Just as physical first aid training such as CPR helps to assist someone having a heart attack, Mental Health First Aid enables New Yorkers to assist friends, family or other community members who experience challenges with mental health or substance use. Youth Mental Health First Aid teaches individuals how to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental health and substance use challenges among children and adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18, while teen Mental Health First Aid focuses on teaching teens between the ages 15 and 18 on how to support a friend or classmate with this evidence-based curriculum.

The work with MHANYS has resulted in the certification of 42 new youth instructors for the youth Mental Health First Aid, with an additional 16 expected to be trained by the end of June and the ability to reach more than 5,000 adults with this curriculum. The organization will have also trained nearly 30 new instructors for the teen Mental Health First Aid curriculum.

OMH is also investing $200,000 to develop a pilot program to educate 48 trainers in Mental Health First Aid for Higher Education at up to a half dozen college campuses across New York State. These trainers will be able to teach this curriculum to roughly 4,300 others at these colleges, including students, staff and faculty.

Additionally, as part of Governor Hochul’s focus on youth mental health, OMH is developing social media resources for youth and caregivers to support young people and the adults in their lives in navigating this modern tool and its effects. These educational resources will include an evidence-based educational series around digital wellness tailored for caregivers, as well as resources for students that cover critical topics such as the risks of social media use, understanding privacy and protecting personal information, and reporting cyberbullying and online abuse and exploitation.

In the FY25 Enacted Budget, Governor Hochul expanded mental health support for children across the state, fulfilling an agenda she outlined in her State of the State address in January. This new state investment provides $2 million to expand peer-to-peer mental wellness efforts among young people across the state, including training programs like Mental Health First Aid.

The Budget also provides $20 million in start-up funding for school-based mental health clinics and a rolling application process to expedite these awards, which were previously secured through the state procurement process. This initiative builds on the $5.1 million in state funding awarded in November to support 137 new school-based clinics –including 82 at high-needs schools –and bringing the total number to more than 1,200 statewide.

Governor Hochul also conducted a state-wide listening tour with young New Yorkers and hosted the first-ever state Summit on Youth Mental Health. Following the June 2023 summit, the state released a Youth Mental Health Listening Tour Report, which highlighted some of the key themes incorporated in the recommendations provided by more than 200 participants statewide.