Hochul takes steps to combat youth mental illness

NEW YORK – Gov. Kathy Hochul recently announced steps to combat the youth mental health crisis. This happened during a gathering of students, faculty and mental health professionals at Mohonasen Central School District.

According to the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly one-in-four teens have considered suicide, a significant increase from a decade ago, and for teenage girls, that number rises to one-in-three. In response to this crisis, the state will expand mental health support for children across the state, protect them from harmful social media features and ensure their voice is heard.

“Our kids are in crisis, and as the adults in the room it’s our responsibility to help,” Hochul said in a news release. “The mental health crisis is one of the biggest challenges we face and I’m committed to giving kids, parents and teachers the tools they need to address this issue.”

Hochul announced $20 million in start-up funding for school-based mental health clinics and launched a rolling application. The application will make it easier for interested schools to access state funding. With support from a school wanting to establish a clinic satellite, providers can now apply for start-up funding on a rolling basis rather than through the state procurement process previously used.

This effort is part of Hochul’s State of the State commitment to put a school-based mental health clinic in every school that wants one.

Licensed OMH clinic providers can now submit an application to establish a school-based satellite clinic through the Mental Health Provider Data Exchange. Every new school satellite clinic will automatically be eligible for $25,000 in start-up funding. High-need schools, or those where more than 50 percent of students are classified as coming from an economically disadvantaged household, are eligible for an additional $20,000.

Today’s announcement builds on the $5.1 million awarded in November to support 137 new school-based clinics, including 82 at high needs schools, and bringing the total number of clinics to more than 1,200 statewide.

Hochul also announced that her Youth Mental Health Advisory Board will begin accepting applications from interested children and teenagers. The application portal for the advisory board is now open. Middle and high school students interested in mental health issues or with lived experience are encouraged to apply for the advisory board

This initiative emerged following last year’s statewide youth mental health listening tour and Youth Mental Health Summit. During those engagement sessions, young people communicated that they wanted their voices to be heard. In response, Hochul created the Youth Mental Health Advisory Board.

The Youth Mental Health Advisory Board will ensure that youth-informed best practices continue to be incorporated into New York’s public behavioral health programs and initiatives.

Hochul is continuing to advocate for the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation for Kids Act, the SAFE for Kids Act, which she included in her FY25 Executive Budget. This groundbreaking proposal would regulate unhealthy social media usage by prohibiting platforms from providing addictive algorithmic feeds to kids without parental consent.

In 2023, the US Surgeon General said that social media can have a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents. This legislation would require social media companies to restrict the addictive features that harm young users while still allowing access to the platform and empower the Office of the Attorney General to bring actions forward for violators.

Additionally, the New York Child Data Protection Act would prohibit online sites from collecting, using, sharing, or selling personal data of anyone under the age of 18 without their consent.

Hochul also announced measures to help low-income New Yorkers on Medicaid access mental health care. In the Governor’s Executive Budget, $15 million will be allocated annually to increase reimbursement rates for mental health services for children in DOH-licensed facilities and private healthcare practices, in addition to $27 million annually to support these same services for adults. These investments are designed to help these providers recruit and retain mental health practitioners to increase access for Medicaid members.

In addition, the executive budget includes $5 million annually to support School-Based Health Centers, with a subset of this funding dedicated specifically to support services related to mental health.