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.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
1149
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 9, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. SIMON, GLICK, TAYLOR, CUNNINGHAM, COOK, REYES,
SHIMSKY -- 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.
LBD02828-01-5
A. 1149 2
1 2. No later than January 1, 2026 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.
