HOMELESS SERVICES HEARING: Executive budget hearings will continue in the City Council on Friday with an examination of the Department of Homeless Services and Human Resources Administration spending proposals. The Council’s Committee on General Welfare and Committee on Finance will hold a joint oversight hearing at City Hall at 10 a.m. The hearing will be livestreamed on the Council’s website.
VACCINATION EDUCATION: The state Department of Health launched a public service announcement encouraging residents to get vaccinated for diseases like measles, mumps, rubella and polio. The campaign features three TV and digital ads about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines in reducing the risk of infection and death. The effort is intended to counter misinformation about vaccines that has fueled vaccine hesitancy. It comes in the wake of three new measles cases discovered in Orange County, one of the least vaccinated areas of the state, as cases rise nationally.
MENTAL HEALTH REFERRALS: Headway, a mental health startup based in SoHo, launched a tool this week to allow primary care clinicians to directly refer their patients with mental health concerns to a therapist within the company’s network. Under the new system, primary care doctors can send a patient to Headway through their existing electronic health record and stay informed about whether they connect to care, aiming to use primary care clinicians to help identify and treat mental health concerns. Andrew Adams, CEO of Headway, told STAT that Headway has formal partnerships with more than 20 organizations for its referral program.
