CCC invites you as members of the Healthy Minds, Healthy Kids Campaign to join us on Wednesday, February 10^th at 12:30PM for a virtual press event and Facebook rally in support of children’s behavioral health. After nearly a year of anxiety, isolation, loss of loved ones, disconnection from school, and economic insecurity, New York’s children and families need additional behavioral health supports to recover and thrive.

Speakers will include elected leaders, mental health providers, and family advocates who know that the state must do more to support our struggling families.

Why is this so important?

Between March and July, 2020, 4,200 children in New York suffered the loss of a parent or guardian to COVID-19, with Black and Hispanic children experiencing loss at twice the rate of Asian and white children. An additional 325,000 children have fallen into or near poverty due to this pandemic.

The pandemic has led to declines in critical mental health screenings and access to services, even as rates of anxiety, depression, substance use, and suicidal ideation have risen. A report by the New School’s Center for New York City Affairs documents the devastation families are facing as suicidal children spend days waiting for hospital beds. Too many children are not getting critical mental health and substance use disorder services when they need them. The result of unmet need is a rise in hospitalizations and ER visits, children on waitlists, families in crisis, and parents desperately searching for services that just aren’t there.

We have to act now. Without protecting and expanding behavioral health services for children, families will never recover from this crisis, and our State will struggle to meet the behavioral health needs that existed even before the pandemic.

Join us on February 10^th to show your support for New York’s children and families.