The Need is Enormous
Testimony of Stacey Millman,
Founder and President of EverGreen Meadow Services
New York State Office of Mental Health Town Hall
November 30, 2023
Thank you, Commissioner Sullivan, for the opportunity to share feedback and suggestions for the future of New York State’s Mental Health system. My name is Stacey Millman, and I am the President and Founder of EverGreen Meadow Services, a not-for-profit organization that provides prevention and intervention mental health services to young and teen girls who have experienced trauma and are at risk of self-harm and suicide. I am also the parent of a child who was treated out of state to get the longer term care that she needed.
We commend the Governor for her historic $30M investment to expand school-based mental health services, $10M to strengthen suicide prevention for at-risk children and commitment to add more adolescent psychiatric hospital beds.
The need is enormous.
In September 2020, CDC released data that showed a 43.9% increase in suicide deaths among adolescents and young adults in New York State. In October 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Children’s Hospital Association declared a national emergency in child and adolescent mental health; suicide rates rose between 2010-2020 and by 2018 suicide was the second leading cause of death for youth ages 10-24. In November 2021, Children’s Hospital Association announced in the first six months of 2021 a 45% increase in the number of self-injury and suicide cases in 5 to 17-year-olds compared to same period in 2019. In December 2021, U.S. Surgeon General released Protecting Youth Mental Health report that stated “emergency room visits for suicide attempts rose 51% for adolescent girls in early 2021 compared to same period in 2019. The figure rose 4% for boys.”
According to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, there is a “high shortage” of child and adolescent psychiatrists in New York State. In February 2023, CDC released Youth Risk Behavior Survey data that showed 30% of girls seriously considered suicide, a 60% increase from a decade ago. Each year tens of thousands of children and adolescents show up in NY’s ERs and each year thousands are admitted.
As the data and Governor’s commitment to adolescent mental health indicate, we have an enormous gap to close to address the growing youth mental health crisis.
My particular focus is young girls – ages 10-14 – who are at-risk of self-harm and suicide and have experienced trauma.
School-based mental health services for youth who can attend school is an extremely important addition to our system and I thank you for that expansion.
In addition, New York needs to support adolescents and families who require more services than the school based mental health clinic can provide. These are the families who cannot care for their at-risk children at home and who cannot participate in their community school.
The child who has spent the last week or two as an inpatient – admitted through an ER and is ready for discharge – needs a system of care that will not result in a readmission. That family needs care as well.
What New York still needs on the continuum of mental health care:
Increased access to partial hospitalization programs
More intensive outpatient programs in the community
Support for parents during the period their child is in crisis
Stabilization for the entire family unit
How can a parent go to work when a parent is worried that their child may harm themselves
How can a parent sleep at night when they are worried their child may hurt themselves
And more residential beds and programs for these young girls who are being discharged or at risk of being admitted to a hospital
This is the gap in the middle – between school-based mental health clinics and additional adolescent hospital beds – that exists in New York State today.
New York children with these more complex needs – especially these adolescent girls – are going out of state each year. New York has and should provide services to these youth where their families live. That is why EverGreen Meadow Services is overseeing the building of EverGreen Meadow Academy, a future residential program for middle school age girls. As a parent who lived this experience and sent my daughter out of state and far from home when no program was available in New York. I know firsthand how big the gap in the mental health continuum is for young girls in New York State.
Not just my daughter, but all New York young girls, should be able to heal and continue their education, uninterrupted, in a safe nurturing environment so they can become the women our society needs.