July 13, 2022
Dr. Ashwin Vasan, Commissioner, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene: All right. I think it’s time to get started. Good morning. I’m Dr. Ashwin Vasan, I’m the City Health Commissioner. It’s really wonderful to be here with you today. Someone yesterday told me, Dr. Vasan, you’re a thinker, not a feeler. We need a feeler. So I’m going to start with a little bit of feeling. This is really a difficult moment in our city and in our nation. The effects of the last two and a half years are showing themselves. They’re showing themselves in a host of intersecting crises. It’s also showing in our own thoughts, our own attitudes and behaviors. And I want to start by just encouraging everyone here, anyone listening as well, just give yourself a little bit of time to breathe out, extend yourself and others a little bit of empathy and grace that we all deserve.
Dr. Vasan: The work we do is hard. The times we’ve been through and are going through are harder. But we’ll get through it if we remember that we’re all connected. We’re connected as human beings and we’re connected as people trying to make better lives for ourselves and our families. And of course we’re connected as New Yorkers. And so it’s wonderful to be here today to emphasize the importance of connection and community and tackling our mental health and addiction crises. In May, I released a high level vision for the administration’s mental health priorities. And in that vision, I spoke about the need to combat our second pandemic of mental illness by incorporating the tools of public health, prevention, a focus on the upstream social and economic determinants of mental health and wellbeing, as well as on high quality treatment and supports. And to maintain a focus on equity and to address the underlying policy and structural barriers that push people with serious mental illness and addiction issues into extreme social isolation.
Dr. Vasan: I focused on three pillars of recovery. Healthcare, housing, and community. The three legs of a stool that people need, at a minimum, to stand on their own and to navigate the ups and downs of living with a chronic mental illness or addiction issue. And while there’s been a lot of talk about healthcare and the ways we can expand access to hospital beds and psychiatry, as well as community based care, and while this administration continues to push the envelope in plans addressing supportive housing needs, we have not talked as much about that third leg of the stool. Community and connection. This is a form of infrastructure. You’re sitting in it now. In this case, social infrastructure, where connection happens and community is formed. The physical places or destinations, even transitional ones like this one, where people can go to connect, to break isolation and to begin the journey to long-term recovery and dealing with the ups and downs of navigating life with a serious mental illness or substance use disorder.
Dr. Vasan: Because as you all know, mental health is deeper than a pill or a person to talk to once in a while in a clinic or a white coat. It’s about building community, connecting to people, especially to people who have been through what you’re going through and to resources. And it’s about understanding the underlying social and economic and environmental factors that are impacting your health and mental health. It’s about having the support so that you don’t feel alone. And so that’s why I’m so excited to be here today, to open this support and connection center here in the Bronx. It’s in the name. I’m proud because this is precisely the kind of place where New Yorkers can find connection, community support they need to begin the process of healing and recovery. Just like its counterpart site in East Harlem, the Bronx Support and Connection Center will serve to break the seemingly endless cycle of housing instability, contact with our law enforcement and legal systems and emergency room…
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