Over 500 people joined us for Mental Health Matters Day!
The empowering day commenced with a morning policy briefing and orientation with key remarks from New York State Office of Health Commissioner Ann Sullivan, MD, Senator Fernandez, Chair of the Senate Committee on Alcoholism and Substance Use Disorders, Assemblymember Simon, Chair of the Assembly Mental Health Committee, and Assemblymember Kelles. Senator Brouk sponsored the Mental Health Matters Day proclamation, which was presented by her staff during the morning presentation. As we continue our focus and support of our first responders and need for peer support, we welcomed remarks from Eugene Perry, President of the Firefighters Association of the State of New York, Aidan O’Connor, of the Greenport Rescue Squad, and George Hill, President of the Empire New York State Concerns of Police Survivors. One of the most moving parts of the morning was the speech by the featured youth advocate, Alyssa Majano, a senior at Freeport High School. Ms. Majano is part of the Cohen Strong Mental Health Program at the Cohen Children’s Medical Center/Northwell, and shared her inspirational story and how Teen Mental Health First Aid enables her to help her peers.
The morning’s momentum led us into marching around the Capitol and in West Capitol Park for the Mental Health Matters Day Rally. Many came forward, sharing their personal stories, challenges, and messages of hope and the power of community. Among the chants reverberating around the State Capitol: “Mental Health Matters,” “Youth Mental Health Matters,” “First Responders Mental Health Matters,” and “2.7% Because Mental Health Matters.”
In the afternoon, attendees had the opportunity to meet with their legislators, with nearly 100 meetings scheduled.
Mental Health Matters Day is growing year after year. It is a tremendous day building momentum for the critical priorities of the day, including support for the not-for-profit workforce, school and college mental health, suicide prevention, and support of first responders. Mental Health Matters Day has helped us achieve significant public policy achievements for community mental health, a tradition that will continue as we harness our individual and collective power and voices.
News 10: Supporting youth during Mental Health Matters Day
by: Amber Fisher
Posted: Mar 11, 2026 / 05:44 PM EDT
Updated: Mar 11, 2026 / 05:45 PM EDT
ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Wednesday, March 11 is Mental Health Matters Day. Hundreds of advocates — including students — gathered at the State Capitol to call for more support. It comes as a new resource for teens in crisis, the Beacon Crisis Residence at St. Anne’s, recently opened in the Capital Region.
More than 550 advocates, about half of them high school students, rallied at the Capitol for Mental Health Matters Day, which raises awareness about mental health and suicide prevention.
“There have been times in my life where I felt like really alone. But this all just shows that nobody is really alone, like everybody has somebody.” said one 12th grader at Cairo-Durham High School. “I learned more about mental health than I would have learned in the classroom,” added another Cairo-Durham senior.
Karen Drossel, School Social Worker at Cairo-Durham, believes, “We really need more training, more support, more funding in schools to support the mental health needs of our students and our staff.”
Glenn Liebman, CEO of the Mental Health Association in NYS, or MHANYS, said that there are many programs across the state, but not enough staff. “We don’t have the workers to run those programs because we don’t pay our workers enough. So they’re going to jobs at Amazon or McDonald’s because they pay better than we do. You know, our folks are mission driven, but mission driven doesn’t pay the rent.” Liebman explained.
Link: www.news10.com/news/
