councilmember, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you so much for having me. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. Also subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

We'll be back this evening.