27/07/2026
Today Albany County launched its Street Psychiatry Pilot Program, and here is why we support it.
For too long, the traditional model of behavioral health care has been built around a clinic door, a scheduled appointment and a system that expects people to come to it. That model was never designed to reach people experiencing homelessness or untreated mental illness where they actually are. When it doesn't reach them, a police response often becomes the default, simply because it's the one resource available around the clock.
Starting today Albany County is expanding what reaches people directly. A team of six, a nurse, a clinician, a case manager, a peer advocate, a substance abuse counselor and a prescriber, will go to where people actually are. Sidewalks. Parks. Encampments. Shelters. They will do real psychiatric work in the field: assessments, medication, counseling, a path forward, built around the person instead of asking the person to find the system.
As District Attorney, I see the cost of untreated mental illness up close. Too often it shows up in my office as a criminal case that never needed to happen, a person cycling through arrest, arraignment and release with the underlying crisis never addressed. That cycle doesn't make anyone safer. It just delays the same crisis to a later date.
This program gives Albany County a real alternative. Treatment reaches people before a crisis becomes a case. That is a better outcome for the individual and a better use of the criminal justice system, which should be reserved for conduct that truly belongs there.
