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Mental Health Intervention in New York
Mental health intervention in New York, with Kendra’s Law in the background, not the foreground.
New York gives families more legal standing than most states: you can report to the county, sign a hospital application, and petition for court-ordered outpatient care. Here is what each tool does, and how a prepared, voluntary conversation works alongside them.
Ask a New York family what they know about involuntary care and you will usually hear two things: “9.39” and “Kendra’s Law.” Both are real, both have narrow entry criteria, and neither one replaces your loved one’s own decision to stay in treatment.
G3 helps with that decision. We coach the family, line up a psychiatric bed or program first, and lead a calm conversation built around what your loved one still cares about, so the legal tools can stay in reserve.
Before anything else
If someone is in danger now, call 911. If you are worried about suicide or simply do not know what to do tonight, call or text 988; New York’s Office of Mental Health says the state has 14 contact centers that connect callers with local support. An intervention is never the response to an active emergency.
Mental Hygiene Law, Article 9
Four ways an emergency evaluation begins
A police or peace officer
An officer may take into custody a person who appears mentally ill and is acting in a way likely to result in serious harm, and bring them to an approved hospital or a comprehensive psychiatric emergency program (CPEP).
A report from family to the county
A parent, adult sibling, spouse, domestic partner or child can report to the county director of community services, who may direct removal to a hospital or CPEP.
The county director’s own application
The director of community services, or a physician they designate, can examine your loved one personally and apply for admission in writing.
The hospital itself
An approved hospital admits on a staff physician’s finding, confirmed by a second psychiatric staff physician within 48 hours.
Inside a 9.39 admission
Section 9.39 covers emergency admission to a hospital approved by the Commissioner of Mental Health. The person must have a mental illness likely to result in serious harm: a substantial risk of physical harm to themselves shown by suicide threats or attempts or other dangerous conduct, a substantial risk to others shown by violent behavior, or, under the current wording, a risk of physical harm from being unable or refusing to meet essential needs such as food, shelter or medical care.
A staff physician examines and admits. Without a second psychiatric staff physician’s confirmation, the hospital cannot keep your loved one past 48 hours. With it, the admission may last up to 15 days. Within that time the hospital must discharge, keep them as a voluntary patient with their consent, or convert to an involuntary admission supported by medical certification. Your loved one, a relative, a friend or Mental Hygiene Legal Service may request a court hearing in writing, held no more than 5 days after the request.
Several Article 9 sections were amended in 2025, with some wording changes scheduled to take effect July 1, 2027. We describe the versions in force today and will update this page when the new text applies.
New York also lets close family begin a non-emergency admission. Under MHL 9.27, the application may be signed by someone your loved one lives with, by a parent, spouse, sibling or child, or by the nearest available relative, among others. It must be dated within 10 days before admission and supported by the certificates of two examining physicians, or one physician and one psychiatric nurse practitioner, each signing separately. A psychiatrist on the hospital’s staff, who was not one of the certifiers, then examines your loved one.
That admission is not open-ended. Under MHL 9.33, the hospital director must seek a court order no later than 60 days after an involuntary admission to keep the patient longer. A first retention order runs up to 6 months, the next up to one year, and later orders up to two years each.
In practice, finding two physicians willing to examine someone who refuses to be examined is the hard part, and it is where families most often stall. That is worth knowing before you choose this route.
When family signs the application: MHL 9.27
MHL 9.60
Kendra’s Law, and who may petition
Assisted outpatient treatment, known as Kendra’s Law, is codified at Mental Hygiene Law 9.60. It lets a court order an adult with mental illness to follow a treatment plan while living in the community. Families are named petitioners: an adult who lives with the person, a parent, spouse, domestic partner, adult sibling or adult child may file, as may a hospital director, a treating psychiatrist, psychologist or licensed social worker, the county director of community services, or a supervising parole or probation officer.
The person must be 18 or older and unlikely to survive safely in the community without supervision. There must also be a history of not following treatment that either was a significant factor in at least two hospitalizations within the last 36 months, or led to serious violent behavior, threats or attempts within the last 48 months, with time spent hospitalized or incarcerated generally excluded from those windows. The petition goes to the supreme court or county court where the person is present.
An initial order can last up to one year, and a new petition can extend it for up to another year. If your loved one stops following the plan and a physician believes hospitalization may be needed, they can be taken to a hospital and held up to 72 hours for evaluation. The statute is explicit that non-compliance alone is not grounds for commitment or contempt.
For many families, the strongest use of Kendra’s Law is as structure after someone has already agreed to care. A court order cannot create trust; a voluntary yes, followed by an order that keeps services coordinated, sometimes can.
Substance use: 72 hours, and no commitment law
New York has no court process to commit a person for addiction treatment over their objection. What the law provides is short-term emergency care under MHL 22.09 for someone who appears incapacitated by alcohol or substances to the degree that harm is likely. A police or peace officer, or the county director of community services or a designee, can bring the person to a designated treatment facility. A physician must examine them within 12 hours, and they cannot be held more than 72 hours without consent. The section gives family no petition of its own.
When psychosis or mania is fueled by cannabis, stimulants or alcohol, Article 9 may still apply because of the mental illness itself. Either way, the treatment question is the same: can the program treat both conditions under one psychiatrist? Our guide to co-occurring disorders when mental illness came first explains why the order matters, and our New York interventionist page covers substance use interventions from the city to Buffalo.
Choosing among these routes, and a voluntary one
The legal options in New York are sequenced by danger and by history. A 9.39 needs serious harm now. A 9.27 needs two examiners. Kendra’s Law needs a documented pattern over years. Plenty of families are living with someone who is unmistakably ill and fits none of those descriptions yet.
That is where we usually begin. Matt and the family rehearse a conversation built around concrete things your loved one wants back, while we confirm the right level of care in advance; our guide to psychiatric levels of care explains the options. If the answer is no and risk climbs, you already know which door in Article 9 fits, and nobody is learning the statute at midnight. If a hospital stay has just ended, Hannah, with your loved one’s consent, gathers the discharge plan so the conversation builds on what the inpatient team saw. Our guide to involuntary psychiatric pathways puts New York beside other states. We are not lawyers; if a petition is likely, speak with a New York attorney or Mental Hygiene Legal Service.
New York crisis lines and public lookups
911 for immediate danger. 988 by call or text, or chat at 988lifeline.org, staffed around the clock by trained crisis counselors through New York’s 14 contact centers.
HOPEline. For substance use or gambling, the Office of Addiction Services and Supports runs the HOPEline: call 1-877-8-HOPENY (467369) or text HOPENY (467369), 24/7/365, at no cost.
Mental health programs. The Office of Mental Health publishes a Find a Mental Health Program directory of its programs, and points families to their county mental hygiene department, the same office that runs the director of community services role in Article 9.
Our own checks. A listing tells you a program exists. Before we recommend one, we confirm its psychiatric coverage, its admission criteria for the presentation in front of us, and its discharge planning with clinical leadership.
G3 works from Austin, Texas, and travels to New York families wherever they are. Planning begins by phone and video the same day. Matt typically flies into JFK or LaGuardia (LGA) for the city, Long Island and the lower Hudson Valley, and into Albany (ALB), Syracuse (SYR), Rochester (ROC) or Buffalo Niagara (BUF) upstate. Our guide to interstate intervention logistics covers families split between New York and other states.
Someone in psychiatric crisis should not make the trip to treatment alone. Our sober transport companions stay until admission is complete, and our treatment navigation takes no referral fee from any program. The fee is flat and written down first; travel is billed at actual cost.
Getting there, upstate or downstate
Common questions
New York families ask us about 9.39 and Kendra’s Law.
Can I have my adult child involuntarily evaluated in New York?
How long can a hospital keep someone under 9.39?
Can family petition for Kendra’s Law?
What happens if someone ignores an AOT order?
Can we force addiction treatment in New York?
How fast can G3 reach a family in upstate New York?
Keep reading
New York pages and guides for your next step
The next step is a conversation
You do not have to figure this out alone.
One confidential call with G3 begins it. No pressure, no judgment, just a path forward.