New program aims to stop NYPD suicide rash
BY TODD MAISEL
In the wake of an epidemic of suicides
among NYPD offi cers this past year,
a Manhattan hospital will now provide
free confi dential counseling and
medication to New York’s fi nest completely
detached from the department, it
was announced Thursday.
The new program, “Finest Care,” will
be offered free to all NYPD offi cers who
need counseling and mental health services
that could lead to suicidal thoughts
and anything else that might endanger
the offi cer or those around them.
NewYork-Presbyterian Weill Cornell
Medical Center is offering the program
at a cost of $1.2 million for the fi rst 18
months of the program, Mayor Bill de
Blasio announced during his Oct. 24
visit to the hospital’s Upper East Side
campus.
An additional $150,000 was provided
by the Police Foundation in support of
the program.
Ten police offi cers have taken their
own lives this past year, the highest number
in NYPD history. Offi cials say it is
following a trend in departments around
the country that are experiencing similar
tragedies.
De Blasio said his own father committed
suicide when he was a teen.
“When I was 18-year-old, my dad
took his own life. He was a World War
II hero and was so used to helping others
that he found it diffi cult to accept
for himself,” de Blasio said. “Too many
Mayor Bill de Blasio and members of the NYPD got together with New York Presbyterian Hospital to announce
Finest Care - offering counseling for free to police officers with complete privacy in light of recent
spate of sucides of officers.
members of the NYPD family have had
to watch their colleagues and loved ones
succumb to mental health struggles.
We are launching a new partnership
with NewYork-Presbyterian to eradicate
stigma and get our offi cers the help they
need.”
The program would be in addition
to programs already in place that service
police offi cers including the NYPD
medical offi ce, Police Organization Providing
Peer Assistance (POPPPA) an independent
group of volunteers and professional
offering support to offi cer and
retirees; the chaplain’s unit which provides
pastorial support completely confi
dential; and the employee assistance
unit that provides counseling services 24
hours a day, seven days a week.
The difference here is that the hospital
will be providing services at no cost to
the offi cer or someone with a connection
to the department.
Dr. Steven Corwin, president and
CEO of NY-Presbyterian recognized
that police offi cers have been reluctant to
seek out help with emotional and mental
issues, but he said the new service will
allow offi cers to get help “completely
confi dential.”
Climate protesters rally outside BlackRock HQ
BY ALEJANDRA
O'CONNELL-DOMENECH
Climate change activists blocked
the entrance to BlackRock’s
midtown headquarters early this
morning during a protest of the investment
management company’s ties to
fossil fuel corporations and companies
responsible for deforestation.
“We are here to send a message to
BlackRock to clean up its dirty act,” said
Pete Sikora, climate campaigns director
for New York Communities for Change
which organized the demonstration of
roughly 150 people. “It’s time for them
to become the solution and not the problem.”
Activists like the Reverend Billy and
the Church of Stop Shopping chanted,
sang and danced with allies from Extinction
Rebellion, Friends of the Earth,
the Sunrise Movement and Code Pink
as they called the company in control of
$6.52 trillion worth of assets to not only
divest from fossil fuels and companies
connected to deforestation but to invest
those funds into clean energy.
PHOTO BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
Climate activists called on BlackRock to invest in clean energy during
a protest outside of the investment company’s midtown headquarters.
( Photo by Alejandra O’Connell-Domenech)
“We all know that burning fossil fuels
and deforestation causes climate change,”
said Krystal Ford, form the Sunrise
Movement.” But we also know that greed
causes climate change. There are people
who are profi ting right now off of this climate
disaster.”
BlackRock has multi-billion worth of
investments in some of the world’s largest
oil companies like BP, ExxonMobil and
Chevron and is the largest investor in the
world in coal, according to The Guardian.
According to a report from Friends of
the Earth US, Amazon Watch and Profundo,
a Dutch research fi rm, BlackRock
is one of the top three shareholders in 25
of the largest companies listed as “deforestation
risks.” The protest occurred
on the 7-year-anniversary of Hurricane
Sandy’s touchdown in New York city, an
event that activist said was “just a taste”
of what was to come in climate pollution
was not stopped world wide soon since
last year the UN released a report that
humanity only had 12 years to take mitigative
steps towards preventing irreversable
damage to the climate.
4 October 31, 2019 Schneps Media