PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Dr. Sophine Charles, Associate Executive Director of Council of Family and Child Caring Agencies Downstate on ACS Preventative Services
2:47:30
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156 sec
Dr. Sophine Charles, representing the Council of Family and Child Caring Agencies Downstate, commended the City Council for their work on mental health and prevention services. She discussed the current state of preventative services and suggested ways to strengthen the existing infrastructure to better deliver mental health services.
- Emphasized the need to inventory and strengthen existing prevention agencies that already provide mental health services
- Highlighted workforce shortages in prevention programs, limiting their ability to cover all cases
- Suggested increasing the number of licensed clinical professionals to support the proposal for free mental health services to children coming out of foster care
Dr. Sophine Charles
2:47:30
Good afternoon.
2:47:31
I am doctor Sophine Charles.
2:47:34
I am the associate executive director for the Council of Family and Child Caring Agencies Downstate.
2:47:41
And, first, I wanna commend the council for the incredible work that you did on the Roadmap Mental Health, Report.
2:47:50
Excellent.
2:47:51
Great resource for us.
2:47:53
And, also, I wanna commend you for all of the prevention support.
2:47:59
It's the city council that baseline present, preventive services.
2:48:03
You also created a pathway to reduce workload for caseworkers in prevention, and you supported the workforce enhancements and the COLA.
2:48:14
And so you've built an infrastructure of prevention services that can that are already prepared to deliver the mental health services that you speak of in your proposal.
2:48:27
We applaud you for creating a pathway for additional access and availability.
2:48:34
We do ask that you scan the prevention agencies that are currently available and see if you can strengthen the infrastructure.
2:48:46
Many of our agencies already provide mental health, services through the Article 31 clinics and also through the, 29I, services that are available to clients.
2:48:59
And I think it would be very helpful to get a, a really good inventory of what currently exists to see how you can, further strengthen that.
2:49:10
The other thing I'll say is the prevention programs, they need support.
2:49:15
For example, if the proposal to provide, free mental health services to children coming out of foster care, you also have to increase the number of licensed clinical professionals who are available to provide those services.
2:49:33
On the prevention side, our workforce is very, limited and we can't cover all of the cases that needs to be covered because of the workforce shortage.
2:49:46
And those are just some examples.
2:49:48
I could say more.
2:49:49
It's in my report, and you'll be able to see how, the the lack of continuity also of city services also takes a hit for families in terms of what's available for them.
2:50:03
And I'll I'll pause there because I know you're asking questions.
