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Q&A
Council Member Lee inquires about youth mental health programs and school-based clinics
3:08:25
ยท
3 min
Council Member Linda Lee questions DOHMH officials about youth mental health programs and school-based mental health clinics. The discussion covers the budget allocation, number of clinics, and challenges in starting and maintaining these clinics.
- DOHMH's role is primarily technical assistance and partnership, not direct funding
- There are 223 clinics supporting 366 schools
- Funding for service delivery comes from NYC Public Schools, not DOHMH
Linda Lee
3:08:25
Actually, perfect segue because I wanted to follow-up on asking questions around youth mental health programs.
3:08:32
So you said 75,800,000.0 total is how much is being spent on mental health services related to youth, correct?
Jane Ni
3:08:38
Correct.
Linda Lee
3:08:38
Okay.
3:08:39
And then how much of that is specifically for the school based mental health clinics?
Michelle Morse
3:08:46
That is actually in a separate budget from the use of mental health.
3:08:49
So our school based mental health clinics are clinics that we support in partnership with New York City Public Schools.
3:08:56
There's over three sixty school based mental health clinics that we support in partnership with New York City Public Schools through our office of school health.
3:09:06
The health department's role in that work is really to offer technical assistance to the community based organizations who provide those school based mental health services and service delivery within those schools.
Linda Lee
3:09:19
Those are the article 30 ones?
Michelle Morse
3:09:21
Correct.
Linda Lee
3:09:22
Okay.
3:09:22
So there's three sixty locations?
Michelle Morse
3:09:24
There are about three sixty clinics and the number of schools I have here and I can tell you is two twenty three clinics in three sixty six schools, supporting three sixty six schools.
Linda Lee
3:09:43
Okay, and how many schools have mental health clinics that are still in need?
3:09:50
Like in other words how many schools have requested to want to start one that have not received a school based mental health clinic yet?
Michelle Morse
3:09:57
That would be a question for New York City public schools.
3:10:01
They're the ones that provide the funding for the actual service delivery for the school based mental health clinics.
3:10:08
Our role is to really partner with the organizations doing the care delivery and helping them to make sure that their service delivery is as impactful and effective as possible.
Linda Lee
3:10:19
Okay so we'll follow-up with that and then quick question, have there been any increases in the budget because I know one of the biggest complaints from the provider side is that in order to start up the clinic at which is considered one of their off-site locations, they only have I think about $25,000 in startup costs which we know is pretty much nothing.
3:10:37
And so I just want to know if there's an increase to that startup cost and if in general there's more of an increase in terms of the school based mental health clinics.
3:10:46
I know it's regulated more so through Medicaid and the insurances and the reimbursements and everything, but on top of that is there additional support that DOHMH is able to offer them?
Michelle Morse
3:10:57
We do offer the technical assistance, as I was mentioning.
3:11:01
But the question about funding for service delivery specifically would have to go to New York City Public Schools who funds that part.
Linda Lee
3:11:08
So you guys don't fund any of this?
3:11:10
It's just oversight?
Michelle Morse
3:11:11
We do partnership, technical assistance to improve service delivery, and that's our role.
Linda Lee
3:11:17
Okay, have you had conversations with DOE about the challenges in starting up a lot of these clinics as well as maintaining because you know as we know things like education workshops within the schools or to the school communities, those are not reimbursable services and so my question I'm wondering is has there been any joint conversations with you as well as DOE in terms of making sure that those clinics survive because you know as we've just heard from Councilmember Bacher and others and I know Chair Stephens is a huge obviously advocate for youth mental health services, just wanting to know that we're setting them up to thrive and not fail.
Michelle Morse
3:11:57
We are in constant conversation with New York City Public schools about youth and school children age mental health concerns, and the chancellor has communicated to me directly that student well-being is one of her top concerns.
3:12:12
So we are in very, very frequent communication with them.
Linda Lee
3:12:15
Okay.
3:12:16
And then what is the current budget for the mental health continuum?