NEWYORK: New York City Mayor Eric Adams, NYC Health + Hospitals President and CEO Dr. Mitchell Katz, and New York City Public Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos continued “mental health week” by celebrating the opening of the 16th school-based mental health clinic, fulfilling a promise Mayor Adams made last year to help bring mental health services to more than 6,000 students in New York City public schools across the Bronx and Central Brooklyn.
The NYC Health + Hospitals-staffed clinics offer students access to individual, family, and group therapy, with connections to outpatient clinics and telehealth services as needed.
Additionally, teachers and school staff have access to mental health clinic staff for consultation, trainings, and workshops to ensure students are appropriately supported and referred to care.
Schools also receive support so they can respond to mental health crises without contacting 911 unnecessarily and avoid needless emergency room visits and hospitalizations.
This week, the Adams administration is celebrating “Mental Health Week,” highlighting the city’s multi-agency efforts to support New Yorkers in addressing mental health, ranging from serious mental illness to expanding resources to underserved communities, and advancing Mayor Adams’ 2025 state of the city commitment to make New York City the best place to raise a family.
“Every day, we hear from New Yorkers that mental health is a major issue, especially for our city’s youth, which is why our administration continues to gather the resources that our young people need. As we mark ‘Mental Health Week’ and highlight the city’s multi-agency efforts to support New Yorkers,’ we’re celebrating the opening of our 16th school-based mental health clinic, which will bring in-person services to more than 6,000 students at public schools in the South Bronx and Brooklyn,” said Mayor Adams.
“These clinics offer individual, family, and group therapy on a face-to-face level, and will enable teachers to get training to ensure students are fully supported. These are places where our children know they have a support system they can rely on, whether they need a little bit of support, or a lot of care.”
“We know that improving access to care means we must go beyond our hospital walls and offer innovative mental health programs in our schools and in the community to effectively meet the mental health needs of our young people,” said NYC Health + Hospitals President and CEO Dr. Katz.
“We are proud of opening all 16 satellite clinics, which provide our students with timely access to clinical mental health services, both inside of schools and at outpatient clinics. Our goal is to provide youth with mental health services where they need them the most, and today’s announcement celebrates our progress as we continue to increase access to care.”
“I am so honored to join the Bronx community as we celebrate the opening of our 16th school-based mental health clinic, a crucial step in expanding access to vital support for our students. Through this longstanding partnership with DOHMH and NYC Health + Hospitals, we are ensuring every that student has the resources they need to succeed,” said Public Schools Chancellor Aviles-Ramos.
“This clinic adds to our growing network of over 200 mental health clinics, primary care services, and partnerships with more than 130 community organizations, all backed by our dedicated team of guidance counselors and social workers. We are committed to fostering an environment where mental health is truly prioritized alongside academic achievement and as a core pillar of student safety and wellbeing.”
The 16 new satellite clinics expand on the five existing mental health clinics that NYC Health + Hospitals already utilizes in the city’s public schools. The new school-based mental health clinics are funded with $3.6 million from the Adams administration’s mental health continuum, a $5 million partnership between NYC Health + Hospitals, New York City Public Schools, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), and Advocates for Children announced as part of the Adams administration’s mental health agenda: “care community, action: a mental health plan for New York city,” The clinics also received $700,000 in grants from the New York state Office of Mental Health through the Mental Health Outpatient Treatment and Rehabilitative Service Program.
In addition to the 16 new school-based satellite clinics, an additional 34 schools have access to rapid referrals for evaluation and treatment directly into NYC Health + Hospitals’ outpatient mental health clinics. In total, this program serves over 20,000 students across 50 schools in the South Bronx and Central Brooklyn.
New York City Public Schools prioritizes its mental health resources through a wide breadth of initiatives, hosting 215 school-based mental health clinics, with 20 more set to open this year, access to care through school-based primary care clinics, partnerships with more than 130 community-based organizations, and thousands of guidance counselors and social workers based in schools across the city.
The 16 schools that now host mental health clinics were identified through an ongoing collaborative and data-driven effort to identify schools with the highest needs across the city, particularly schools without on-site mental health services or community partnerships with mental health clinics.
This model aims to meet the needs of students with significant mental health needs in the schools and neighborhoods with the highest rates of school interventions, suspensions, and chronic absenteeism.
The Adams administration has taken repeated actions to tackle the youth mental health crisis and has made it a key focus of his administration. New York City Public Schools has devoted significant resources to combatting students’ addiction to social media and the many resulting harms, including by responding to cyberbullying occurring outside of class, providing counseling for anxiety and depression, and developing curricula about the effects of social media and how to stay safe online.
