New York State Chapter of NSSC
Medical care, not managed neglect.
We are New York families, clinicians, and people living with severe mental illness, working to build a system where a psychiatric emergency is met with treatment — not a premature discharge, a shelter bed, or a jail cell.
Our mission
The Right to be Well
The National Shattering Silence Coalition (NSSC) was born from the urgent need to address and correct the systemic neglect and discrimination that impedes medical treatment of individuals affected by Severe Mental Illness.
Just over five percent of Americans are affected by a Serious Mental Illness, a no-fault neurological brain disorder. Unlike other mental health conditions, SMI affects one's ability to function to such a degree that it limits an individual's ability to participate in major life activities. Approximately 800,000 individuals with a serious mental illness reside in the state of New York.
NSSC New York recognizes the inherent dignity of all SMI sufferers. We refuse to tolerate neglect and demand the same standard of care that exists for other serious health conditions. We welcome families, peers, advocates, service providers, and all concerned citizens to join us in our demand for the Right to be Well.
Chapter newsletter
September / October 2026
NSSC New York's newsletter, prepared by Dave Meyers, Marianna Vertsman and Valerie Franchitti. It marks Suicide Prevention Month, provides news updates, discusses assisted outpatient treatment, and collects what the chapter has been reading.
- NSSC's $229,337 Bristol Myers Squibb grant for the Crisis to Care pilot
- The IMD CARE Act, and NSSC's letter of support for it
- The recording of the Library's event on the future of serious mental illness
- The state's Kendra's Law report — and different readings of it
- Commentary: how much do “social determinants” explain serious mental illness?
- Twelve linked articles, studies and opportunities of interest
What this chapter does
Four kinds of work
Standing with families
Connecting New York peers and caregivers to people who have already navigated the system — so that no one has to struggle alone during a psychiatric hospitalization, a HIPAA barrier, or a discharge that came too soon.
Education on severe brain illness
Explaining conditions like anosognosia — the inability to recognize one's own illness, which affects a large share of people in severe psychosis — to the clinicians, judges, officers, and legislators whose decisions turn on whether refusal of care is read as a choice.
Policy in Albany and City Hall
Tracking every New York bill that impacts those with severe mental illness, reading what it would actually change for those in crisis, and putting that in plain language in front of the people who vote on it.
A link to the national coalition
New York is one state chapter in a network that spans 31 states and more than 1,000 members. National research, guides, and support groups are open to every New Yorker who joins.
Why New York, why now
The law changed. The capacity did not.
In May 2025 New York enacted the most significant revision to its Mental Hygiene Law in years. The standard for involuntary care was widened to cover a person at substantial risk of harm because mental illness leaves them unable to provide for their own essential needs — food, clothing, medical care, personal safety, shelter — bringing New York into line with other states. Kendra's Law was changed so that a lapsed assisted outpatient treatment order can be renewed within six months, and so that past non-compliance no longer disqualifies a person from receiving it. The changes took effect on August 7, 2025.
That is a real change, and it does not finish the work. A widened standard only matters if there is somewhere to send a person once the standard is met. New York still holds roughly 3,600 state psychiatric beds against a population of nearly twenty million, emergency rooms still discharge people in acute crisis within hours, and the largest psychiatric population in the state is still the one inside Rikers Island. This chapter exists to press on the distance between what the statute now permits and what a family in Buffalo, the Bronx, or Binghamton can actually get at midnight.
Join the coalition
Your local voice. Our national power.
Membership in the National Shattering Silence Coalition connects you to policy committees, the quarterly member resource guide, peer and professional talks, and support groups for caregivers, survivors of loss, and families navigating the justice system. It is what turns a New York family's experience into something Albany has to answer.