Bill Text: NY A02276 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Requires the New York State Office of Mental Health to study the effects that awareness of or exposure to police shootings or killings of unarmed African Americans has on the mental health of African Americans in New York state and to deliver a finding of the results of such study to the governor and the legislative leaders.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 8-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-03 - referred to mental health [A02276 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-A02276-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          2276

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                    January 25, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  M. of A. SIMON, GLICK, TAYLOR, CUNNINGHAM, DICKENS, COOK
          -- read once and referred to the Committee on Mental Health

        AN ACT to require the New York State Office of Mental  Health  to  study
          the effects that awareness of or exposure to police shootings or kill-
          ings  of unarmed African Americans has on the mental health of African
          Americans in New York state and to deliver a finding of the results of
          such study to the governor and the legislative leaders

          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. 1. The New York State Office of Mental Health shall conduct
     2  a study of the effects that awareness of or exposure to police shootings
     3  or  killings  of  unarmed  African Americans has on the mental health of
     4  African Americans in New York state. The study shall:
     5    (a) identify the mental health risks and harm  that  awareness  of  or
     6  exposure  to  police  shootings or killings of unarmed African Americans
     7  has on the self-reported mental health of adults in the state;
     8    (b) compare the differences between the self-reported mental health of
     9  African Americans aware of or exposed to such shootings or killings with
    10  the self-reported mental health of other ethnic or racial  groups  aware
    11  of  or  exposed to such shootings or killings, including but not limited
    12  to Hispanic or Latino, Black, White, Asian or Pacific Islander groups;
    13    (c) in assessing such harm or risks, utilize data from the Centers  of
    14  Disease  Control,  the  Prevention  Behavioral  Risk Factor Surveillance
    15  System (PBRFSS), and the Mapping Police Violence (MPV); database
    16    (d) contain recommendations as to how to  increase  accessibility  and
    17  affordability  of  mental  health  professionals  for  racial and ethnic
    18  minorities, including African Americans; and
    19    (e) contain recommendations as to how to decrease stigma, if  any,  of
    20  mental health and mental health treatment in racial and ethnic minority,
    21  including African American, communities.

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD03176-01-3
        A. 2276                             2

     1    2.  No  later than January 1, 2024 the New York State Office of Mental
     2  Health shall prepare and submit to the governor, the temporary president
     3  of the senate, the speaker of the assembly, the minority leader  of  the
     4  senate  and the minority leader of the assembly, a report containing the
     5  study's  findings  and  recommendation  for legislative or other actions
     6  that can be undertaken to address the mental health risks and harm iden-
     7  tified by the study.
     8    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.