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Mental Health Update

February 24, 2023
Mental Health Update

Advocates Rally for Children’s Mental Health and Fight for 8.5% COLA


With children in crisis, families and advocates rally for more mental health support in state budget

By Cayla Bamberger

New York Daily News

Feb 22, 2023 at 6:19 pm

Families and advocates rallied Wednesday to underscore how a statewide shortage of mental health services is hurting children in New York and to press for more investment in treatment.

The Campaign for Healthy Minds, Healthy Kids, a coalition of nonprofits and providers that organized the virtual demonstration, urged lawmakers to set aside at least half of $1 billion in the governor’s executive budget for behavioral health to tackle an acute crisis in children’s well-being.

They also called for greater funding for workforce development and school-based mental health resources — noting that about half of young people who experienced a major depressive episode last year did not receive treatment.

One mom on Long Island said after her son was discharged from residential treatment in 2019, he had to wait for services at home and in his town. Months passed by without the help he needed, and he attempted suicide.

“Reading his suicide note that he left behind is something that no parent should ever have to go through,” said Christina Hauptman, whose 15-year-old son has struggled with his mental health. “Since that day, I check on Cody every night when he’s asleep just to make sure that he’s still breathing.”

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for teens statewide, according to the campaign. But the state has been losing more than 1,200 beds in mental health hospitals and facilities over the last decade, and the rate of child psychiatrists to children — 28 to 100,000 — remains woefully inadequate to meet the need, advocates said.

Tiara Springer-Love, director of the youth program at Families Together in New York State, said that when she had her first episode at 14, providers were there to provide treatment. But nearly a decade later when she needed clinical support again, she was placed on a months-long waitlist in New York City, without medication and just a hotline.

“That waiting period was one of the most challenging times of my life,” said Springer-Love, who after navigating the mental health and foster care systems became a social worker. “No one should have to wait to get the help they desperately want, the help they desperately need and the help they desperately deserve.”

The governor’s budget makes significant investments in children’s mental health, including $12 million toward a pediatric primary care program and home-based crisis intervention teams, according to the briefing book. She also proposed $10 million in grants for youth suicide prevention programs, $10 million for school-based clinics, $5 million for comprehensive services led by care managers and $3 million for centers addressing eating disorders.

“My goal is to reduce the unmet mental health needs of our children by half in the next five years,” said Gov. Hochul at a press conference earlier this month in the Bronx. “That’s ambitious, that’s bold — but we have no choice.”

Critics said the state lacks a robust network for behavioral health services, and without additional funding to bolster a demoralized workforce, providers will continue to leave the field for jobs that are less emotionally taxing.

While Hochul proposed a 2.5% cost of living adjustment to fund providers, advocates are pushing lawmakers to more than triple that figure.

“That’s what’s missing in this budget,” said Bradley Hansen, public policy director at Families Together. “Despite all the wonderful things we’re seeing — capital, money for buildings — that’s not the same as what we need, which is people.”

The state budget is due by April 1.

(Spectrum News—Kate Lisa)

New York Mental Health Advocates Want Half Of Budgeted $1B For Youth Services

The push is on for advocates wanting half of the $1.1 billion for mental health in Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed budget to be dedicated to improve services for young people as they face record rates of suicide, mental disorders and substance use.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for New York teens ages 15 to 19, according to the state Health Department.

Decades of disinvestment in children’s behavioral health has made it impossible for families to navigate the system, forcing young people to be on wait lists for months before they can receive care.

“Half of young people with a depressive issue are not able to get the services that they need,” said Alice Bufkin, Citizens’ Committee for Children executive director of policy and advocacy. “And a lot of that really primarily is being driven by the lack of an adequate workforce.”

As thousands of children lack access to services, providers want funding to create a program preparing high schoolers for nonclinical mental health careers.

Stakeholders and lawmakers are also in discussion to create of a retirement plan for workers in the human services sector, Mental Health Association of New York State CEO Glenn Liebman said. They’re working to draft legislation to study the costs of such a program for the state’s more than 800,000-person workforce.

“We have a retirement system in place for the state workforce, for police, for firefighters, for teachers, all sorts and we want that pension to stay and be as strong as ever, but what about the human service workforce?” Liebman said. “Shouldn’t they have some ability to be able to have some sort of pension when they do retire or when they do leave?”

Providers continue to push back against Gov. Hochul’s proposed 2.5% Cost of Living Adjustment pay increase for workers — an increase for the second year in a row, but down from a 5.4% hike in last year’s budget. 

They’re advocating for an increase of 8.5%, which they say will address the workforce crisis and make up for decades of insufficient funding for services. 

“We have to pay our staff what they’re worth that ultimately will help sort of stop that blockage that we see in this system of care,” Liebman said.  

Gov. Hochul proposed $10 million of her $227 billion executive budget to increase school-based mental health clinics to give students access to meet with clinicians and assist overburdened school counselors; $10 million for suicide-prevention programs and $12 million for home-based crisis intervention teams to meet with children and youth where they are.

“Our children need preventative services now to stop them from needing intensive services later,” Gov. Hochul said at a mental health event in the Bronx earlier this month.

She said the state must take action, citing a recent U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention report that shows a 40% increase in teenage girls experiencing sadness, depression and violence nationwide over the last several years.

“Think about a teenager starting off as a sophomore in high school … finishing middle school remotely — a lot of them have anxiety, they need those services,” Hochul said. “…My goal is to reduce the unmet mental health needs of our children by half in the next five years. That’s ambitious, that’s bold, but we have no choice.”

Advocates are pleased with Hochul’s proposals in her executive budget to help youth, including $24 million over two years to help providers screen and identify mental health risks in children and $18 million over two years in reimbursements for family preventive mental health services like therapy.

But at a rally about mental health funding for children Wednesday, families from across the state recount longtime issues accessing and affording the care they needed, or driving hours to find availability. They require answers and support in wake of an ailing system that won’t take years to materialize.

Mental health professionals say bolstered support for the human services workforce must be proportionate to the  supporting behavioral health services and resources for children and families for workers must be proportionate to the response so intervention can happen as early as possible.

“What we’re trying to do is get ahead of the cycle where we have young people who don’t get the care they need when they’re young, then they become adults with even more complex and acute needs who also can’t get the care they need,” Bufkin said. “So our focus is really trying to support those families and children as early as possible, as far upstream as we can … specifically the behavioral health supports that they need.”

Providers are fighting for an increase in reimbursement rates for families using commercial insurance for care equal to Medicaid government rates. Hochul proposed legislation in her executive budget requiring commercial insurance providers to pay for school-based services at a rate that’s equal to the higher-paying Medicaid rate.