FordMaverickFan t1_iyqifky wrote on December 3, 2022 at 10:55 AM

Do any of the mayoral candidates have a plan on how they're going to tackle the crisis of mentally ill people assaulting others?

How many straws need to fall on a camel that had its back broken 4 years ago before our elected officials begin to care.

MeEvilBob t1_iyqpvn2 wrote on December 3, 2022 at 12:35 PM

Whichever mayor finally decides to stop ignoring Kensington isn't gonna have a whole lot of time for anything else.

FordMaverickFan t1_iyqq3pd wrote on December 3, 2022 at 12:37 PM

This is Philadelphia

I'd rather we go bankrupt trying versus letting the issue continue to spread.

felldestroyed t1_iyqsqq0 wrote on December 3, 2022 at 1:06 PM

Honestly, I'm eager to see if Eric Adam's plan in NYC is a) effective, b) constitutional (it likely isn't) and c) not too burdensome on hospitals. Also, I'm not entirely convinced this is something a city even can accomplish. What's to stop other smaller municipalities from simply bussing their "problems" into philly because they have no psych beds but philly has plenty of them. Either way, this would be much better taken care of on a state or even national level.

BellyFullOfMochi t1_iyshmpy wrote on December 3, 2022 at 8:36 PM

Adams has been copying play by play Mayor Koch, who was also a failure.

wndrlust86 t1_iyst97m wrote on December 3, 2022 at 9:57 PM

Philly doesn’t have plenty of psych beds either! There’s always a shortage of beds and sometimes people have to wait to get one. Not only that some inpatient psych facilities have overworked and are low on staff. So adding more beds needs to come with better pay and increase in staff.

felldestroyed t1_iysvgpt wrote on December 3, 2022 at 10:14 PM

Well, in this scenario, the city would fund more long term solutions (ICF/ID, group homes, and for short term, a couple wings at a hospital. The problem is: aside from out patient care, of which is actually swimming in money from grants currently but also of course has staffing issues, funding long and short term solutions is off the table, because medicaid doesn't pay anything in PA, so it's simply not profitable and will lead to really bad quality homes/facilities.
So yeah, I don't really care what a mayor proposes. It's going to be lip service until state and federal officials get a long term plan and no one wants higher taxes.

willashman t1_iyrd4dp wrote on December 3, 2022 at 3:57 PM

I believe this would fall under the calls for declaring a state of emergency, to allow for better coordination of city departments. Rhynhart and Domb both called for a state of emergency.

Domb's call was focused on Kensington and drug issues:

> I still believe this should be declared an emergency in Kensington. The problems of Kensington shouldn’t rest on the shoulders of Philadelphia — 50-60% of the people who are on the street in Kensington right now are not from Philadelphia. We need federal and state help. It has to be a multi-jurisdictional approach that starts with getting people the treatment they need, and taking the drug dealers out of Philadelphia.

Rhynhart's was focused on violent crime: > The current administration hasn’t even declared a crime emergency, which would activate the emergency operations center, bringing together every department in the city.