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Coronavirus has unleashed a wave of stress and anxiety unlike anything New Yorkers have seen before. Crisis calls to the city’s branch of the National Alliance for Mental Health went up 60% in the last two weeks of March. Outreach to the national Disaster Distress Helpline experienced a 338% increase in March alone. These figures are staggering, but they leave out a key part of the picture: our children.
Before the pandemic, New York State was already experiencing a deadly gap in access to children’s mental health care. Suicide was the second leading cause of death for ages 15-19, and the third leading cause of death for ages 5-14. One in five New York children had one or more emotional, behavioral or developmental conditions, yet over half of children diagnosed with a mental or behavioral health condition didn’t get needed treatment.
Now, in the midst of unprecedented loss and global anxiety, these youth and their families need access to quality, affordable and timely behavioral health services more than ever.
Kids are now grappling with emotional distress and anxiety that children — and many adults — are not equipped to handle. They are cut off from school, friends and non-immediate family. Many are watching their parents lose their jobs. Some are forced to cope with the sudden loss of a loved one. The consequences are especially dire for children from black, Hispanic and immigrant communities, where the virus is roughly twice as deadly.
In response, clinics, providers and counselors are going above and beyond to continue safely treating their patients, but not without significant challenges. Telehealth services offer a promising option for many, but come with their own limitations. Many low-income families lack the internet access, technology or privacy necessary to conduct therapy or counseling over the phone or video conferences. Others are still unable to afford the costs associated with behavioral health treatment at all.
New York must stand up to protect the millions of children facing massive mental health challenges amid this pandemic. Providing families with accessible care now is key to reducing behavioral health challenges long-term, as well as reducing the risk of school failure and challenged family and personal relationships in the future.
Gov. Cuomo took one important step forward this month when he announced that state-regulated health insurers must waive copays and fees for mental health and substance use services for essential workers.
Now, the governor should protect all existing behavioral health services for children and extend this order for cost-free behavioral health services to the children of essential workers. On top of the anxiety of changed schedules and routines, loss of connection to friends and resources at school, children of essential workers must also endure the stress of family members facing a heightened risk of contracting COVID-19, and too often the profound impact of losing a family member to the virus.
At the same time, the state should implement widespread behavioral health screenings tied to the upcoming school year that capture young children and school-age children alike. These screenings should be coupled with efforts to expand access to treatment through improved coordination with clinical and community-based services inside and outside of schools and early education settings.
The state should also build upon its existing efforts to support telehealth and telepsychiatry for all children and adolescents who need it. All efforts should ensure that the state’s fragile clinical and community-based behavioral health system, that has been adept in its response to COVID-19 thus far, is protected and strengthened.
We cannot afford to ignore the immediate needs of the youngest New Yorkers. This is our moment to offer our children the behavioral health care they need to grow into the best version of themselves and prepare to become our leaders of tomorrow.
Havens is the vice-chair of the department of child and adolescent psychiatry at NYU Langone Health and a professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. March is the executive director of Citizens’ Committee for Children.