The New York State Office of Mental Health today announced that the Daniel’s Law Task Force will host its next member meeting virtually from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Friday, March 22. The meeting will be streamed live online and will include a period for members of the public to provide feedback to the task force.

The meeting will include an overview of New York State’s crisis services by OMH’s Bureau of Crisis, Emergency and Stabilization Initiatives, with a specific emphasis on mobile crisis services. Members will also hear a presentation from the New York State Technology Enterprise Corporation, which is assisting the task force in several areas, such as obtaining stakeholder feedback and conducting a landscape analysis.

Established in response to the death of 41-year-old Daniel Prude in 2020, the task force is charged with developing recommendations to guide behavioral health crisis response and explore avenues for related diversion services. Following its inaugural meeting in August, the task force hosted a series of stakeholder listening sessions both virtually and in-person, including meetings in Stony Brook and New York City in January.

The task force continues to gather additional input from communities, governmental entities, and the public on the best practices for engaging individuals in crisis, with a specific emphasis on equity. It is also examining a variety of models – both national and international – that could be used in developing a crisis response system.

Anyone wanting to comment during the meeting will first need to register online. An agenda for the meeting, along with videos of prior meetings and listening sessions can be found at the Daniel’s Law Task Force website.

“The task force encourages members of the public to provide their input and help us shape the future of behavioral health crisis response in New York State,” Office of Mental Health Commissioner and Task Force Chairwoman Dr. Ann Sullivan said. “We look forward to hearing these presentations gathering additional public feedback and ultimately developing improvements to crisis response statewide.