Alliance Note: New York State has awarded $15 million to multiple organizations to create and implement suicide prevention initiatives and services for youth. This comes as part of Governor Hochul’s larger mental health push which has had a large focus on improving youth mental health. This funding will allow for additional community-based services to support the state’s youth, who are experiencing mental health concerns at a much higher rate post pandemic, by improving access to care and creating specific programs aimed at underserved communities, including LGBTQ+ and youth of color. See below for more information.
State Awards $15M for Youth Suicide Prevention amid Enduring Mental Health Crisis
By Amanda D’Ambrosio | Crain’s Health Pulse | July 23, 2024
State officials awarded $15 million to mental health nonprofits to develop suicide prevention programs for marginalized youth as the state combats unrelenting rates of depression and anxiety among young people.
The funding, announced by Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday, is set to flow to five nonprofit organizations to help them devise suicide prevention programs for teens and kids from underserved populations. The organizations will receive awards over a five-year period to launch community-based initiatives for kids from racial and ethnic minority groups, those who identify as LGBTQ+ and those who live in rural areas.
New York has a lower teen suicide rate compared to other parts of the country, with roughly five out of every 100,000 adolescents dying by suicide, according to federal data published by the UnitedHealth Foundation.
But suicidal ideation and high rates of depression and anxiety have become a pressing public health concern in the years following the pandemic, with nearly a third of teen girls nationwide reporting that they considered suicide in 2021, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Suicide risk is higher among kids from Black, Hispanic, Asian and Pacific Islander communities, as well as LGBTQ+ teens who have historically lacked access to prevention and mental health care. Roughly 40% of LGBTQ+ youth and half of all trans and nonbinary young people in New York have considered attempting suicide, said Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who represents the west side of Manhattan, in a statement.
The new funding will flow to local organizations aiming to improve access to care. The Child Center of New York, a nonprofit youth mental health provider based in Forest Hills, is set to receive $3.4 million to develop a suicide prevention program for young adults under 24 years old who live in Brooklyn and Queens.
Comunilife, a Midtown nonprofit that offers supportive housing and mental health services, will also get $2.9 million to expand a suicide prevention program that serves Latina teens and their families in Nassau County on Long Island.
Other organizations that will receive funding include the John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital of Buffalo, Contact Community Services in East Syracuse and Access: Supports for the Living in Middletown.
Hochul has built on her $1 billion mental health initiative by funding new programs for youth, including a $30 million allocation in April for residential facilities for teens and kids with complex mental health conditions.