Governor Cuomo’s daily briefing has become mandatory viewing. His common sense, intelligence and candor has struck a chord with so many in New York State and across the nation.
Today he eloquently praised the heroes in our society—those health care workers in hospitals fighting every day against the coronavirus.
As we all know during this pandemic, there are other people who are rising to the occasion. Few have done it more than those at our MHA’s and in human services agencies throughout New York State. Despite direct impact of the virus including loss of valued staff, these agencies are still running residential programs, care management agencies, mental health programs, substance use agencies, child welfare programs, developmental disability programs, homeless shelters, domestic violence shelters, food pantries, and so much more. They are also the front line workers, keeping people safe and in the community and away from the hospitals.
Despite the budget deficit we face, we need funding for the human service sector. Additional funding from the Federal Cares legislation could be utilized as well since the human service sector is very engaged with fighting this pandemic.
Today the Governor said he was an entangler when need be. We feel the same way. We’re all New Yorkers and we thrive on fighting with every breath for what we believe in so if this was a normal year, you would see rallies, call-in, media blitzes, social media campaigns or whatever other magic tricks we have up our sleeves. As we all know, all too well, this is not a normal year.
It is a year like no other so we have put aside politics and spin and simply urge the Governor and the Legislature to support the other heroes in this crisis—those individuals at the Mental Health Association and all of our colleagues in the human services sector.
Thank you
