Bold and Beautiful: Chirlane McCray

Article

N.Y. / Region
New York City’s First Lady Shares Family History as She Unveils Push on Mental Health Care

By NIKITA STEWARTJAN. 28, 2015

Chirlane McCray, the wife of Mayor Bill de Blasio, revealed on Wednesday that she had been surrounded by mental illness most of her life — first as a child of parents who had depression and later as a mother of a daughter who is recovering from depression, anxiety and substance abuse.

In a public appeal, Ms. McCray used intimate family turmoil as a springboard for public policy. She announced plans for a comprehensive review of the mental health problems that affect New Yorkers to help the city identify and address disparities in care. The review will be conducted through a partnership among the city’s health department, the Fund for Public Health and the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, which Ms. McCray leads as an unpaid chairwoman.

The “road map,” as the first lady called it, will be completed by summer, and the mayor’s fund will then commit money, though she did not disclose a budget.

Ms. McCray, who has worked in publishing and as a speechwriter, made her announcement at a conference of mental health professionals at Brooklyn Borough Hall. She lightened the mood by asking people to stretch and greet one another. Then she grew serious.

“My mother, who is a daughter of immigrants, and my father, who was a veteran, a World War II veteran, both suffered from depression at times in their lives,” said Ms. McCray, 60, who grew up in Massachusetts. “They had periods of intense sadness for different reasons. To their enormous credit, they still managed to bring us up. But we knew it was there.”

She said she recalled asking: “What’s going on? Why aren’t they talking to us? Why do they have this behavior?”

As an adult, Ms. McCray, the mother of two children, said she was in shock when her daughter, Chiara de Blasio, now a 20-year-old college student, revealed her troubles.

“I felt everything you would expect a mother could feel — love, at first and foremost, but fear and a great deal of uncertainty,” she said. “I really, I can’t tell you what a shock it was to find out that this young woman, who was a great student, beloved by her classmates — her teachers had so much to say, so many good things to say about her — a high-performing individual, was struggling with these issues right beneath our nose.”

“I’m proud to say today,” she added, “that Chiara is kicking butt at recovery.”

Ms. de Blasio publicly disclosed her illness on Christmas Eve in 2013, days before her father took office, via a YouTube video. She has been honored for raising awareness, accepting an award from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in May.

Mr. de Blasio has also shared his experience with his estranged father, an alcoholic who committed suicide as he battled terminal cancer in the 1970s. He has also spoken about the challenges that his son faces as a biracial teenager, and at times has drawn criticism.

Ms. McCray’s speech on Wednesday was the first time she shared that her parents, too, were affected by mental health troubles.

Her remarks drew applause. She said the conference was the right to time to reveal the city’s new strategy, and she described how people try to hide or ignore mental illness. “How did we get so far away from addressing that in our daily lives?” she asked.