City Hall is preparing to tackle mental health problems around the city. The issue is deeply personal to the mayor and his family. At an emotional press conference, Mayor Bill de Blasio opened up about his daughter's fight against substance abuse and his father's lost battle as NY1's Grace Rauh reports.

The mayor's children were fixtures on the campaign trail in 2013, helping their father make the case to New Yorkers. They are by his side once again Monday, but this time to support a cause their mother has been championing: improving mental health services in the city.

"I am never as happy as when my family is with me," said First Lady Chirlane McCray. "And I hope that what I have to say here today brings home to families across our city."

Like the mayor's campaign for City Hall, the first lady's mental health push is a family affair. It's one she seems to have been compelled to tackle because of her own family's struggle with mental illness. Her daughter, Chiara, publicly admitted two years ago to having problems with drug and alcohol abuse and depression. She is in recovery.

"Today I am grateful to say that I am able to see through to the other side," Chiara said.

The mayor's own father was a World War II veteran who became an alcoholic and ultimately committed suicide. The mayor says his father brushed off any attempts to help him.

"He was strong and he was smart but he couldn't do what Chiara did," the mayor said. "I have often thought about that. He never got to meet his granddaughter but he was not able to do what she was able to do. And that says something about maybe the fact that we are learning something."

The mayor says he feels like his father's life might have been different had he been alive today.

"I literally wished at times that there was a time machine," de Blasio said. "That I could learn what I learned from Chiara and go back and try to reach my father.

The mayor's son, Dante, did not speak at the event. He is a freshman at Yale University, where there is an active debate about racism and discrimination on campus.

The mayor says his son is active in the Black Student Union and pointed out that he lives in Calhoun College, named for John C. Calhoun, a staunch defender of slavery. The mayor says the college should be renamed.