LANSING, MI (WSYM) - — During his State of the City address, Mayor Andy Schor spoke extensively about the City of Lansing's plan to fix potholes and other road issues.
But another main talking point was making sure mental health is a top priority in the city.
The mayor announced Tuesday night that the city is going to create a mental health task force, made up of different people who deal with mental health issues around the city.
According to the mayor, the list includes people at both McLaren Greater Lansing Hospital, Sparrow Hospital, people who work at Community Mental Health Authority, the city's social worker, as well as members of the Lansing Police Department and other city staffers.
The mayor says he doesn't plan to put in city funds to form the task force, but rather, it's about getting everyone in the same room.
"We'll look at dollars that are available, but right now, it's just bringing everyone together," Mayor Schor said.
"I don't envision putting a lot of money into the task force. It's about putting all of the right people at the table."
Mayor Schor's announcement comes on the heels of Governor Gretchen Whitmer signing a bill last month to create a 24-7 statewide mental health hotline.
Gov. Whitmer's hotline is expected to use state dollars.
The mayor says that he would welcome state funding for Lansing's new task force.
"The worst thing in the world is when you run into someone with mental health issues, we don't want to put them in jail, that doesn't make any sense," Schor said.
"It's not efficient for the taxpayers and it doesn't make sense for the person. We want to get them help, but you have systems and you have different groups that are doing things their own way. We want to put them all together at a table to understand each other's systems and to figure out what solutions we can come up with."
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