Crown Heights Psych Ward Admittances Almost Twice City Rate: Data

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — Crown Heights residents are admitted into psych wards at almost twice the rate of the rest of the city, Health Department data show.

Approximately 1,149 out of every 100,000 Crown Heights residents is hospitalized because of psychiatric illness, which is almost twice the citywide rate of 676, according to the neighborhood's 2018 Community Health Profile.

Health Department researchers, who analyzed data collected in 2015, said the high rate does not indicate a prevalence of mental illness in Crown Heights, rather the lack of resources for mental healthcare.

"High psychiatric hospitalization rates likely reflect the challenges residents in under-resourced neighborhoods face," the report notes.

Those challenges include the lack of preventive services, early care and health insurance.

Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration has sought to combat mental health issues in New York City with First Lady Chirlane McCray's ThriveNYC, first launched in 2016.

The city spent nearly $1 billion on the program — which includes a counseling hotline and mental health first aid training— but came under criticism for a lack of transparency about how that money is spent and the results it affected.

The health profile also notes Crown Heights residents face greater exposure to stressor that stem from economics, violence and living conditions in Crown Heights.

Twenty-one percent of residents live in poverty and 50 percent are rent burdened, about 85 out of 100,000 residents is hospitalized with assault-related injuries, and 77 percent of its rentals have maintenance problems and 35 percent have cockroaches, according to the profile.

Dr. Oxiris Barbot, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, linked those stressors in part to prejudice.

"Policies and practices based on a history of racism and discrimination (often referred to as structural racism) have created neighborhoods with high rates of poverty and limited access to resources that promote health," Barbot wrote in her introduction.

"The practice of removing funding or refusing to provide funding to communities of color has caused poor health outcomes to cluster in these communities."