A Chance at a Wonderful Life

New York Mayor Eric Adams is right: We have a "moral obligation" to treat seriously mentally ill people before they are a threat to others.

Divine intervention saved George Bailey. New Yorkers don’t have that luxury.

From the Archives

Late last year, New York City Mayor Eric Adams did something advocates like E. Fuller Torrey and I have been calling on public officials to do for decades: Provide medical treatment and assistance to those with severe mental illness even if their illness makes them uncooperative or opposed to treatment. “The common misunderstanding persists that we cannot provide involuntary assistance unless the person is violent,” Adams said in an address at City Hall. “Going forward, we will make every effort to assist those who are suffering from mental illness.” This is a breakthrough and a victory for common sense that should be duplicated in cities and states throughout the country. As Dr. Torrey told TFP last March, “Many people who are homeless and on the streets—they don’t know they’re sick. Should we just leave them there, or can you treat them? And I have argued that leaving them on the streets to …