New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Friday announced a shift in how the city responds to mental health crisis calls through 911.

The mayor said the Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division (B-HEARD) will now be operated and managed by NYC Health + Hospitals in the coming months. As part of the transition, Fire Department of the City of New York emergency medical technicians previously assigned to B-HEARD will be reassigned to other emergency response units to improve ambulance response times in cases of emergencies.

This change will preserve EMTs for the most critical medical emergency responses while enabling B-HEARD to continue featuring medical and mental health professionals for nonviolent mental health 911 calls, the mayor said. After the transition, B-HEARD will c

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