Albany Youth Mental Health Summit Recap
As part of its ongoing efforts to convene a national conversation on youth mental health and wellbeing, the Coalition to Empower our Future (CEF) hosted a summit in Albany, NY, on November 18 in partnership with City & State NY.
The summit, titled “The Future in Focus: A Comprehensive Approach to Youth Mental Health,” brought together local advocates, community groups, youth leaders and clinicians for a wide-ranging discussion on the complex challenges driving the youth mental wellbeing challenge, and how we can identify comprehensive solutions.
The day began with a breakfast and networking session, where attendees and speakers alike had the chance to connect before the program. The event then opened with remarks from CEF Executive Director Glen Weiner, who discussed the coalition’s national listening tour and efforts to identify solutions from across the spectrum of advocates working on youth mental health and wellbeing issues.
Following the opening remarks, City & State NY Editor-in-Chief Ralph Ortega led a fireside chat with January Conteras, CEF board member and former assistant secretary for the Administration of Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and CEF Advisor Dr. Caroline Carney, a board-certified internist and psychiatrist. In a wide-ranging discussion, Ortega, Contreras and Carney covered the complex factors driving the current challenges with youth mental health, gaps in the current mental healthcare system, and their work to identify solutions from both a clinical and policy-focused perspective – and as parents themselves. A central theme was the uniqueness of each child, and how addressing mental health requires a set of solutions specifically tailored to each child.
Dr. Carney stressed the importance of wraparound solutions tailored to the uniqueness of each child’s situation in her approach to youth mental healthcare, including everything from connecting with existing support systems, working directly with family members and caregivers and identifying job opportunities for parents of at-risk young people. “By being present in the home, having our clinicians going into the home…and assessing and working with the family, there can be a more holistic approach,” said Dr. Carney. “Those approaches have been shown time and again to reduce emergency room utilization, to reduce inpatient hospitalization for kids, to reduce RTC [Residential Treatment Center] placement, and also to improve mood, anxiety and other outcomes for those kiddos.”
Contreras echoed the need for uniquely tailored solutions, alongside the importance of local context in addressing mental healthcare needs. “We need services to be available to local communities in ways that work for that local community. So I’ve had the privilege of traveling to many tribal communities, to rural communities, to different cities.” said Contreras. “We need a health care professional pipeline that is able to meet the needs of all, the local culture, the way that they speak and the words that they use and the feel that they bring. I think that’s also very important to really meet the needs of every individual child and family.”
Following the fireside chat, City & State NY Editor Peter Sterne welcomed a panel of experts working to address the mental healthcare landscape from many different perspectives, including representatives from CEF member organizations: Coalition for Student Wellbeing, Girls on the Run, Sounds of Saving and Young People in Recovery.
Panelists included:
- Anisha Bhatnagar, council member, Coalition for Student Wellbeing
- Allie Riley, chief program officer, Girls on the Run
- Audrey Robinson, manager of youth peer support, National Alliance on Mental Illness of New York City (NAMI-NYC)
- Charlie Gross, co-founder, Sounds of Saving
- Jamie del Rosario, recovery services coordinator, Division of Addiction Treatment and Recovery Services, New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS)
- Melanie Hecker, youth and young adult advocacy specialist, New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH)
- Shayna Persaud, New York City chapter lead, Young People in Recovery
A central theme of the panel was the importance of listening to young people in conversations on mental health and empowering them to design systems to help themselves and their peers.
Opening the discussion was Bhatnagar, a student at Siena University in the Albany area, who noted that the voices of the people most impacted by the youth mental health challenge have too often been left out of the conversation. She said,“I believe that young people should have input on designing the systems that are meant to serve them. I believe we should be focused on a grassroots movement, working up, not working down.”
Robinson, in discussing NAMI-NYC’s efforts to design youth-led programming and create peer support systems for young people, noted that following the pandemic, there has been a new energy among young people working on the issue of mental health. She said, “Today, we’re seeing youth really eager to engage in this conversation at NAMI…we have teens reaching out to us, really taking initiative, wanting to bring our presentations to their schools, wanting to start their own mental health programs and clubs in their schools.”
Del Rosario of New York State OASAS explained her efforts to empower young people to address mental health challenges among their peers, saying, “We consistently need youth to be showing up. And let me tell you, the youth are showing up. They are truly the definition of if you make space for them, they will come…they are willing to have the conversations, they are willing to speak up, they are willing to lead, they want to help their peers. And it is our job to guide them in that. It’s our job to create space, to make programs, to allow them to really have that voice.”
The discussion also focused on the importance of building resiliency and creating third spaces for kids to be kids, such as after-school programs and activities. Cultivating grit and providing kids with mentorship can begin at a young age, said Riley: “We’ve talked a lot here about designing with and not for young people…Our coaches are prepared to understand that everyone has a story, and to really meet young [girls] where they are and provide them with the individual supports that they need; giving them a chance to lead, to lean into the lessons, and to bring what’s important to them to the forefront.”
Hecker discussed how the New York State OMH’s Youth Safe Spaces program is working to create places where children can access mental health support or just take time to hang out with others, and the gap they’ve identified in the current support landscape, “We’ve all talked about how very important it is for young people to have spaces where they can just be themselves and decompress. Places that are neither school nor home, places that we call third spaces,” said Hecker.
Persaud also echoed the importance of third spaces and peer-to-peer support, saying, “We see every day just how layered youth mental health is. Young people aren’t struggling with just one thing. It’s academics, family pressure, social media, the economy, substance use…And because all of these things overlap, the support they need needs to be just as comprehensive. What programs like ours really do is give young people a space where they’re heard and not judged, a space where they can share the full truth of what they’re going through, including the parts they usually hide.”
Gross explained Sounds of Saving’s approach to addressing mental health challenges by giving kids a forum to explore their mental health and connect with peers through a shared love of music. He said,“[Music] is a perfect entry point for some otherwise difficult conversations, giving young people a language for emotional experience that they don’t always know how to name. For creating a connection with yourself and with others.”
The Future in Focus summit featured a wide range of proposed solutions from many angles impacting youth mental wellbeing. While there is no one solution to address youth mental health, the conversation was a prescient reminder that by working with and for our young people, and considering the many, not the few, solutions, there is a path forward.
Closing the conversation, Weiner remarked that “We’ve heard today from a variety of perspectives that the youth mental health challenge is deeply complex. But it’s also an issue where there’s an incredible appetite for solutions, because we all want our kids to succeed.”
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