Behavioral Health & Equity

The Department of Behavioral Health & Equity is charged to:

• Prepare, maintain, and execute a Comprehensive Strategic Plan for the Office of the Mayor to address the priority areas of public safety, economic development, reentry fairness, behavioral health equity, victim assistance, and social justice across all City departments and officials;
• Liaise with local, state, and federal government and private partners to secure and administer grant funding to be a foundation for the Comprehensive Strategic Plan;
• Coordinate programming to address timely access to treatment, connection to resources, harm reduction options, and other intervention and alternatives to arrest to persons with untreated or undertreated mental health issues;
• Coordinate programming to address timely access to treatment, connection to resources, harm reduction options, and other intervention and alternatives to arrest to persons with untreated or undertreated alcohol and/or drug abuse issues, focusing specifically on, but not limited to, alcohol, cocaine, methamphetamines, and opioids;
• Coordinate law enforcement partnerships and appropriate alternatives to arrest for persons who do not pose a danger to themselves or to their communities;
• Coordinate programming to support successful reentry from and reduce return to incarceration;
• Coordinate programming to address and reduce homelessness;
• Coordinate programming for victims of family/domestic violence;
• Coordinate programming to reduce poverty and improve economic mobility;
• Coordinate programming to support health equity and reduction of preventable mortality;
• Coordinate efforts to address issues of inequity disproportionately impacting historically marginalized populations;
• Liaise with local, state, and federal offices and officials to ensure the issues and needs of residents in the above categories are represented in policies, processes, and solicitations