N.Y. Searches Shelters for Mentally Ill

The killing of an elderly woman has prompted Gov. Mario M. Cuomo to order state teams into New York City’s homeless shelters in search of potentially dangerous people who may belong in hospitals.

The searches, begun Thursday, touched off debate over the state’s and the city’s handling of the mentally ill.

State Mental Health Commissioner Richard Surles gave the order for the searches after the arrest of Christopher Battiste, a mentally ill homeless man accused of fatally bludgeoning 80-year-old Doll Mamie Johnson, who was walking to church Sunday.

“There are about 9,000 men in the shelter system right now, and I don’t know if he is simply a single case or that there may be others like him,” Surles said.

The state team of psychiatrists, social workers and nurses began their work at a shelter where Battiste lived. Of the 600 men in the shelter, the team sent three to a hospital for psychiatric care and referred four more for placement in special housing for the mentally ill.

New York City has 12 other men’s homeless shelters.

Surles said residents whom the inspectors believe could be dangerous would be sent to psychiatric hospitals. But New York City Mental Health Commissioner Dr. Luis Marcos said people like Battiste, whose mental problems seem to be induced by drug use, are not qualified for forced institutionalization under current state guidelines.

The population at state psychiatric centers has plummeted by about half during the last 12 years to about 12,000 as New York state has shifted emphasis to less-costly, community-based services.