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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul wants to make mental health first-aid training available to every 10th grader in the state.<\/p>\n
The plan \u2014 announced<\/a> today in a preview of the governor\u2019s State of the State proposals \u2014 would expand a program that teaches students to recognize and respond to mental health and substance use challenges among friends and peers.<\/p>\n The Teen Mental Health First Aid program is a 4.5-hour course developed by the National Council for Mental Wellbeing<\/a>, a nonprofit. It teaches teens to identify signs that their peers are struggling, understand the effects of school bullying and violence, and talk with friends and classmates about mental health. The program also gives young people tools to monitor and care for their own well-being.<\/p>\n As Healthbeat reported in September<\/a>, researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that students who took the first aid training were more likely to intervene appropriately and empathetically with peers facing mental health challenges.<\/p>\n \u201cWe hear all the time, \u2018Our teens are in crisis, our teens are anxious.\u2019 But if you empower them with tools to have conversations about mental health, you see the impact right away,\u201d said Katie Oldakowski, senior director of training and programs at Mental Health Association in New York State, which currently administers the first-aid training program in 43 schools.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we give teens language to talk about mental health, we build resilience,\u201d Oldakowski said.<\/p>\n The state currently allocates $3.5 million per year to the program, and has trained close to 4,850 students so far, officials told Chalkbeat after this story was initially published. Under the governor\u2019s new proposal, the program would grow over five years, with a target of training all of New York\u2019s approximately 180,000 10th-graders by the fourth year, according to state officials. The governor\u2019s announcement did not say how much the expansion would cost, and her office did not immediately respond to requests for that information.<\/p>\n The training initiative is part of Hochul\u2019s ongoing agenda to expand access to mental health support in schools. In the past five years, New York has increased the number of state-supported, school-based mental health clinics by nearly 50%, bringing the total to 1,300 clinics, based in 25% of the state\u2019s public schools. Monday\u2019s announcement did not include a commitment to increase funding for school-based clinics.<\/p>\n Any effort to expand school-based mental health support \u201cis a great step in the right direction,\u201d said Alice Bufkin, an associate executive director at the Citizens\u2019 Committee for Children of New York, an advocacy group calling for increased investment in mental health service for kids and teens.<\/p>\n However, schools and school-based clinics continue to struggle to pay for much of the essential work they do, Bufkin said. For example, clinics typically cannot bill for providing treatment to undocumented students, who are not eligible for Medicaid. Nor can they be reimbursed for work like helping teachers manage students with behavioral challenges, or intervening when students are in emotional crisis.<\/p>\n \u201cOur state has a long way to go to fully support students in schools and communities. We are still facing a behavioral health crisis for children and families throughout New York,\u201d Bufkin said.<\/p>\n In other efforts to tackle the teen mental health crisis, Hochul is trying to keep kids safe from social media-related threats and online gaming platforms<\/a> by expanding age verification requirements, disabling AI chatbot features, and including \u201cprivacy by default\u201d settings, giving parents control over who can connect with young people under the age of 13.<\/p>\n Abigail Kramer is a reporter in New York City. Contact Abigail at akramer@chalkbeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n Like this:<\/p>\n Like Loading…<\/p>\n