Children’s behavioral health services need state support

Dear Editor: Astor Services for Children and Families joins hundreds of organizations from across New York state in asking our elected officials to fulfill the promises made to youths and families by maintaining the state’s planned investment into children’s behavioral health services.

Astor serves more than 10,000 children annually through a range of mental health and early childhood programs in the Hudson Valley and the Bronx. As an organization that has been providing services to our communities’ vulnerable children for over 65 years, we uniquely understand the challenges they face, especially when it comes to the crisis in access to mental health services.

Over a year ago, the state’s planned expansion of children’s mental health services began and included new Medicaid coverage for life-saving mental health care services to improve access for more children in need. However, that plan is crumbling under the “cut Medicaid” clamor.

At the heart of the stalled expansion is the state’s unwillingness to implement Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s 2011 Children’s Medicaid Redesign Plan. Suicides are spiking and are now a leading cause of death for children ages 15 to 19. More than half of children with a diagnosed mental health condition do not receive the treatment they need.

As the need for expanded mental health services grows, providers like Astor are struggling to keep existing programs operating, much less start up new services due to lack of funding.

Astor knows the new, expanded services will strengthen families and entire communities — when we get the support to deliver them.

Yvette Bairan Chief Executive Officer Astor Services for Children and Families Rhinebeck